Spoilers Alien Romulus reviews and ratings

[NCC-73515]

Spoilery review and discussion thread!

I liked it a lot, much better than Prometheus or Covenant (and 3 and 4 of course). Hard to beat 1 and 2, but it does a good job.

Lowlights: Slow scenes were quite meaningless, music was a bit annoying with drummy drums drumming a lot XD

Highlights: Ian Holm does look odd in the first few scenes, but it gets better later for some reason, like in the last full views when he crawls before he only appears on screens. The original designs still look great and work in this run-down trasy setting. There's a nice and funnily obvious reference to Isolation when she even points at a save point console and says "see that?" and Rook's first jump scare is also from Isolation. The aliens all look amazing, the corridors and lighting are just as creepy as in 1 and 2, and the sexual elements are quite obvious. A burster's head is revealed by what looks like retracting foreskin, for example. The rumors were true, the Nostromo debris and the original alien do appear, but briefly and just for context.

It's a 9 from me!

 

[Mage]

Can't wait! Going to see it tonight.

 

[marillion]

Is it just me or has the advertising for this been practically non-existent? Maybe I've been living under a rock, but I've hardly heard anything about this.

I like a good Alien movie, me, but this will probably have to wait for streaming.

 

[fireproof78]

Is it just me or has the advertising for this been practically non-existent? Maybe I've been living under a rock, but I've hardly heard anything about this.

I like a good Alien movie, me, but this will probably have to wait for streaming.

Not sure where you are at, but I see ads regularly across banners, YouTube, and social media.

 

[marillion]

Not sure where you are at, but I see ads regularly across banners, YouTube, and social media.

Just here in little ol' Albuquerque. I'm online all day for work and have hardly seen a single thing. Weird.

 

[NCC-73515]

There's also a Measure of a Man or PIC S1 theme of AI rights, when is a synth a person and not just a device, and an amazing zero-G scene where they have to move through floating blobs of acid blood
The new newborn is much scarier than the one from Resurrection, kinda sad we didn't learn a lot about it or see more of it. But at least they connected that bit from Prometheus to the story.

 

[Mage]

So......
This is definitely something every Alien fan needs to see. Depending on your love of the franchise's movie besides Alien and Aliens, it could land anywhere. There are moments where some throwbacks feel a bit to heavy handed, and one plot element will divide fans for sure. Oddly enough, that element is what has me uncertain about how I feel about the ending, and I need to let it sink in.

One of the biggest plus sides is most certainly the cast. I can understand how some people felt that having a bunch of young adults be the characters of the movie might feel weird, but it oddly enough doesn't. They never come across as angsty teenagers. Dickheads or assholes at times, sure. But not in a teenager kind of way.

The visuals were, for the most part, gorgeous. There is some CGI work that feels slightly off, but they can be forgiven for the rest of the excellent work. In terms of gore, it was definitely up there in terms of what the franchise is capable of, with a particular memorable chestburster scene.

Discounting the AvP movies, I am a fan in some form or another of all the Alien movies. The first two share a first place as the best of the franchise. Alien3 and Resurrection are very much products of their time and place of creation, making them stand out quite a lot in the franchise. They both have great moments, but are brought down for several reasons for each movie. I am one of the few fans that truly loves both Prometheus and Covenant. However, I think that Romulus decide to work a bit of those two movies in there, is what will make some fans dislike parts of this, or maybe even all of it.
It's not the case in my book, but it is what both drew me in a bit more but also made me disconnect in a way, considering that I thought this movie would fully ignore those two.

All in all, I really enjoyed myself, mostly because this was the first time I got to see an Alien film in the cinemas with my brother. He's 50, I'm 42. We're both big fans of the franchise but it was never ment to be for us to watch one on the big screen. That made it extra special I suppose. Still, I can highly recommend this.

 

[theenglish]

I just listened to a great interview with the director who talks about how he's been an Alien fan all his life and incorporated references to the series when he was making movies for fun as a teenager. I was surprised to learn that this is actually set between Alien and Aliens--which means it should be pretty accessible to a wider audience than just fans of the franchise. I might even go see this in the theatre.

 

[EmoBorg]

I just saw the movie. I liked it overall but i had one slight gripe with it. The accents. When i watch sci fi shows, i prefer American accents. When i watch fantasy shows, i prefer British accents. Watching a sci fi show with a mainly British cast kinda confused my brain. BTW, i am a Singaporean and i have hardly seen any Doctor Who episode before. I am so used to sci fi shows with manly American cast. That is my slight gripe about the movie which i liked overall.

 

[Unionized Elf]

I just saw the movie. I liked it overall but i had one slight gripe with it. The accents. When i watch sci fi shows, i prefer American accents. When i watch fantasy shows, i prefer British accents. Watching a sci fi show with a mainly British cast kinda confused my brain. BTW, i am a Singaporean and i have hardly seen any Doctor Who episode before. I am so used to sci fi shows with manly American cast. That is my slight gripe about the movie which i liked overall.

*Insert Bart Simpson "What an odd thing to say" meme.*

 

[theenglish]

The actors should have Uruguayan accents if you want authenticity, dammit!

 

[NCC-73515]

I saw the German version
Do they also say in the original version that rats and humans are only 25% genetically identical, and do they call it the USS Nostromo instead of USCSS? I hope those were just translation mistakes

 

[Mage]

I saw the German version
Do they also say in the original version that rats and humans are only 25% genetically identical, and do they call it the USS Nostromo instead of USCSS? I hope those were just translation mistakes

First one, yes.
Second one.... Not sure.

 

[NCC-73515]

I just listened to a great interview with the director who talks about how he's been an Alien fan all his life and incorporated references to the series when he was making movies for fun as a teenager. I was surprised to learn that this is actually set between Alien and Aliens--which means it should be pretty accessible to a wider audience than just fans of the franchise. I might even go see this in the theatre.

Knowing Alien will help appreciate a lot of things, mostly the Rook droid, mostly. Knowing Prometheus only helps understand what the black liquid is and where it's from. None of the others are referenced IIRC. But there are a few Isolation elements, like door handles and save points

 

[Mage]

Knowing Alien will help appreciate a lot of things, mostly the Rook droid, mostly. Knowing Prometheus only helps understand what the black liquid is and where it's from. None of the others are referenced IIRC. But there are a few Isolation elements, like door handles and save points

Colonial Marines, the weaponry, Weyland-Utani having several colonies, terraforming.... A lot of that is from Aliens. Making it feel like a movie set in between.

 

[Mage]

MAJOR SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE

Alien: Romulus stirs controversy with CGI resurrection (SPOILERS)

One of the cast members in Alien: Romulus passed away years ago, but Fede Alvarez has resurrected them with CGI

www.joblo.com

For those who have seen the movie, it touches on one of the biggest issue some people have with this movie. I for one didn't mind, and the approach that was taken towards the family and the director's thoughts on the use of CGI is actually quite interesting.

 

[valkyrie013]

Quite good overall. Id say 3rd best Alien movie.
My bugaboo was.. where did the face huggers come from? Did they clone them? Or did the original big chap pull an Alien directors cut and "make" face huggers

 

[Chaos Descending]

Just got back from seeing it. It's in the top 3 along with Alien and Aliens.

 

[Gepard]

If I had never seen an Alien movie before, I would have thought "that was very very good." But I have no idea if it is because all I could think was how it took this or that from one of the other good Alien films (and Prometheus).

The most obvious thing is they had a solid story undermined by needless, surface-level callbacks. The drinking bird, that CGI deep fake, Andy's big one liner, etc. They dragged it down because of how unnecessary they were.

It also became less original and less creative as it went on. That might be unavoidable with this franchise, though; there's only so many ways you can dispose of an acid-blood alien on board a space ship.

From the first act on, I thought that

Spoiler: character

Andy

should have been the sole survivor. Up to the very end I held out a little hope they would do that. He/she was by far the most sympathetic character and it would have been really interesting if the movie had done something none of the other films were quite brave enough to do.

I also don't understand why they chose the actor they did for Rook. The role seemed obviously written to be another copy of David – did Fassbender just not want to do it?

What's sticking with me is mostly the gripes. There's simple things they could have done (or not done, as the case may be) to vastly improve it and they didn't.

My top three remain Alien, Aliens, and Covenant.

 

[Starkers]

Quite good overall. Id say 3rd best Alien movie.
My bugaboo was.. where did the face huggers come from? Did they clone them? Or did the original big chap pull an Alien directors cut and "make" face huggers

I had the same thought.

Saw it today in IMAX and I really enjoyed it. Trod a very fine line between being something of an Xenomorph greatest hits, whilst also managing to be completely its own story. Very well written and directed with a great cast. Spaeny was great but my favourite character was Andy, Jonsson was superb.

I knew Rook was coming and it definitely seemed odd, but the effect was nicely done and it helps knowing Holm's family were completely on board and gave their blessing.

I thought the egineer/mutant/baby was perhaps a homage too far, but on the whole it's a very good film and a very VERY good Alien film.

Alien and Aliens are pretty much unassailable but this might well be the third best Alien film.