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Sci-Fi Alien: Romulus (2024)

Waiting for my physical 4k UHD December 3rd. Can't wait to watch this again!
 
Finally got a chance to check this out. Felt like DLC for Alien Isolation and I mean that as both a complement and a criticism. It has Isolations attention to detail in its set design but there are segments in this that feel very video gamey. I wouldn't be suprised if that temperature sequence found its way into Isolation 2. I guess folks were hoping this would render the prequels non canon but that didn't happen. I'm sitting somewhere between a 6 and an 8/10 so we'll call it a 7/10 for right now.

*edit watched it again. firm 6/10. The fan film level script beating us to death with the ham fisted references is just obnoxious.
 
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See, I feel like if it were a 4K/Blu-Ray in a case designed to look like a VHS (like what Target has done with Stranger Things S1/S2), I could get behind it, but… I mean, what is this?
 
Finally watched this the other day and I have a lot of issues with this movie but I still somehow really really liked it?

I thought it looked really great with some really great shots and I loved the cassette futurism aesthetic. I also loved the vibe of the whole movie. I had two big issues, one being that most of the characters were pretty paper thin. Only Rain and Andy seemed to get any amount of character work. The others didn’t get anything more than Love Interest, Sister, Cousin, Pilot. I like Archie Renaux and Isabella Merced but despite them getting a fair amount of screentime, their characters still felt underdeveloped.

My other issue was that the xenomorph itself didn’t feel like much of a presence. The facehuggers felt more menacing to me. The scene with them defrosting and then the heat signature scene were really great. And anytime they were trying to get into someone’s mouth was viscerally disgusting so good job on that, Fede.
But I thought the one scene where the xenomorph commanded screen presence was the scene where it was using Isabella Merced’s character as bait. I was looking forward to seeing that xenomorph being more of a character but then randomly there were a dozen of them and then they all got shot down in zero g. Which was a great scene btw and a fantastic idea. For some reason, I didn’t see it coming until right at the last minute despite them playing around with the gravity in the beginning so that was really a pleasant surprise. But yeah I do wish the xenomorph was more of a presence because then it got replaced by the hybrid baby. Which I feel like came out of nowhere. I know we’ve seen hybrids in this franchise before but that part felt like it was tacked on at the end from a different Alien movie almost.

The Ian Holm of it all… they say they did it with permission and all that but it still felt weird. Maybe it would’ve felt less weird if it was just one scene but the fact that he was a full blown character and essentially the villain was a bit much.

One complaint that I saw a lot online was the number of callbacks to the previous movies. I guess I haven’t seen these movies in a while because I didn’t notice all that many. The Line was the big one and it definitely felt out of place. The pause in between was awkward as hell. But nothing else apart from that really bothered me.

All in all, I really liked how this was made and I like it a lot as a whole despite my issues with it. Would definitely like to see Rain and Andy come back and see them develop more. Also what are the odds that Isabella Merced survived all that? I was hoping against hope that she would live :O.
 
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Regarding the characters I actually think if you look back at Alien or Aliens, the characters aren't really fleshed out much and it doesn't harm those movies at all. Like what do we really know about the characters on the Nostromo? Or the Sulaco for that matter. We get scenes of the characters interacting with each other and we get glimpses of their personality but we don't get much about them as individuals. If anything I'd argue Romulus gives us more. We get some backstory nuggets on some of these characters, we are told what their dreams and goals are and it feels more 'movie-like' in that sense.

You can look at it both as a positive and negative though. I love Alien and Aliens and I don't consider 'lack of character depth or motivation' a problem at all. If anything it feels more realistic when your characters aren't sitting down at points in the story to have exposition and talk about key events of their life or what they want to do. A lot of that is just internal for most people.
 
Arguably personality is more important than backstory. The best characters always feel real and I think with characters like Bjorn and Navarro, you immediately know they’re cannon fodder when you meet them. Especially Bjorn who they made just such a prick. You wonder why would anyone even tolerate this person.

Also I just remembered.
When Kay started umm… lactating… who else was expecting to see the creature feeding on her breasts? :omg:
 
#root said:
But I thought the one scene where the xenomorph commanded screen presence was the scene where it was using Isabella Merced’s character as bait. I was looking forward to seeing that xenomorph being more of a character but then randomly there were a dozen of them and then they all got shot down in zero g.
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I think that same Xeno was the one that caught Rain as she fell and was later killed by Andy. I'm not 100% sure, but that one seemed to have a freakishly long tail that made it stand out. But yeah, I'd have liked to see something to make it stand out more from the others.

#root said:
When Kay started umm… lactating… who else was expecting to see the creature feeding on her breasts? :omg:
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Supposedly that was in the scene originally but it was cut. Probably thought it was a little too much for an R rating.
 
Drizzle said:
I think that same Xeno was the one that caught Rain as she fell and was later killed by Andy. I'm not 100% sure, but that one seemed to have a freakishly long tail that made it stand out. But yeah, I'd have liked to see something to make it stand out more from the others.


Supposedly that was in the scene originally but it was cut. Probably thought it was a little too much for an R rating.
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Yeah, that's the same one. You can identify it by the crack in its head. It's got scorch marks where Bjorn electrocuted it in the cocoon and you can see electricity underneath.
 
Snow Queen said:
Yeah, that's the same one. You can identify it by the crack in its head. It's got scorch marks where Bjorn electrocuted it in the cocoon and you can see electricity underneath.
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I also saw a deleted scene on YouTube where it's an alternate take of Bjorn's death where the Xeno stabs him in the back with its extended tail while he's fairly far away from the cocoon and it brings him closer. I really can't recall any other regular Xenos having a tail that long. That would also explain why Bjorn just lays there as the acid falls on him, I think it's implied that the tail stab paralyzed him.
 
So, i finally watched it...it was fun.
It didnt invent the Wheel new or brought the Franchise into a new direction.
But it was fun.
Fun Alien Horror movie.

I liked the part a lot where for a short while we had two groups pretty much.
Kay and Bjorn who had to deal with a Xenomorph and the other group got chased from the Facehuggers.
That was a fun way to split up the movie.

Not sure how i feel about the Hybrid.
Part of me thinks it was a neat idea, the other felt it looked incredible weird and its involvement was too fast.
In general i dont have a problem with the Hybrid idea, but here the whole thing felt Rushed a bit.
 
Bjorn was the only character I flat out disliked. Nothing against the actor but I have a pet peeve with that character stereotype in general. The character that's just always at a 100, aggressive, rude, obnoxious where you think "no real life likable person would hang around this person".

Generally speaking I think characters being written in a way to cause bad things to happen is sloppy writing. I've said it before but the Alien as a creature becomes a lot more scary when our characters are actually making smart decisions that we as viewers agree with, and they still end up dead because the creature outsmarts them.
 
Zantera said:
Bjorn was the only character I flat out disliked. Nothing against the actor but I have a pet peeve with that character stereotype in general. The character that's just always at a 100, aggressive, rude, obnoxious where you think "no real life likable person would hang around this person".

Generally speaking I think characters being written in a way to cause bad things to happen is sloppy writing. I've said it before but the Alien as a creature becomes a lot more scary when our characters are actually making smart decisions that we as viewers agree with, and they still end up dead because the creature outsmarts them.
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That is a good point.
Its one of the Tropes that has become more normal as Killers in movies became themself popular.
Where you kind of Root for the killer to kill off the obnoxious teenagers or so.

It works imo for Slasher where a lot of the appeal is the kills...but for Horror it ruins the mood a bit.
In Horror most characters should be written as likeable enough that you dont want them to die, it makes the horror aspect so much more effective.

Bjorn is a good example of that, he would have fit better into a Slasher.
It took away the effectiveness of the Xenomorph showing up because you didnt feel sorry or so for Bjorn.
The Horror on that imo only worked when it started to go after Kay because she was more likeable and you root for her to escape.
 
I finally saw this and the last "Alien" during the climax was horrific, to the point I feel mixed about this movie. The cast was also so-so, I didn't care about them. I feel like this movie lacked the fun factor for me.
 
psylockolussus said:
I finally saw this and the last "Alien" during the climax was horrific, to the point I feel mixed about this movie. The cast was also so-so, I didn't care about them. I feel like this movie lacked the fun factor for me.
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I think getting the balance right is something that's always been a struggle. You look at Alien 3 which nails the horror but it's too bleak and depressing for a lot of people. Meanwhile a film like Resurrection is a lot of fun to watch but it's not particularly scary at all.
 
Alien and Aliens defined what the franchise was, and everything that has come out has tried to chase replicating one or the other ever since.
 
Arnold Rimmer said:
Well, admittedly, where else do you go after what Aliens did? Same with T2.
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Well, this is the problem with studios desperately trying to make franchises and sequels out of everything. There was really nowhere for Joker to go after the 2019 movie but they did it anyway. And now look what happened.
 
Mani-Man said:
So, i finally watched it...it was fun.
It didnt invent the Wheel new or brought the Franchise into a new direction.
But it was fun.
Fun Alien Horror movie.

I liked the part a lot where for a short while we had two groups pretty much.
Kay and Bjorn who had to deal with a Xenomorph and the other group got chased from the Facehuggers.
That was a fun way to split up the movie.

Not sure how i feel about the Hybrid.
Part of me thinks it was a neat idea, the other felt it looked incredible weird and its involvement was too fast.
In general i dont have a problem with the Hybrid idea, but here the whole thing felt Rushed a bit.
Click to expand...
Why feel anything about it? It's a regurgitated idea from Resurrection. ****ing fan film level script.

The original Alien is why I love movies. It had that much of an impact on me and I've put up with a lot of bull**** with this franchise over the years because of my love for that original film but corporate Disney cynicism is not a path I'm willing to travel down again. If all they intend to do is serve up memberry pie moving forward then count me out.
 
*Starts prayer circle for a Fassbender return*

74824.gif
 
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