Hi folks, first time poster so let me know if this kinda post belongs anywhere else. Just saw alien romulus and wanted to see others thoughts on the movie :-).
Personally the visuals were great and the xenomorph itself terrifying but I didn't care much for the story and the characters seemed a little 2dimensional. I also think it drifted a little away from the fear factor to shock. I'd say 6/10. Enjoyable watch but nothing special.
Saw it with my partner on Friday.
My review:
There was so much fan service that I thought it was a bad Tumblr fanfic and wish I had pirated it.
::: spoiler Fan service spoilers, general complaints, not in order
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There's more but these are enough to get the point across. I think it would have been a better film if it tried to be its own film and not reference every single iconic scene from the previous installations. At least they kept the technology and set painting consistent this time, unlike Prometheus...
- The acid kill retcons 4. One drop goes completely through the guy's leg, while in 4 it only burns the skin slightly.
That seems more like a 4 problem.
Look at the OG acid scene from Alien:
Acid never follows reality in fiction anyway, I’m mostly fine with it just being whatever it needs to be to make the plot work
Seeing this tomorrow but the RLM review was damning. Apparently it starts extremely promising and then tails off.
I'll wait to make up my own mind. I like all of the original 4 in their own way (Alien 3 is my least favourite). Also appreciated - but didn't love - the prequels. This sounds like a mixture of everything from the IP so far.
Will edit this comment once I've seen it tomorrow evening.
Edit: First half was great, second half was fan servicey but overall good. Biggest pet peeve was that the black goo worked differently than had been established in prometheus.
I actually preferred 3 to 4 after watching them recently. 3 brought back the feeling of the original, where everyone is unarmed against a vicious predator. 4 isn't bad, but it feels like a more significant departure from the other movies than 3.
I have several friends that share your opinion about Alien 3. One of them thinks it's a misunderstood masterpiece. Quite enjoy discussing it even though I disagree!
Depending on how you count them... this is the 9th(!)
Alien
Aliens
Alien^3
Alien: Resurrection
Alien vs. Predator
Alien vs. Predator 2 - not the real name, I just can't be arsed to look it up.
Prometheus
Prometheus 2 - Same.
Alien: Romulus
The Prometheus sequel was Alien: Covenant. Also not a great film.
Alien vs Predator is non-canon (if you can even give this series a "canon" anymore), so I guess the number is either 5, 7, or 9 movies depending on which things you see as part of "the series".
Anything original is regarded as sacrilege.
Anything referencing the past is boring and repetitive.
For mine, I found this closer to the first Alien movies, and enjoyed it as a break from feeling like the story had to take centre stage. Alien is all about the vibes, creeps and feels. That's what I enjoyed about this one.
The sound/score was great, though I found some of the score a little delayed and over the top in emphasizing when something had happened "DUM-DUM-DUUUUMMMMMM"
I wasn't much of the fan of the fast growing baby creature that some have referred to as baby Zuckerberg. Some of that reminded me of Species. Mind you, I'd watch Alien v Species. Or Alien v Thing. Or any combination v Predator.
The callbacks are starting to come across to me as lazy writing. Just repeating stuff from previous movies that ends up filling in time. Good for those that haven't seen any of the previous movies I guess. I'm OK watching what's basically a repeat movie once, but don't do it again.
Seems obvious to me that now we've had Alien: Romulus the next is the Alien: Remus prequel.
Enjoyable return to original films:7/10
How does it compare to the others? Specifically the last attempted reboots with the Engineers or Alien Vs. Predator, has to be better, right?
Full disclosure haven't seen the originals (or maybe I did but was too young to remember). I'd say it's worse than prometheus or covenant (covenant being my favourite although I hated the story jump from prometheus). It seemed to be trying to be it's own thing with it's own cast, own planet and own character motivations but it also kept pulling in things from the other movies to fail at building something unique. It also doesn't answer any questions from the previous movies :/.
Honestly, do yourself a favor and watch the OG Alien from start to finish with no distractions. Then do the same with Aliens as well. Those two are masterpieces with Aliens being much different in tone. Every sequel or prequel made afterward tried to rekindle the fire/brilliance of those two. Unfortunately Alien was made worse by the later films where the Xenomorphs origin is basically explained as human in origin (caused by humans). So pretend that you didn't see any movie from the franchise and try to be "fresh".
Every modern movie... If it leaves open-ended questions at the end of the first movie, they are NEVER being answered. They will be hinted at and dragged through a million sequels before they are completely abandoned with zero closure.
It's not about art or storytelling. It's simply a process of extracting money from consumers invested in the franchise.