Alien: Romulus

[JasonPratt]

I'd say there are lots of callbacks to Alien in Aliens, though not much in dialogue. In the sequel they're using official versions of weapons and systems that were cobbled together for the action of the first story; and the story structures and beats are kinda similar, albeit Aliens has a lot more than that.

Aliens really feels like an ultimate fan-fic love-letter to the prior movie, updated for 80s action expectations. I love it more than the original but I appreciate both for what they do, and how differently (yet similarly) they do them.

Alien 3 I wanted to like more than I did. If I had the wherewithal, I'd prefer to cobble together an edit from both production cuts, although I also feel like I might change my mind about some choices a few years later.  I have a lot of respect for what the various writers creators were trying to try (so to speak). Sometimes when you bunt for the run-in, you win huge and other times you trip over the bat breaking your legs as you stumble heroically trying to get somewhere before hurling yourself into a pool of molten lead. Or a metaphor to that effect.

Alien 4 was a nice recovery finale to the story, but didn't feel nearly as 'real' as the prior films (in their somewhat different ways). I always end it feeling somewhat vaguely disappointed, but not in the same way as Alien 3.

Got all four in a Blu collection long ago.

Never bothered with AvP 1 or 2, though I think I'd like 1 more than I expect to.

I've watched enough plot analyses of Prom/Cov to understand why the films are shredded by some fans, though I've never simply watched them. I don't think I'm missing anything.

I don't especially care to try Romulus. Just not up for more Alien; but for the sake of other fans and the franchise property generally, I did hope it would be good or at least entertaining. I've seen a lot of mixed reviews.

[JasonPratt]

And RLM now gives a very mixed review!

"Best movie I've seen all year!"

also

"WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THIS?!!"

An amusing debate over whether this film was written by production committee, or by an AI.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Very closely mirrors my opinion on it.  Great first half, starts falling apart halfway through, and nosedives hard at the end.

[MikeGER]

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

The hate comes because its such a Zeitgeist of that time inspired unwanted bend to the lore how the alien creatures came to existence

as prequel i would have liked to see a movie where the giant astronauts race (with the busted chest in the chair), somehow had stranded or made an exploration on the original home world of the Alien species.
A jungle and volcanic world, think of that Avatar jungle but turned nightmare on steroids, pure Darwinism every second. And the Alien species is not even the top of the predators as we might think. In that jungle they just fill the ecological roll of Army Ants in our jungle.... and in the end one giant astronaut somehow managed to escape with his ship to the moon LV-426 from the first movie

[Jarhead0331]

^that's one of the biggest problems with all the prequels in my view. They never should have explained how the Xenomorph originated. The mystery and unknown is part of the horror. That such things do exist in the universe and yes, these monsters of nightmares are indeed real, is terrifying.

The fact that they were engineered does make sense. As Ash said, they are perfection and possess unrivaled purity as killing machines. It would seem logical that such purity and perfection comes by design. Going further, the revelation that some breed of the alien was further engineered by a rogue android created by humanity is equally twisted...and relatable. However, the execution of all this was sloppy and overall poor in my view. This is why I think it would have just been better off left to the imagination.

[Gusington]

^Are you...a xenomorph? 

[al_infierno]

^Are you...a xenomorph? 

No, but his cousin is.  Good guy.  One time he told me to open my mouth and close my eyes and he... well, nevermind.

[JasonPratt]

The sloppy execution for both the prequels (there have only been two), was definitely the problem. That and Prometheus wasn't even really supposed to be an Alien prequel per se to start with -- it got retooled late in production, and the results showed in how various things were stapled together (...plot pun not originally intended...) to SORT OF resemble the situation at the start of Alien 1, and yet weren't.

I recall MauLer and his crew (in their review of Romulus which I'll post below) agreeing with someone else's comment that Romulus made them appreciate Aliens 4 more. But I could see it also making the two prequels seem better by comparison, because at least those films were swinging for the parking lots.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Pretty much this.

[JasonPratt]

At the same time, the production team is nothing but praiseworthy. Though that's been true for all the entries.

[al_infierno]

Pretty much this.

The pairing of Romulus's "Get away from her, you bitch" to "I'm asking you to pull the plug" is A+. I'd heard that line was terrible, but goddamn, that was bad.

[Gusington]

Is there a one volume book available that charts the history of the Alien universe?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

The Alien RPG by Free League?

[Gusington]

Sounds pricey.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

On sale at DriveThruRPG for $12.50 right now.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/293976/alien-rpg-core-rulebook