Movie Details
| Title: | Alien: Romulus | |
| Director: | Fede Alvarez | |
| Year: | 2024 | |
| Genre: | Horror | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 10.29.24 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (1)
- Don't Breathe
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 10.29.24 | Internet | complicated thoughts about this one. Good: It's a good Alien movie. Can't deny it. It's not the best, but it's probably third best? Unless you're a Prometheus lover which I am not. So for everything I talk about below, I thought it was an effective Alien movie. The world and visual design of this universe is so well-defined at this point that it seems like, similar to Star Wars or Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, getting the the look and feel right is now a must. It's probably the easiest part though since there's a whole generation of sci-fi nerds who do what they do because of movies like Star Wars and Alien. So this movie hits all the lights and klaxons and UI screens and corridors and derelict labs just right. I'll say it's also got an interesting introduction where a group of young adults fly up to a decommissioned ship in search of cryo-pods so they can sleep the requisite number of years to get off the mining planet that they're stuck on. I liked what we saw of the mining colony and thought it was a good enough reason to explain why near-teens are in space with the xenomorphs. Bad: Nailing the look and feel is required but I think the hard part continues to be coming up with a story. You still feel this urge to hit all the key words in the script. Gotta have face-huggers, gotta have a chest-bursting, gotta have the synths, gotta have the pulse rifles... it's more checklist than story. And the movie REALLY lifts those bullet points straight from all the other movies in the franchise (and the game Alien: Isolation). At times I thought it was almost a clip show or remix of a movie or something, just plucking shit left and right and presenting it. And so who's that for? Because it's clearly the middle-aged guys like me who recognize it but I'd imagine we don't love that. Is it like the studio giving the movie its best possible shot at capturing new generations of viewers? like "you'll love this one! It's got all your favorite moments, but everyone's younger and hotter! Please subscribe, please!" The most confusing example of this is using uncanny valley CGI to recreate Ian Holm for a synth. Anyone who never saw the first movie just thinks it's some terrible cgi, and anyone who did see the original is wondering why you had to resurrect the poor guy in a digital afterlife rather than hire another actor to play the synth! The synth characters are always the most interesting anyway, why not give someone else a shot at it? Very questionable! So what even is a good Alien movie anymore? What would it even look like? I think it's this. When Ridley Scott tried some new stuff with Prometheus, it got mixed results. People want the bullet list. Even the black goo talk in this movie I somehow found the least believable and while the climactic events of the movie had some interesting facial reference, it was also a 80% lift of Alien: Resurrection so... nothing new. So I don't know. I will say as far as these confounding reboot/remake/sequels go I actually enjoying watching this (vs. others like Halloween). But - familiar territory from me, here - I would absolutely question whether I'd have a better time re-watching the first two movies. Those movies didn't go anywhere, they're still right there on the shelf. |
