34/48
Andy: The solution for a claustrophobic astronaut is to give him more space
Plot
While scouring the depths of an abandoned space station, a group of young space colonists encounter the most terrifying life form in the universe. “Alien: Romulus”; stars Kaylee Spaeny and Isabel Merced reveal why director Fed Alvarez used practical effects and animatronic xenomorphs to scare his cast. Director Fed Alvarez from Alien 2 (1986) was looking for a special effects team to work on the creatures. Physical sets, practical creatures and miniatures were used whenever possible to help ground the later VFX work. When Rain shuts down the ship’s gravity and shoots all the aliens, all their blood is suspended in the air in long, stain-like patterns. . Zero gravity in real life causes liquids to form sphere shapes instead of breaking up into long, flat pieces like in the movie.
Theme from AlienWritten by Jerry Goldsmith
The 20th Century Studios fanfare freezes and turns ominous, as in Alien 3 (1992), leading up to the film’s opening scene. The logo itself suffers from static and turns green. Featured in Nerdrotic: The Acolyte: Force is Female CONFIRMED? Death of Theaters – Real BBC @MauLer @HeelvsBabyface (2024). Positives first – good action, great practical special effects and nice visuals. Director Fed Alvarez and his production team have captured the dark atmosphere of Alien and the exciting action of Aliens almost perfectly. The action was exciting with some scary moments.
I won’t say more for a moment
The use of practical effects and realistic miniatures was so refreshing to see in this age of CGI excess. Seeing a fully realized Xenomorph in the flesh blew me away and the Space scenes were beautiful. This camera work, visual presentation and quality, if limited, use of CGI where necessary was outstanding. Cons – Average acting, nostalgia bait story, copy & pasting in dialogue from the better Alien movies, as well as including lore elements from inferior prequels that I don’t think would exist in the official canon. Also, the reveal of the villain was “oh, get out of here”. Apart from the excellent lead actor Spenny who played his role, the rest of the cast/characters were just fine. I found the nostalgia bait story to be boring, eye-rolling and almost 4th wall breaking, it ruined the immersion for me.
that the origin of the Space Jockey and the creation of the Xenomorph waste
I get bored with sequels/prequels that rely heavily on lazy "remember-berries" to get a kick out of casual audiences while making Alien fans cringe almost madly. Honestly, that’s just lazy screenwriting and disrespect to the other Alien movies that did it first! Unnecessary. Also excessive copying & the pasted-in dialogue from the best Sigourney Weaver Alien movies was very jarring. 20th Century Studios should have called it Alien: Remember because you relied too much on remembering this bit of… Finally, trying to cram all the controversial and franchise-damaging Prometheus crap into the movie was frustrating, I hated all of it. And don’t call me a villain, I don’t want to spoil anything, but it was ridiculously lazy.
Alien: Romulus, an above average Alien, is the 4th best film in the franchise
I think doing the movie between the first 2 movies was a mistake because you have to make your own movie. fits into established franchise continuity with all the engaging elements and plot beats needed to make it fit. They should have made a sequel set several years after Alien: Resurrection and start a brand new alien saga long after the Weavers’ adventures (and with better writers). but disappointing characters resulted in a weak "remember-berry" story and bad screenplay, it was a disappointment.
