Spoilers Alien Romulus reviews and ratings
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As the aspect ratio is old-school pan-and-scan, I'd say 20 bucks would be fair......even if it's a limited edition.
I just watched this. It was decent. The characters were mostly kind of annoying outside of the main girl, which didn't make me particularly sympathetic to most of them. But the action was good, and the movie managed to do some cool things with the action and the Xenomorphs. The CG Rook was uncalled for, just make another droid or if they must use some CG construct at least use Bishop/Digital Lance Henriksen over the CG ghost of a dead guy. Also the movie could easily have been 20 minutes shorter and it really would have helped the pacing.
Overall I'd say its a decent movie, I'd probably rank it fourth in the Alien franchise (after 1-3, but above Resurrection, Prometheus and Covenant).
Overall I'd say its a decent movie, I'd probably rank it fourth in the Alien franchise (after 1-3, but above Resurrection, Prometheus and Covenant).
I haven't seen it yet, but plan to when it comes to streaming. What I love about this the most is where it is on the Alien U timeline. I can introduce my kids to Alien and then move straight to Romulus without having to go through the various movies.
I watched it with my nephews. It was their first Alien movie and they had no idea what to expect. They loved it, might even be one of their favorite movies this year. They are interested to watch more in the series. I think they'll have fun joining the dots when they go back to watch Alien and Aliens.
FWIT, in the Netherlands all Alien movies and most of the Predator ones are on Disney Plus. I had actually expected this to be on there by now, considering how fast some movies are released on streaming these days. Haven't seen it as a 'buy or rent' option on Prime either.
Here in Canada, most of the Alien movies are on Disney+ and there are still some on Crave (a Canadian service that hosts HBO, and Paramount until recently).
It bugs (see what I did there) me that it's only the theatrical versions that are on streaming though. I prefer the director's editions of the three first Alien movies. I think Resurrection is the only one that is basically the same, with only a difference in the location of the last scene and a hint of a reference to Ripley's daughter, Newt or both.
I have all the director's editions on dvd but should probably upgrade to the blurays at some point.
*EDIT* I just googled, and it seems there are more differences between the theatrical and special edition of Resurrection.
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Acid for blood..thank goodness that can’t…uh-oh
Just finished rewatching the movie and noticed that Rain always has one of her elbows covered. It made me think of Radar in MASH who always hid his hand since it was deformed. Does the actress has some deformity there they wanted to hide or does she simply suffer from tennis elbow.
Finally caught this thanks to the deluge of streaming service promotions from Black Friday. Maybe a 6.75/10 from me, so call it a 7 for poll reasons.
I'm not a horror fan, so I was glad the film didn't go too far into gore or torture porn. As an earlier poster put it, a UK BBFC 15 rating instead of an 18.
I'd put it after ALIENS and ALIEN. Better than COVENANT and ALIEN RESURRECTION.
Is it a cop out to place it in a three way tie with ALIEN3 (the assembly cut) and PROMETHEUS, each of which are very flawed but also featuring some quite enjoyable aspects? 3 can't recover from retroactively ruining the end of ALIENS and suffers from a never settled script, but aspects of David Fincher's direction definitely manage to break through.
PROMETHEUS has the horrible constraint of having what should be genius level characters behave like total idiots because the plot demands it, but the production design is incredible and Ridley Scott's work is top notch, if only he didn't bring in Damon Lindelof.
ROMULUS suffers from not just two too many fourth wall breaking call backs. It clearly came under pressure from Ridley Scott to edit it down and remove character introduction bits. I really wanted more from the first act, but again this is coming from a SF fan, not a horror fan. Act two is... fine. Act three kinda does go off the rails. If everything they shot really was available as deleted scenes, I'd image a fan edit could bring this up to an 8/10.
I'm not a horror fan, so I was glad the film didn't go too far into gore or torture porn. As an earlier poster put it, a UK BBFC 15 rating instead of an 18.
I'd put it after ALIENS and ALIEN. Better than COVENANT and ALIEN RESURRECTION.
Is it a cop out to place it in a three way tie with ALIEN3 (the assembly cut) and PROMETHEUS, each of which are very flawed but also featuring some quite enjoyable aspects? 3 can't recover from retroactively ruining the end of ALIENS and suffers from a never settled script, but aspects of David Fincher's direction definitely manage to break through.
PROMETHEUS has the horrible constraint of having what should be genius level characters behave like total idiots because the plot demands it, but the production design is incredible and Ridley Scott's work is top notch, if only he didn't bring in Damon Lindelof.
ROMULUS suffers from not just two too many fourth wall breaking call backs. It clearly came under pressure from Ridley Scott to edit it down and remove character introduction bits. I really wanted more from the first act, but again this is coming from a SF fan, not a horror fan. Act two is... fine. Act three kinda does go off the rails. If everything they shot really was available as deleted scenes, I'd image a fan edit could bring this up to an 8/10.
Not to derail this thread but I made a point a couple of months back that I am tired of every single IP being 'stuck' in a time/frame and not being able to move on from it.
Alien:Romulus doesn't do anything new with the IP and feels like a memberberries film.
Alien:Romulus doesn't do anything new with the IP and feels like a memberberries film.
You raise a very fair point, and it's true that a big portion of the appeal that Romulus had for me was how it felt very connected to Alien and Aliens in terms of how it looks and sounds. And it cemented the concept of The Company being aware of a lot more than we think.
I also feel Romulus gave a lot more than just memberberries though, with a standout performance by David Jonsson. The Offspring was truly disturbing I felt, with the birthing scene making me feel very unsettled. Also, the fact that The Offspring was someone in a suit, with perhaps some digital enhancing, was awesome to me. Not just another cgi monster.
But I do agree, that it is time for the Alien Franchise to move on. One thing I loved about Resurrection (there is not a lot to love) was the fact that it was set 200 years after Alien3.
It's tricky however, because the Alien franchise is basically one thing; a group of people being chased down by a scary monster. And that usually works best with the set conditions of dark environment with only one way out that is impossible to reach.
Whether you enjoyed each show or not, Star Wars has been able to tell many different stories through its shows on Disney, because the universe is so big. We've had space fantasy, space western, space kung-fu, space political thriller, whatever The Book Of Boba Fett was supposed to be. The Alien franchise doesn't really have that much playground without making it silly, unlike Predator for example.
I watched yesterday and enjoyed it a lot. Not sure I need to see a direct sequel, I'd rather see a sequel to resurrection (which i also liked).
I know there was talk of sigourney weaver coming back a while back, maybe if rain and Andy can get lost in space for a few hundred years a sequel to both movies could happen
I know there was talk of sigourney weaver coming back a while back, maybe if rain and Andy can get lost in space for a few hundred years a sequel to both movies could happen
I think the only thing that’s set after Resurrection are the Rage War trilogy novels
Well, a new movie is being developed. Most people believe it will be a sequel to Romulus, while Scott insists a sequel to Covenant should be made. I am a huge Prometheus/Covenant fan, so I would welcome an end to that storyline a lot.
I believe so too. Big fan of those novels. Not extremely well written, but amazing world building, pretty good characters and a thrilling plot.