Alien: Romulus

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I watched this with a friend this evening.

It was....OK.  The first half was better than the second.

It was very heavily influenced by Alien: Isolation both in terms of overall aesthetic and in storyline.  Some of the movie felt a bit too much like a videogame and less like a movie, especially in the 2nd half.  A few scenes were like Quick Time events.

It reminded me a bit of the Star Wars sequels in that a lot of it felt like they'd simply recycled bits from the first four Alien movies.  They also had a few too many callbacks to the originals.  "Hey!  He said the thing that Ripley said!". 

The main characters were all 20-somethings with the same background and motivations.  It makes perfect sense for the story but it does mean that they feel a bit too similar to one-another and are kind of interchangeable.

Still, it was enjoyable enough and it moved along at a pretty brisk pace.  Better than Promethius.  I'd say it's about on par with Alien 4.


The new pulse rifle was pretty cool in an X-Box console cheat aim-bot sort of way. 

[al_infierno]

"Better than Prometheus, on par with Alien 4" is about what I expected.  In their favor, they apparently used mostly practical effects and animatronics and whatnot.  But I just can't get excited for these modern revival films and their memberberries.

When you think about it, how many direct callbacks to Alien were there in Aliens?  Not many I can recall aside from maybe some visual motifs, like the director's cut scene where the colonist has the facehugger on him, which not only gives us that "Hey, that's the thing from the other thing!" but also explains what happened to the colony.

I do like the idea of Alien Isolation influence, but I'll wait for this to hit streaming.

[Jarhead0331]

Yeah... about on par with Alien 4 is far from a glowing recommendation. LoL.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

The effects were mostly great.  There is one bit with CGI that stands out as quite bad though.  I know a lot of people complained about the de-aging of Princess Leia and recreation of Tarkin in Rogue One.  I personally didn't have any issues with either character in Rogue One.  That's not the case in Romulus.  The CGI recreation of a character from one of the previous Alien films doesn't look quite right.  Gives off a real Uncanny Valley vibe.

The first half of the film is better than Alien 4. Unfortunately, they used a callback from Alien 4 in the 2nd half and, in my opinion, it really detracts from the film.

[Redwolf]

You don't scare me. Gonna watch it this weekend, maybe today.

[Sir Slash]

Not high on my list to see. If I want to be scared this weekend, I'll invite the grandkids over to play with sharp things. 

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

You don't scare me. Gonna watch it this weekend, maybe today.

Please post your take on it.  It'll be interesting to read another perspective.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Yeah... about on par with Alien 4 is far from a glowing recommendation. LoL.

How do you rank them?


For me, from best to worst I'd go:

^{Awesome movies}
1) Aliens
2) Alien

^{OK movies.  Some good parts but some crap too}
3) Alien: Romulus
4) Alien 4
5) Alien Covenant

^{Bad movies}
6) Alien 3
7) Promethius
8) AvP
9) AvP 2

[al_infierno]

^ I'm surprised to see Alien 3 in the "bad movies" category and Alien 4 in the "OK, some good parts but some crap."  Personally I'd swap them, though I haven't seen 4 in ages.

For me the ranking is pretty much the same chronologically as it is quality-wise:

1. Alien
2. Aliens
3. Alien 3
4. Alien 4
5. Everything else

Though I agree Covenant was slightly better than Prometheus.

[Jarhead0331]

^ I'm surprised to see Alien 3 in the "bad movies" category and Alien 4 in the "OK, some good parts but some crap."  Personally I'd swap them, though I haven't seen 4 in ages.

For me the ranking is pretty much the same chronologically as it is quality-wise:

1. Alien
2. Aliens
3. Alien 3
4. Alien 4
5. Everything else

Though I agree Covenant was slightly better than Prometheus.

My list is the same except I put Aliens first ahead of all.

I think the difference depends on whether you're more of a horror/suspense type or a combat/action type.

[Gusington]

I definitely am in the minority of enjoying Alien3 at all and definitely in ranking it above Alien4.

I love the Alien lore so anything that isn't total crap I will see.

With that said, I have not seen any of the AvP movies.

[Grim.Reaper]

I am further in minority as I don't like any of the alien movies:)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I think I dislike Alien 3 so much because I was such a huge fan of Alien 2.  I went to see 3 on opening day and it was such a massive step down that I left the theatre thoroughly dejected by it.

Alien 4 is a frustrating one for me.  It's got some really great stuff in there.  (the swimming aliens scene) but also some real cringe with the human-alien hybrid and the terrible miscasting of Dan Hedaya.  Still, I liked the heist idea and the action set pieces so I ranked it higher than 3.

[Gusington]

I...kinda liked the human/alien hubrid. So grossly fascinating 🧐

I appreciated the absence of weapons in Alien3.

I have special reverence for Alien of course but Aliens is by far my favorite of all time.

I enjoyed both Prometheus and Covenant for the peeks at the universe they created. I never really understood the hate for those two.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

The tabletop RPG from Freeleague expands on the Engineers, the black goo, and the original species that David bioengineered to quite the xenomorph a bit.

Some of that expanded lore makes it into Romulus.