Spoilers Alien Romulus reviews and ratings

[xenotaris]

Don't quote me on this, but I think Ripley taking the medication to slow the growth of alien comes from the novelization, which is based on an earlier screenplay that had the alien coming out of the ox instead of the dog amongst other changes.

Ah, I have yet to read the novelization to ALIEN 3 but I have read through the ALIEN and ALIENS novelizations. Good books by the way, though I liked how they developed the minor characters more in ALIEN than ALIENS. My favorite movie from the series is ALIENS but my favorite novelization is ALIEN, the ALIENS novelization removed all the cuss words for some reason.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

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.

It wasn't Holm or Ash, of course. It was Rook, or Memorex.

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.

The ALIEN series' quest for accessiblility led to a PG-13 crossover to bring in the gamers, but that installment was almost as bad as its follow-up. DIE HARD doesn't necessarily have to be R, but ALIEN by definition requires it. As for ROMULUS, I appreciated the art direction resembling Ridley Scott's first film as well as assorted sound-effects, but most of the incorporated references were JJ Abramsy-overkill.

Having the first film's alien surviving for a ROMULUS flashback was acceptable. We never saw it disintegrate back then. But we DID see the Nostromo fully disintegrate, and it's very convenient the one piece we see is marked with the ship's logo.

The most obvious thing is they had a solid story undermined by needless, surface-level callbacks.

My top three remain Alien, Aliens, and Covenant.

But COVENANT is also ladled with the been-there-done-that bits.....some of which were better handled in PROMETHEUS.

Too many Memberberry moments for my liking (who thought reprising that line was a good idea?)

Especially considering that the newest android had little time to verify the alien's sex. And even had he done so, why would an android feel the need to insult an alien or human so? Being in a horror film is hardly a legitimate reason for this move.

My favorite movie from the series is ALIENS but my favorite novelization is ALIEN, the ALIENS novelization removed all the cuss words for some reason.

I'm all right with that, even if Ripley yells late in the novel ''Get AWAY from her, YOU!!!!!''

Some may remember a ''young-adult'' ALIEN paperback adaptation (also PG-rated Alan Dean Foster) in which Parker substitutes ''bitch'' with ''who needs you.'' And on the final page, he describes the small ''raped'' place in Ripley's brain as a scarred one instead.

 

[The Wormhole]

But COVENANT is also ladled with the been-there-done-that bits.....some of which were better handled in PROMETHEUS.

Be that as it may, Covenant was still the better movie and still felt fresher, IMO.

Especially considering that the newest android had little time to verify the alien's sex. And even had he done so, why would an android feel the need to insult an alien or human so?

Loath though I am to defend that scene, the word bitch can also be used as a gender neutral insult these days.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Be that as it may, Covenant was still the better movie and still felt fresher, IMO.

Loath though I am to defend that scene, the word bitch can also be used as a gender neutral insult these days.

, please. It's lazy and contextually unwarranted.

 

[xenotaris]

Especially considering that the newest android had little time to verify the alien's sex. And even had he done so, why would an android feel the need to insult an alien or human so? Being in a horror film is hardly a legitimate reason for this move.

Andy the android, learned the word Bitch from that asshole Bjorn

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Andy the android, learned the word Bitch from that asshole Bjorn

Flimsy connective tissue at best.

 

[Mage]

Flimsy connective tissue at best.

You're overthinking a horror movie set in space....in the future....
The android said bitch. It's a like or dislike moment. That's it. Nothing to analyse here. Just accepting that it happened and either ignore it next time or never watch the movie again.

 

[xenotaris]

I felt the the line made some sense, yes its a mined quote from ALIENS, but then again its not like it's the first movie to mine quotes from its predecessors.

The repeated line from the Predator movies "You are one ugly motherfucker" and its variants.

 

[alex08060]

At least the movie is set in the future not like the 2 AvP movies.

 

[xenotaris]

They should reboot the AVP movies and set them during the Alien Romulus/Aliens/Alien 3 era

 

[alex08060]

No idea if Ridley Scott will even want a Predator to show up in his movies.

 

[xenotaris]

Ah true but one day hopefully we get a Good AVP movie. One that is set during the late 22nd century/early 23rd century.

 

[Gaith]

Okay, so obviously the most accurate explanation is "because Plot," but is there any reason given for why a gaggle of dirt-poor young adults have access to a functioning spaceship? Even if cryo fuel is a rare and expensive commodity, thereby preventing their escape to another system, a shuttle like that could be a devastating weapon in any potential proletarian revolt.

(Also, if cryo fuel is so rare and expensive, how did Ripley's pod manage to preserve her for 57 years??)

 

[xenotaris]

Okay, so obviously the most accurate explanation is "because Plot," but is there any reason given for why a gaggle of dirt-poor young adults have access to a functioning spaceship? Even if cryo fuel is a rare and expensive commodity, thereby preventing their escape to another system, a shuttle like that could be a devastating weapon in any potential proletarian revolt.

(Also, if cryo fuel is so rare and expensive, how did Ripley's pod manage to preserve her for 57 years??)

I think the spaceship belong to Tyler's uncle. I took the whole operation that they were press for time. Maybe Cryo-fuel is rare on Jackson Star, they weren't exactly allowed to leave that planet without authorization from the Company.

The Nostromo was a commercial towing vessel thus it was able to be regularly supplied with cryofuel between stops. If the Nostromo would have been allowed to deliver its payload, Dallas and company would have earned a lot of money.

But when and where in the film did they say that Cryofuel was rare and expensive? I honestly can't recall.

Edit: Corrected spaceship's ownership from Tyler's father to uncle

 

[SCE2Aux]

I think the spaceship belong to Tyler's father IIRC.

Aah, I was wondering if I missed something in the dialogue - I kept thinking about how a bunch of teens had their hands on a spacecraft.

But when and where in the film did they say that Cryofuel was rare and expensive? I honestly can't recall.

I can't remember it being actually being said in the movie, but is it not implied? If cryofuel was easy to come by, they wouldn't have risked being imprisoned by Weyland Yutani if they were caught breaking into the space station.

 

[xenotaris]

Aah, I was wondering if I missed something in the dialogue - I kept thinking about how a bunch of teens had their hands on a spacecraft.

I can't remember it being actually being said in the movie, but is it not implied? If cryofuel was easy to come by, they wouldn't have risked being imprisoned by Weyland Yutani if they were caught breaking into the space station.

My understanding was that Renaissance Station was the only place they knew had cryopods otherwise they wouldn't risk going there. Remember were they had to guide the cryogenic units into the spaceship. The reason they didn't leave soon after was the pods were low on Cryofuel, they would have only kept them frozen for three years instead of nine like they wanted, so the protagonist needed to traverse deeper into the station to get more cyrofuel.

Also it was Tyler's uncle's spaceship.

TLDR

Protagonists needed off planet

Protagonists took a space ship to station so they can get cyropods

Cryopods were low on cyrofuel and only had enough for three years instead of nine years.

Protagonists go looking for fuel and then shit happends.

 

[PhotoBoy]

I enjoyed Romulus a lot, I'd say it is the third best of the Alien films, although obviously still nowhere near as good as the first two.

I definitely agree with others about it being unnecessary to repeat iconic lines from the other films, I always find it takes me out of the movie when they do things like that. That one line didn't even make much sense being said to an alien drone rather than a queen too IMHO.

I didn't mind the CGI Ian Holm, but it was a little iffy when talking. I hadn't considered it was originally supposed to be David as the android, I had assumed maybe the script was originally set further into the future and was going to be an homage to Bishop (what with the android also being named after a chess piece and missing its legs)!

I was actually a little surprised they had any Prometheus/Covenant in there, maybe Ridley Scott insisted on it? Given the lack of a queen, I assumed Scott had gone back to the cut concept from Alien of the creature morphing people into eggs and that's where the facehuggers came from.

Andy the Android was awesome, I'm glad he (more or less!) survived. Seeing the intermediate phase of the chestburster growing to full size in a cocoon was cool, I'd always assumed the alien would just slowly grow and moult its skin multiple times. I'm sure Giger would have approved of the cocoon design! The new Newborn at the end was OK, I liked how it looked a bit Engineer-ish but I didn't find it especially scary.

I thought they did a good job of replicating Alien Isolation's '70s technology aesthetic while also trying to make it seem like ruggedised future technology. It was fun seeing the telephone save stations in the background of some scenes.

I really liked the idea of bringing back Big Chap, it was quite unexpected but I wish he'd still been alive and menacing the new cast rather than already dead when they got there. I was actually quite looking forward to seeing him in action again!

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

(Also, if cryo fuel is so rare and expensive, how did Ripley's pod manage to preserve her for 57 years??)

God knows much of the Nostromo's resources were bargain-basement, though it might be said the medlab and the escape shuttle looked relatively fresher and cleaner. They still needed coolant for three passengers plus the cat, but I believe that was all left behind on Lambert's shopping cart.

Even Foster's novel mentions Ripley is hoping, with extra luck, she'll be picked up in time, but not as soon as she hoped....but it wasn't totally guaranteed.

 

[xenotaris]

God knows much of the Nostromo's resources were bargain-basement, though it might be said the medlab and the escape shuttle looked relatively fresher and cleaner. They still needed coolant for three passengers plus the cat, but I believe that was all left behind on Lambert's shopping cart.

Even Foster's novel mentions Ripley is hoping, with extra luck, she'll be picked up in time, but not as soon as she hoped....but it wasn't totally guaranteed.

Well originally the were two escape shuttles. But the second shuttle was damaged... I think, it was mentioned in the novelization.

 

[NCC-73515]

The Salmacis, IIRC