37/20
Director Fede Alvarez from Alien 2 (1986) was looking for a special effects team to work with the creatures
Story
Digging deep into the depths of an abandoned space station, a group of young space colonists come face-to-face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. “Alien: Romulus”; stars Cailee Spaeny and Isabela Merced reveal why director Fede Alvarez used practical effects and animated xenomorphs to scare his actors. Physical sets, practical creatures and miniatures were used wherever possible to help ground the subsequent VFX work. When Rain disables the ship’s gravity and shoots all the aliens, all their blood congeals in the air in long, blob-like patterns. . Zero gravity causes liquids to form into spheres in real life instead of spreading out into long, flat pieces like in the movie.
Theme from AlienWritten by Jerry Goldsmith
Andy: For a claustrophobic astronaut, the solution is to give him more space. The 20th Century Studios fanfare freezes and appears ominous, as in Alien 3 (1992), leading into the film’s opening scene. The logo itself experiences a burst of static and turns green. Featured in Nerdrotic: The Acolyte: Force is Female CONFIRMED? Theatrical Death – Real BBC @MauLer @HeelvsBabyface (2024). First the positives – good action, great practical special effects and beautiful visuals.
The action was exciting with some scary moments
Director Fede Alvarez and his production team capture the dark atmosphere of Alien and the thrilling action of Aliens almost perfectly. The use of practical effects and realistic miniatures was so refreshing in this age of CGI excess. Seeing a fully realistic Xenomorph in the flesh blew me away, and the space scenes were beautiful. This camera work, visual presentation and use of quality, albeit limited, CGI when needed was excellent. Negatives – average acting, nostalgia bait story, copycat and amplitude; pasting in dialogue from the better Alien movies and including story elements from the worse prequels that I wish were not in the official canon. Also, the reveal of the villain was “oh, get out of here.” I will say no more for a moment.
Honestly, it’s just lazy script writing and disrespectful to the other Alien movies that did it first!
Apart from the great lead actress Spaeny who played her role, the rest of the cast/characters were just okay. I thought the nostalgia bait story was boring, eye rolling and almost 4th wall breaking, it ruined the immersion for me. I’m sick of sequels/prequels that rely heavily on lazy "remember the berries" pulled from the casual audience, and Alien fans are embarrassed almost to the point of anger. Not required. Also excessive copying & the pasted-in dialogue from Sigourney Weaver’s better Alien movies was a real bummer. 20th Century Studios should have called it Alien: Remember because you trusted too much, oh, you remember it a bit from…
that the origin of the Space Jockey and the creation of the Xenomorph junk
Finally, trying to cram all the controversial and franchise-damaging Prometheus nonsense into a movie was frustrating, I hated all of it. And don’t get me started on the villain, I don’t want to spoil anything, but it was ridiculously lazy. I think setting the movie between the first 2 movies was a mistake because you have to make your movie fit into the established continuity of the franchise with all the tie-in interludes and plot beats needed to fit it. They should have made the sequel a few years after Alien: Resurrection and created the beginning of a whole new Alien saga, well after the Weavers’ adventures (and with better writers). but for disappointing characters, lackluster "remember-berry" story and poor script, it was disappointing. Alien: Romulus, above average, most popular movie Alien, 4th best movie in the franchise.
