ALIEN: ROMULUS | Spoiler Discussion Thread | ***SPOILERS***

[eddyxx]

He should’ve said a joke to the alien when he attacked it at the end. 
 

What did the robot say to the alien? (Shoots) die. Or something better a writer would come up with.

Edited August 17 by eddyxx

[budice]

iykyk

 

[Jonwo]

The Engineer like Humanorph does connect Romulus to Prometheus and Covenant. Does make me wonder if there is a way to reintroduce David from those films to return in a future film.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lorddemaxus]

Sorry if I keep harping on how poorly done I thought the kills in this were, but I’m annoyed they didn’t even give the shitty android bigot guy a cool extended death scene. Like it’s over in 5 seconds.

[solaris]

As a 'meat-and-potatoes' Alien film, this absolutely delivers. It's not as ambitious (or messy) as Prometheus or Covenant, but it's more successful than either as a stand-alone experience. The set pieces were all brilliantly staged - I was gripping my seat/holding my breath throughout.

 

It looks wonderful, and for the most part the fan service was just right (the Alien³ 20th Century fanfare was *chefs kiss*). The couple of aforementioned super obvious callbacks were completely wrong-headed ('get away from her... ' is almost as bad as Chris Pine's 'Khaaaaaan!'), but everything else is so well executed I didn't mind. Loved the production design, and this is the best paced an Alien film has been since 1986. The cast are all... Fine. Spaeny and Jonsson are great, but no one is given anything like the meaty material that Weaver or Fassbender had prior.

 

It's not perfect, and it's nowhere near as stylish/'interesting' as all of the flawed masterpieces in this franchise (I still have a deep and irrational love for Covenant), but it nicely rejuvenates the franchise, and I'm very much looking forward to both watching this again, and seeing where future installments take the story.

 

Hoping this can leg it out to near $300m WW

[filmlover]

I enjoyed this, even if it's definitely not treading any new territory for the franchise. Fede Alvarez delivers a creepy atmosphere and a number of set pieces that generate plenty of tension (the humanoid Xenomorph hybrid towards the end is disgusting and horrifying in equal measure). Alien and Aliens remain unmatchable masterpieces that will never be topped, but this probably works better than most of the entries in the series otherwise have (it's a more satisfying movie overall than either Prometheus or Alien: Covenant despite being nowhere nearly as ambitious as either).

 

I wasn't too bothered by all the fan service, although count me among those who couldn't help but roll my eyes at the obviously forced inclusion of "get away from her, you bitch!" And the CGI resurrection of the late Ian Holm was just...oh god no. There really needs to be a law passed limiting the use of deceased actors through digital trickery.

 

The performances from the actors (never a spoiler: most of them end up alien food) service the material well, with the standout being the always reliable Cailee Spaeny filling the Ripley-esque roll for this installment.

 

B

[MOVIEGUY]

I don't even have a problem with the CGI Ian Holm in concept, his family signed off, whatever. It's also consistent with the lore of the series to have different versions of the same android model. It just looked like shit and was distracting.

[Avatree]

I enjoyed this. It was tense and scary and creepy. Like a couple others said, I got Isolation vibes. 
 

Loved the aesthetic and atmosphere. Production design, visuals, sounds. 
 

Cailee Spainy and particularly David Jonsson are great. The pregnant girl was good too. 
 

I thought the Rook guy was Tony Shalhoub lol. Didn’t realise that it was CGI or that it was meant to be Ian Holm from the first movie. 
 

Way better than the last two Ridley films which didn’t even feel like Alien movies; this does. 
 

My biggest gripe was the pacing. Just felt like there was one or two too many action sequences. I feel the film would have been stronger if it was like 15 mins shorter. The last 45 mins or so didn’t grip me as much as the rest of it.
 

and the alien at the end didn’t really work for me. I didn’t think it was particularly scary.

 

But overall a solid horror flick and probably the one I’ve enjoyed the most since the original Alien. 

Edited August 18 by Avatree

[cinema pal]

I'm sorry, but what were the BIG swing and crazybonkersinsane 3d act here? The last 15 min are just overhyped, we've seen it all before. They even did an acid hole again to kill that monstrocity. Btw tall thin monsters were used in Smile and King's "It" recently, but mostly it reminded me freaks from Dead space. 

Also I don't think Ian Holm CG was bad, the character was supposed to be damaged and twitching with unnatural facial muscles movements. 

Edited August 18 by cinema pal

[4815162342]

I'm back and forth on this. The majority of it is solid entertainment, but several things did not work at all.

Spaeny and Jonsson are really good as the leads, but the rest of the characters are just plot devices (Merced), stereotypes (racist guy), or just exist (the other two). 

 

Calling this the Rogue One undersells it quite a bit because this goes far far harder into dead-actor resurrection than Rogue One did (zombie Holm in the movie a good deal more and more actively engaged in the plot) and does so completely unnecessarily as opposed to the inclusion of Tarkin in Rogue One.

[cinema pal]

1 minute ago, 4815162342 said:

stereotypes (racist guy)

What?

[4815162342]

Just now, cinema pal said:

What?

 

The guy who exists solely to hate androids in all forms

[cinema pal]

5 minutes ago, 4815162342 said:

 

The guy who exists solely to hate androids in all forms

Ehm, I wouldn't call him racist, it's like calling Sarah Connor a racist stereotype lol

And he had understandable reason to hate androids , not just because he hates technology / AI

Edited August 18 by cinema pal

[4815162342]

2 minutes ago, cinema pal said:

Ehm, I wouldn't call him racist, it's like calling Sarah Connor a racist stereotype lol

 

His entire character is meant to be a stereotypical metaphor of a racist caricature

[cinema pal]

1 minute ago, 4815162342 said:

 

His entire character is meant to be a stereotypical metaphor of a racist caricature

His character was supposed to be

1) meat for xeno

2) antagonistic force in the group, when  Rain has a close relationship with an android. 

Again, Ripley didn't trust Bishop in Aliens, she had her reasons, just like this dude has

[Claudio]

After he was given a new directive, I thought Andy gonna sacrifice himself for Rain to kill the filthy alien at the end. Scenes like Andy saying emotionally to Rain “I do what’s best for us” before blowing or ejecting himself up (or whatever) with the filthy alien while the tearjerker music playing the background. The emotional stakes would be off the chart. Kinda bummed that he only got one slap in the cheek and went 404 error network like washed Safari without doing anything heroic.

 

And that alien face was so sus and filthy. I thought he was horny when he smiled creepily like that towards Kay and gonna do something “18+ NSFW but not gore type NSFW” to her. Turns out it didn’t. (Or maybe it did off screen, not quite clear just saw him sucking something out of her from back POV).

[Claudio]

Anyway I enjoy the movie very much. Love how it brings back the ‘trapped with Alien’ vibes and plot elements like space horror games Dead Space. I Love it!!!!!! Old School Aliens Franchise at its finest

[stuart360]

I actually quite liked it surprisingly. I'd give it a 7.5/10.

Of course there are a few cheesy bits and callbacks to previous films (the 'get away from her........you bitch' was by far the worst).

But i feel if you judge the film for what it is, a spin off/side film, its actually pretty decent.

 

One of my worries before seeing the film came true though, just too few people. They should of had a few survivng scientists on the station, if for nothing more than cannon fodder for the Xeno's. I mean we literally get 1 Xeno kill in the whole film (2 if you include the dickhead who died from acid). Granted the Xeno's are in multiple scenes and get some decent screen time but feck me, its an Alien film, give us some gory deaths and kills.

 

I also wish we didnt get another hybrid Xeno to finish off with. I thought the box office and fan feelings towards that hybrid in Ressurection (and the film itself) would of meant zero chance of another hybrid but here we are. I wouldnt be surprised if it was added because Scott wanted a connection to prometheus/Covenant and his silly humanoid space jockeys.

 

Anyway i felt the good far out did the bad. The film looked and sounded great. The practical Xeno's looked great. The acting was good. The main character and the android were really good. I didnt even mind the cgi Ash, to me i expected worse after what people had been saying lol.

 

Anyway overall i'd say its a worthy entry into the series, eevn though its a side film really.

Its not as good as ALIEN, ALIENS, or even the assembly cut of ALIEN 3, but its far better than the rest of the dross.

 

 

ALIENS 10/10

ALIEN 9.5/10

 

ALIEN 3 Assembly cut 8/10

ALIEN Romulus 7.5/10

 

 

ALIEN Ressurection 4/10

Prometheus 4/10

ALIEN Covenant 4/10.

Edited August 18 by stuart360

[wildphantom]

Loads of Letterboxd reviews talking about an all-time jump scare in the last 20 minutes. I only saw the movie this morning and can’t even recall what it is? Anyone enlighten me? 

[stuart360]

20 minutes ago, wildphantom said:

Loads of Letterboxd reviews talking about an all-time jump scare in the last 20 minutes. I only saw the movie this morning and can’t even recall what it is? Anyone enlighten me? 

The hybrid jumping at the camera when she's climbing up the rope when she's floating in space?.

Thats all i can think of. That jump scare, and the facehugger jumping at the door window are the only 2 jumpscares i remember.

The hybrid jumpscare didnt even make me jump so whoever said 'all time jumpscare' was pushing it a bit lol.