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Official Synopsis from 20th Century Studios:
The sci-fi/horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful “Alien” franchise back to its roots: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
The film stars Cailee Spaeny (“Priscilla”), David Jonsson (“Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy”), Archie Renaux (“Shadow and Bone”), Isabela Merced (“The Last of Us”), Spike Fearn (“Aftersun”), Aileen Wu.
Fede Alvarez (“Evil Dead,” “Don’t Breathe”) directs from a screenplay he wrote with frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues (“Don’t Breathe 2”) based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett.
“Alien: Romulus” is produced by Ridley Scott (“Napoleon”), who directed the original “Alien” and produced and directed the series’ entries “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant,” Michael Pruss (“Boston Strangler”), and Walter Hill (“Alien”), with Fede Alvarez, Elizabeth Cantillon (“Charlie’s Angels”), Brent O’Connor (“Bullet Train”), and Tom Moran (“Unstoppable”) serving as executive producers.

Rated R for bloody violent content and language.

Running Time: 1 hour, 59 minutes

Critic Consensus: 83% at Rotten Tomatoes as of August 15, 2024

Opening Day: August 16, 2024

Pre-Release Discussion: Alien: Romulus (2024, D: Alvarez, P: Scott)

story

I don't know that I've ever created one of these threads before but I thought I might as well give it a shot.

Thank you to DJariya who is the man when it comes to doing this!

I'm going to see this Friday afternoon with a couple buddies. I've gone to the movies with one or the other but it's our first time all going together, we're looking forward to ti.

Dan

This is the Spoiler thread so we can go hog wild without tags, right??

Well, I’ll keep it tame (for now)

The best kill was the dude that got
covered in the acid blood. Awesome stuff.

The final boss alien… almost as terrible as Alien: Resurrection. Come on, now.
Which makes this so disappointing, because otherwise, the movie was actually pretty good. It’s not doing anything particularly exciting, but it knows the formula and executes it very well. I look forward to watching it again, for what it’s worth, but for now, it’s a 3.5/5 for me.

DJariya

Thanks for starting this story. Good job!!

Oldboy used to do this for all the big movies (like this), but he apparently quit going to theaters, so he doesn't do them anymore.

I really want to see this, but my work schedule is super tight. I don't have a day off until next Wednesday, but I'm flying to Thailand for a 15 day vacation. Movies only cost about $7 or $8 in Bangkok, so I'm debating trying to squeeze in a showing on vacation or trying to see it before I leave.

Jason Bovberg

This was a big disappointment to me, for several reasons. On the plus side, it's got a couple of inventive scenes, some excellent sound design that brings you right back into the Alien world, and a nice variation on the android mythology. Other than that, a few big missteps really tank this whole endeavor.

(big spoilers, but I gather that's OK)

1. WAAAAY too much fan service kills this thing, along with the SPECTACULARLY bad choice of bringing the Ash/Rook science officer back through bad CG. THE TECH IS JUST NOT THERE. It takes you completely out of the movie. But aside from that, there are far too many callbacks to other Alien films, including the "Get away from her line" used utterly nonsensically. It all gets tiresome.

2. The frenetic pace does the movie no favors, either, and the main problem I have with that is that the xenomorph rushes impossibly through its life cycle. This is a minor issue I have with the first film (how did the alien grow so big so fast? what did it eat?), but it's blown into ridiculousness here. (At least the first Alien let the story breathe through some unspecified time.) This movie takes place over 40 hours or so, and we see the three distinct stages of the alien's progression.

3. The wacko final act just depressed me. Shades of Prometheus. Ergh. And the thing matured to hulking size in a matter of minutes? No.

Grade: C-

Abob Teff

SPOILER FREE SECTION . . . just in case you wandered in by accident or perverse curiosity . . .

The Good: Alvarez's entry into the Alien franchise successfully avoided most of my fears (stemming from the trailers). He did not turn this into an over-the-top, brain dead, horror flick that does little more than throw buckets of blood at the audience. His knack for tense atmospheres and interesting visuals serves the film well. The film avoids fan-service for the sake of fan service and the homages to past entries are true homages and respect to the work that came before.

The Passable: The characters are a completely forgettable YA (YAlien?) cast straight from a Maze Runner movie. None of them are terrible, but not even Spaeney elevates the material. The story is nothing spectacular and does not add to the lore (despite opening a Pandora's Box). For most of the movie, I would put it on par with Alien 3 in that it does a few "new" things without doing anything revolutionary. It is more about mood and atmosphere than characters or story.

The Bad: All in all, I would say this is forgettable. It is not a bad film and is well-made, but it is not something that I would watch on repeat the way I do most of the Alien movies). I am not saying skip this, definitely go see it if you are even a casual Alien fan, but I won't be buying this on home video until it hits $10, and only then because I can be a bit of a completionist.

SPOILERS . . .

SPOILERS . . .

SPOILERS . . . No, I am not using tags . . . you were warned.

Random thoughts:

Well made, but I had a hard time with large parts of the dialogue, particularly in the beginning of the film. While it makes a point in the beginning of silence in space, it quickly moves planet-side which is a bustling, loud, vibrant mining colony. Again, think Alien 3.

The effects were much better than I expected from the early trailers. The creatures, particularly the facehuggers, were incredible and do feel as if they have weight and exist, unlike some of the early trailer scenes where they were bouncing around like Tobey Maguire Popcorn. I'm still not a big fan of the "flood" of face huggers, but that was a minor transgression compared to . . .

WHY DO WE HAVE TO KEEP FUCKING WITH THE GESTATION AND EVOLUTION PERIODS? This was even worse than AvP level bad. For me, this is a major strike against calling this a horror film. Alvarez never builds tension through the characters or story, only through mood and atmosphere. The life cycle of the xenomorph is built to add tension and suspense, even if you know what to expect. Going from a "60/40" chance of even being implanted to full out chest burster to full size xeno in less than 5 minutes of screen time (maybe ten minutes in movie time?) was a major smack in the face. That said, I did like the "cocoon" addition, it just didn't make sense though.

If The Hybrid from Alien Resurrection angered you, I expect you will be nuking this whole site from orbit. I was ready to. Seriously? A human-alien-engineer hybrid?! Awful, just awful. I heard audible groans in my theater once it was obvious what was going to happen (and again when it did happen). The creature design was well-done, but the whole concept is just stupid and fucked up beyond belief (and a rehash that does not work). Unless you are Ridley Scott, and then it was fucking brilliant. (If you need a towel to mop up my sarcasm, let me know. It is dripping worse than an orgasmic Xenomorph at dinner time.)

Bringing in the black goo was a major swing and a miss for me. The way he tried to incorporate it was probably about the best he could do, but that was a poor decision in the story process. As was mentioned in the other thread, that has Ridley's self-indulgent fingerprints all over it.

I actually did like the character of Rook (get it? get it? Bishop . . . Rook . . .wait . . . but he was Ash? Aw, shit.) up until he became Dr. Zola on TV at the end. I thought the uncanny valley of the CG or de-aging actually enhanced the look/feel of him as a destroyed synthetic. On that note, the only acting performance that stood out to me was Andy (somebody cast this guy as a young Saw Guerrera in Andor!).

To end on a positive, I did like some of the new touches Alvarez brought, particularly with some new and creative uses of the acid blood.

Lingering question: We learn half of the station is Romulus and half is Remus. Why? What was the point of this or the title?

Ranking:

Alien
Aliens
Alien Resurrection
Alien 3/Alien Romulus tie
Alien Covenant
Prometheus
AvP
AvP:R

Artman

I did not expect the connections to the first film! It's pretty much a direct sequel, set 20yrs later. If we were getting a surprise android I was certain it'd be the Lance Hendrickson model, but I thought the Ian Holm likeness was great.

Like everyone else, the design of the final creature was not what I or anyone wanted to see - makes you wonder how it ever made it past the concept phase. Just give us a variation of the Alien, that's all we wanted. But I liked the ending overall, which is the important thing. Would love to see a sequel to this.

EEz28

I enjoyed 90% of this, but damnit!! Why bring back this engineer/Prometheus/black goo crap. I really hate the engineers.
There was mention from another of, what's the motivation of the characters, well wasn't it to get the hell off that shit planet? I liked that we got some insight into the workers of Weyland and how they are treated, I could go for more of that.
The sound was good, loved the sets and lighting, loved Andy. I certainly am glad though that Fox decided to release this in a theater instead of straight to Hulu, as they were originally going to do.
As soon as I saw that busted up droid on the ground, I knew who's face it was going to have, and I wasn't mad as it.
Oh, ugh, why did Andy have to say that line!?

DJariya

Adam Tyner Can you fix the poll and make it non-anonymous?

Thanks

Adam Tyner

I don’t see a way to do that, unfortunately.

DJariya

I recall you mentioned the only way to do it is to start a new thread with new poll and then just copy all the original posts into the new thread.

I know it might be tedious and if you don't have time, don't worry about it. For movie threads like this, we usually keep the poll non-anonymous, so we can get an idea of who gave it the best and worst reviews. Not everyone who visits these threads comments.

story

Rats! What if I start a new thread with a non-anonymous poll, then import and merge these posts?

story

Okay, I created a new thread with a non-anonymous poll, merged it with the old thread and the new poll is showing. We lost those three votes from earlier, I'm sorry. I hope this was the best move.

Boba Fett

Literally “Alien: The Greatest Hits Album”

Every main series film except for potentially Alien 3 is heavily referenced for better or worse.

20 minutes too long. The opening exposition had no real payoff and could have been heavily trimmed.

Enjoyable, but unoriginal. The most ghoulish part of the film is poorly resurrecting Ian Holm. Some of the worst CGI in recent memory.


ranking of the main series films:

Alien
Alien 3: Extended Cut
Aliens
Alien Romulus
Alien Resurrection
Prometheus

Will revisit Covenant but remember it being forgettable.

Meathead

Saw it last night and really enjoyed it... except for the Resurrection ending. I groaned at that as it was bad the first time around.

Cailee was great... really liking her.


Rankings
------------
Alien (Theatrical)
Aliens (SE)
Alien: Romulus
AvP
Prometheus
Alien 3 (Assembly Cut)
.
Alien: Covenant (I do need to watch again)
.
.
.
Alien Resurrection
.
.
.
.
.
.
AvP:R

EEz28

But isn't the payoff being that that's how the space station got destroyed? Weyland scientists fucked around and found out. I was wondering how an alien would be introduced in this one and I loved how they did it.

Geofferson

Saw it last night in AMC Dolby - incredible picture and sound.

In summary, I thought it was good though not great. I agree with some of the comments about the cast which was mostly a group of forgettable twentysomethings. No real characters though Andy was arguably the best. It was also hard to understand some of the dialogue due to accents and other sounds. I felt a few scenes were quite inventive - the temperature controlled room with the face huggers and the zero-gravity acid-blood shootout.

Knowing this takes place between Alien and Aliens I was hoping we'd get more story on the actual colony and the terraforming process. Unfortunately no and it became a haunted house on a spaceship reimagining of the original. And speaking of the original, the visuals, atmosphere and mood were great - reminiscent of Alien and Aliens in a positive way.

I'm still not quite sure what to make of the 3rd act. I get what they were trying to do but in the end it just ended up reminding me of the frustrations I had with Prometheus.

Rankings:
Aliens
Alien
Romulus
Alien 3
Covenant
Prometheus

Dr. DVD

Dislike Resurrection so much you won't even rank it? Don't blame you if so. Caught an afternoon showing today. Easily the third best movie in the Alien universe, but that ain't exactly a high bar to clear.

What I liked:
- Practical effects. These looked great and made it feel like the old school movies I love. Give me someone in a Xeno suit over CG any day of the week.
- A look into just how corrupt and far reaching the Weyland/Yutani corporation is in this universe. It's clear from the first installment they are the true bad guys.
- The horror aspect. This is essentially Fede Alvarez' Don't Breathe on a space station with the Xenos standing in for Stephen Lang's character.
-The characters were well written and acted for the most part. Spanee did a great job but the actor playing Andy was a real stand out. To be able to flip from what seemed like a somewhat autistic android to a variation of Ash is true skill. I want to see more of this guy. I also liked that they gave an explanation as to why the character being a douche bag to him acted the way he did.
-The production designed looked really good for what was apparently an $80 million budget. Definitely puts the $200 million+ MCU stuff to shame.
-A pretty good re-creation of Ian Holm as Root/Ash. It was obviously CGI at work, but it was pretty convincing.

Didn't dislike anything, but.....


What I HATED:
-The entire third act or epilogue. Seems more like the latter.

Okay, they had this great little horror movie that highlighted what everyone seemed to like about the series. It was all good. Then they decide to do something that essentially takes what everyone hates about the franchise and shove it down our throats. An Engineer that's basically the newborn in another form was like a big middle finger to the fans. (Done with CGI no less!) I can only guess that this bit was Scott using his producer influence to make sure the lore of Prometheus remained in tact. What we saw with the rat made it seem like we were going to get Dora mutating into an Alien queen. That would have been weird, but it would have at least been interesting and explained some stuff. Also, if you're going to use something unpopular, at least stick to the lore you established. The newborn in Resurrection seemed like it had something that kept it from attacking it's perceived mother figure. This one promptly killed her, which was kind of strange as it seemed like there was an intention of having her turn into a Xeno as well.

Because of the above, I give this three stars instead of four out of five. Whenever I watch this again, I will remember to turn it off once they get back to the shuttle.

csant

I pretty much agree with everyone's take on the 3rd act... it really lost 1 or 2 points for me. It made an enjoyable movie into a wtf they were thinking. LOL@DrDvD calling Merced Dora.

I thought the acting was good and the start, middle really good but damn that 3rd act again. lol

Artman

It really is one of those head scratching decisions... for months a group of people watched that third act and a concept that should've been laughed out of the room and said "yeah, that's what we want, ship it!" That they had built up so much good will beforehand is the real tragedy of it all - had it simply been an alien queen knockoff it would've been a home run.

Abob Teff

It's not head scratching. There is one easy answer.

Hazel Motes

I thought the engineer looked creepy AF. Had the whole film not been a melting pot of the entire franchise I probably would have still enjoyed the ending, but not as much. I liked that if riffed on the whole franchise. I thought the cast was great. Especially Cailee and the actor who played the synthetic. As someone who has admitted franchise fatigue, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by both Alien and Predator franchises most recent efforts. As well as Furiosa too, which was no surprise whatsoever. I knew it was gonna be great.


I don’t remember the avp movies that well but this would be my ranking.

Alien
Aliens
Alien Romulus



Prometheus
Alien 3


Alien Covenant


Alien Resurrection
AvP
AvP 2

RocShemp

Or did he...?

In all seriousness, I liked Resurrection. It's such an oddball flick but that's why I like it, even if I was pissed by how quickly Michael Wincott exited the picture.

Meathead

Fede Álvarez on the ending (and other related topics)

https://variety.com/2024/film/featur...sh-1236107526/

Dan

Watched it again today. It really is quite entertaining and holds its own within the franchise. A few too many nods to the other films — the worst being that one line — but still good.

Not a fan of the look of the final boss, so to speak, but I hand a tiny bit more appreciation for what they were doing with that sequence. I’d have appreciated them not going for the bloody birth scene (it reminded me of a similar scene in Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead), though.

Remaining fairly minor complaints:
- as noted above, the look of the final boss. Just dumb. A little bit of Engineer would have been ok, but that face on that body… woof.
- the cousins were indistinguishable from each other at times. I know which is which I guess, but the only real difference was one was nice and the other was a jerk.
- Rook. Terrible choice to do this. And him being a cartoonish villain (look, he’s conveniently on the screens when he needs to relay information!) was a poor choice.


I’m upping my rating to 3.75 upgraded security clearance chips out of 5.