• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Alien Romulus | Rotten Watch

The Cockatrice

Gold Member
Who survived from Romulus? The lead girl and...the android? Right? All the others got dusted IIRC. Unless some shit got left on her ship (aka the sole surviving egg from Aliens into Alien3) then not sure how the same shit can happen to the same girl twice!

But overall I'd be down for more of the same, especially if they can shrug off Scott and move away from black goo nonsense and go back to more xeno stuff. I'm unsure what direction they should take, just sticking with horror and having a group of folks have to think their way out of a xeno outbreak is still a pretty damned good foundation for a film.

You know they're going to do a Alien 2 time skip, I can already see it. I wish they made it more like the 1st tho but I guess teenagers these days have the attention span of a dog and can't enjoy a good slow burn horror movie.
 
Last edited:

clarky

Gold Member
You know they're going to do a Alien 2 time skip, I can already see it. I wish they made it more like the 1st tho but I guess teenagers these days have the attention span of a dog and can't enjoy a good slow burn horror movie.

57 years later.........

Company has lost contact with mining colony Jackson Star. Rain and her trusty andy must face their fears and join a group of next gen colonial marines as they dare to go back and find the source of the distress signal.......... Groan to black......
 
Last edited:

SJRB

Gold Member
Holy fuck this movie was not good. I'm amazed how lame this was.

First hour or so I was actually on board, mostly carried by the amazing visuals, set design and the dynamic between the autism robot and the girl. But somewhere around the halfway point the entire movie goes to shit.

Biggest offense: it's boring as hell. Unbelievably dull. There's no suspense, no horror, the kills are lame. It's a bad sign when I have to check at least three times how much longer the movie is going to take.

I can't believe how whack that finale was. Nothing happens!

Ridley Scott is rolling in his grave.
 

ShadowNate

Member
Yeah, this was bad. Maybe if someone is new to the franchise would appreciate something in it, but to an old-timer like me it was all by the numbers, with an uninspired plot, little to no suspense, tension or horror and unfortunately hilariously bad "escape" solutions to the "aliens are hunting me" problem.

The fan service was too much too and more than a few times it was unfitting (repeating lines from the better movies it referenced, like it's fun when the Terminator shit sequels do it). This even "borrows" ideas from Alien Resurrection, which at the time already had ran out of ideas (thankfully, not completely; it sill had a few good ones) and was itself mostly a fan service movie.

The one thing I did like were the early sequences, the autistic android and his relationship with his "sister", the mining colony. And I *think* I was probably supposed to connect only with them because everyone else either had a shit or blank personality
and had a very quick death
.
 
Last edited:

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions


Lets GOOOO



LETS GOOOO X2



LETS GOOOOO X3

As negative as this damn thread is, it seems the vast majority of the audience loved it (this is literally the only negative thread ive seen on the internet when it comes to his movie lol)- And its completely brought this franchise back to life. We're getting a sequel to Alien: Isolation thanks to the success of Alien: Romulus.
 
Last edited:

FunkMiller

Gold Member
As negative as this damn thread is, it seems the vast majority of the audience loved it (this is literally the only negative thread ive seen on the internet when it comes to his movie lol)- And its completely brought this franchise back to life. We're getting a sequel to Alien: Isolation thanks to the success of Alien: Romulus.

Oh, this movie was squarely aimed at the brain rot Gen z and millennials who are too young to remember the originals. It works the same as The Force Awakens:

‘Just do a worse version of the stuff that happened in the old films. The idiots will think it’s great!’

Shiny new visuals, repeated characters, and updated graphics have replaced good, original storytelling for the target audience of today. Disney have trained you all very well to love the same things we loved - only repackaged for them to profit from.
 
Last edited:

vpance

Member
Yeah it really wasn't that bad. Casting was weird though with all the barely past looking teens but the atmosphere was on point at least. Action scenes were somehow better than both of the last 2 Ridley ones I thought.

That said I'm going to say now the sequel will be trash 😆 Can't trust current Hollywood to repeat any kind of success. This was some sort of small accident.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Yeah it really wasn't that bad. Casting was weird though with all the barely past looking teens but the atmosphere was on point at least. Action scenes were somehow better than both of the last 2 Ridley ones I thought.

That said I'm going to say now the sequel will be trash 😆 Can't trust current Hollywood to repeat any kind of success. This was some sort of small accident.

I honestly think the cast being all young people made a lot of sense in the context of the story. They're all realizing Weyland Retardy is fucking them over big time and they don't want to spend the next 30 years in the salt mines getting space cancer while being treated like garbage. Had no problems with that at all.

The problem is the movie makes zero effort to introduce or otherwise allow the viewer to get to know these people. They're super one dimensional. "O look here, this guy acts like a jerk because his parents died by an arguably sensible decision of an android, now he hates every android and being an asshole is his coping mechanism". Wow amazing writing, is there a payoff? Does this go anywhere? Anywhere at all? No, the guy fucking dies like a dog in the dumbest way and that's that. There's no character development whatsoever, not even the protagonist evolves in any meaningful way throughout the movie.

These movies work when you're rooting for the characters to survive. This brings tension. In this movie I didn't give a shit about any of them because they're all so boring.
 

Atrus

Gold Member
I saw it yesterday and thought it was good for what it was. I didn’t realize it had a small budget so within that context, they really optimized that 80 million for value.

The space scenes and sets give off a real Dead Space atmosphere and despite some hangups with the science they were the highlight of the film. The plot was essentially an Alien based short story that weakened itself with so many tie ins to the original story, even with unnecessary quoting of Ellen Ripley where the actor might as well have given the camera a wink. Anything to do with Prometheus is also terrible and should be avoided and this part really brings the movie down in the last act since we’re starting to move into Resident Evil territory.

The cast didn’t have time for any real characterization to form and were all mostly the same age and outlook, basically a teen story acted by adults. It does start out well by showing that dystopian future ruled by corporations as a background and the introduction of the Renaissance as a mysterious abandoned science facility, but didn’t spend time on making us care about the characters or telling the background story of the Renaissance in terms of environmental story telling.

It’s probably the closest we’ve gotten to the original trilogy we’ve seen but it is clearly not quite there. They need to focus on standing on their own two feet instead of leaning so hard on the originals for cast and plot. There wasn’t a lot of suspense for a film that needs to be suspenseful, though one jump scare did get me near the end. Overall it is certainly worth watching for the imagery alone even if the plot isn’t fully cooked.
 

clarky

Gold Member


Lets GOOOO



LETS GOOOO X2



LETS GOOOOO X3

As negative as this damn thread is, it seems the vast majority of the audience loved it (this is literally the only negative thread ive seen on the internet when it comes to his movie lol)- And its completely brought this franchise back to life. We're getting a sequel to Alien: Isolation thanks to the success of Alien: Romulus.

Can't wait for Speed 3 with an all electric bus. Same story but in Europe with illegal immigrant middle eastern terriost going 80.467 kilometres per hour
 
Last edited:

Doom85

Gold Member
Oh, this movie was squarely aimed at the brain rot Gen z and millennials who are too young to remember the originals. It works the same as The Force Awakens:

‘Just do a worse version of the stuff that happened in the old films. The idiots will think it’s great!’

Shiny new visuals, repeated characters, and updated graphics have replaced good, original storytelling for the target audience of today. Disney have trained you all very well to love the same things we loved - only repackaged for them to profit from.

My mother saw the original Star Wars movie in theaters. She also quite enjoys the sequel trilogy.

Also, seriously, you can spin it all you like, that was an ad hominen argument. If you can’t make an argument with insulting someone(s), in this case entire generations, then it’s not a very convincing sounding argument. Learn to feel secure in your opinion without generalizing those with an opposite opinion. I didn’t like Avatar 2, but I’m not going, “this movie only is loved because James Cameron has fooled his low IQ audience of idiots into being distracted by the shiny visuals so they ignore the limp dick of a story and the uninteresting characters!” because I’m not insecure in my opinion just because it’s not the popular opinion.

Like, come on, be better than that. I know you and I have disagreed in the past, but you’ve never resorted to insulting those who disagree with you. Maybe you’re just having a rough day, fair enough, but try not to say things like this. You can dislike something without mocking those that do.
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
My mother saw the original Star Wars movie in theaters. She also quite enjoys the sequel trilogy.

Also, seriously, you can spin it all you like, that was an ad hominen argument. If you can’t make an argument with insulting someone(s), in this case entire generations, then it’s not a very convincing sounding argument. Learn to feel secure in your opinion without generalizing those with an opposite opinion. I didn’t like Avatar 2, but I’m not going, “this movie only is loved because James Cameron has fooled his low IQ audience of idiots into being distracted by the shiny visuals so they ignore the limp dick of a story and the uninteresting characters!” because I’m not insecure in my opinion just because it’s not the popular opinion.

Like, come on, be better than that. I know you and I have disagreed in the past, but you’ve never resorted to insulting those who disagree with you. Maybe you’re just having a rough day, fair enough, but try not to say things like this. You can dislike something without mocking those that do.

You seriously trying to guilt me about dragging an entire generation? Come on now, that’s just silly 🤣

I absolutely stand by the opinion that Disney repackages better movies in modern remakes that have zero creativity or originality, and that they are successful because the target audience have incredibly short attention spans and zero critical thinking.

You get the movie makers you deserve.

Romulus is Disney Alien’s Force Awakens.

Next is the Alien version of The Last Jedi… 😩😩🤣🤣
 
Last edited:

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Oh, this movie was squarely aimed at the brain rot Gen z and millennials who are too young to remember the originals. It works the same as The Force Awakens:

‘Just do a worse version of the stuff that happened in the old films. The idiots will think it’s great!’

Shiny new visuals, repeated characters, and updated graphics have replaced good, original storytelling for the target audience of today. Disney have trained you all very well to love the same things we loved - only repackaged for them to profit from.
Nah. This was a good movie. People have rose tinted glasses when it comes to the second one, Aliens. This is a better sequel. Aliens is not some timeless classic, it completely gutted all the horror and suspense elements from the original. The original is a damn masterpiece. This is easily the best sequel to me. Its the only one to nail Horror, gore/nastiness AND action. The second one was way over the top, without any horror in it. People let nostalgia cloud their judgement. I re-watched it the day before this came out, this is better
 
Last edited:

Doom85

Gold Member
KhMKtyU.jpeg

Again, if an argument can’t be made without resorting to insulting those who disagree, then it’s one weak ass opinion.

Although the “you get what you deserve” line just makes you sound bitter that other people are having fun.

Seriously, dude, why behave this way? It makes you sound angry and unreasonable that you have to resort to insulting and mocking people’s intelligence over some movies. There is nothing at stake here, I have no idea why any adult would mock someone(s) over this.

Also, I do not recommend you pursuing an education to becoming a lawyer, or joining a debate team, you’ll be shocked to learn that insulting your opponents won’t work in either area as they know how to make arguments without resorting to ad hominen.
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
Nah. This was a good movie. People have rose tinted glasses when it comes to the second one, Aliens. This is a better sequel. Aliens is not some timeless classic, it completely gutted all the horror and suspense elements from the original. The original is a damn masterpiece. This is easily the best sequel to me. Its the only one to nail Horror, gore/nastiness AND action. The second one was way over the top, without any horror in it. People let nostalgia cloud their judgement. I re-watched it the day before this came out, this is better

If You Say So Shrug GIF
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Nah. This was a good movie. People have rose tinted glasses when it comes to the second one, Aliens. This is a better sequel. Aliens is not some timeless classic, it completely gutted all the horror and suspense elements from the original. The original is a damn masterpiece. This is easily the best sequel to me. Its the only one to nail Horror, gore/nastiness AND action. The second one was way over the top, without any horror in it. People let nostalgia cloud their judgement. I re-watched it the day before this came out, this is better
This derivative memberberry shlock, better than Aliens?
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Nah. This was a good movie. People have rose tinted glasses when it comes to the second one, Aliens. This is a better sequel. Aliens is not some timeless classic, it completely gutted all the horror and suspense elements from the original. The original is a damn masterpiece. This is easily the best sequel to me. Its the only one to nail Horror, gore/nastiness AND action. The second one was way over the top, without any horror in it. People let nostalgia cloud their judgement. I re-watched it the day before this came out, this is better

Aliens not a timeless classic? Romulus the better film?

This must be a troll post.

It's okay to have that opinion, but that opinion is factually wrong.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Aliens not a timeless classic? Romulus the better film?

This must be a troll post.

It's okay to have that opinion, but that opinion is factually wrong.
Alien is a timeless classic.

Aliens is a great action film.

It removed all of the horror elements that made the original so great and memorable. All of the suspense, the tension… gone.

Romulus at least attempts to bring it back. The first hour was a homage to the first alien. The second hour was Aliens. Pure action. It was a fantastic fusion of both films.

Cameron just said fuck it im making an action movie. Almost Completely over the top

If some director of today said, fuck it, I know the first film is beloved for its horror elements, but my sequel will change the mood completely, it would be hated today. but that shit came out in the 80s. Nostalgia. Heavy.
 
Last edited:

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Alien is a timeless classic.

Agreed

Aliens is a great action film.

Yes. And a timeless classic. It was highly regarded before RT came along, but look at RT now and it's 94% for both user and critic score. You might not like it, but it is a stone cold classic. That's a fact.

It removed all of the horror elements that made the original so great and memorable. All of the suspense, the tension… gone.

There was suspense and tension in Aliens.

Romulus at least attempts to bring it back. The first hour was a homage to the first alien. The second hour was Aliens. Pure action. It was a fantastic fusion of both films.

"Attempts".

Cameron just said fuck it im making an action movie. Almost Completely over the top

Cameron cooked up a classic. Why remake the same film again? Why not do something a little different? It's a risk, but fuck me, it paid off. He also did that with T2, which is considered one of the best action movies ever made, yet it's a very different beast to the first Terminator.

If some director of today said, fuck it, I know the first film is beloved for its horror elements, but my sequel will change the mood completely, it would be hated today. but that shit came out in the 80s. Nostalgia. Heavy.

Why would it be hated? Because it's a tone shift? I don't think so. There are many sequels that change the tone of the original and are loved and successful.
 

Dazrael

Member
Cameron was clever enough to realise that as soon as you saw the alien in the first film the terror disappears. So the next logical step is to lean into that familiarity and make an action film, to up the ante. And it succeeded, more so than Alien 3 which is a retread of the first film and is worse off for it.

Romulus is a decent film but it isn’t scary in the slightest, as every knows what the xenomorph is by now. The Alien franchise keeps trying to tell the same story and it’s getting a bit long in the tooth.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
The Alien franchise keeps trying to tell the same story and it’s getting a bit long in the tooth.

Agreed.

I'd like them to look at the 1990s novels for inspiration, especially the Earth Hive trilogy from Steve Perry (Earth Hive, Nightmare Asylum and The Female War)
 
Just watched this, and what a dissapointment.

The action scenes are great, the sets are all amazing quality, but what a shitshow of a story. Why the all highschool cast? How can a group of poor slave kids have a ship to explore at will? How can a glitched robot start acting like he has down syndrome is also quite a strange approach.

Prometheus/Covenant was a much more interesting approach IMO.
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Agreed.

I'd like them to look at the 1990s novels for inspiration, especially the Earth Hive trilogy from Steve Perry (Earth Hive, Nightmare Asylum and The Female War)
Oh wow. I didn't think anyone else had read those books. I liked them a lot. There are some legitimately good AVP books written in the same timeframe that would have been better than the shit movies we got.
 
Last edited:

vpance

Member
I honestly think the cast being all young people made a lot of sense in the context of the story. They're all realizing Weyland Retardy is fucking them over big time and they don't want to spend the next 30 years in the salt mines getting space cancer while being treated like garbage. Had no problems with that at all.

The problem is the movie makes zero effort to introduce or otherwise allow the viewer to get to know these people. They're super one dimensional. "O look here, this guy acts like a jerk because his parents died by an arguably sensible decision of an android, now he hates every android and being an asshole is his coping mechanism". Wow amazing writing, is there a payoff? Does this go anywhere? Anywhere at all? No, the guy fucking dies like a dog in the dumbest way and that's that. There's no character development whatsoever, not even the protagonist evolves in any meaningful way throughout the movie.

These movies work when you're rooting for the characters to survive. This brings tension. In this movie I didn't give a shit about any of them because they're all so boring.

The young cast actually kind of excused the one dimensional factor to them, now that I think about it. Of course that doesn't make the viewer really want to like or root for any of them, but for me the production of it all kept my interest enough to want see what would happen.

My take on it is, it was just an action oriented Alien, nothing more. And to that end I think it accomplished something, whereas the previous 2 films felt like half hearted attempts at trying to straddle the line too much between expanding the franchise's story and typical slasher film.
 
Last edited:

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Agreed



Yes. And a timeless classic. It was highly regarded before RT came along, but look at RT now and it's 94% for both user and critic score. You might not like it, but it is a stone cold classic. That's a fact.
I never said I didn’t like it. In fact I said it’s great. Just not a timeless masterpiece/classic like the original
There was suspense and tension in Aliens.
Nowhere near as effective as the original. The original was dripping and oozing with atmosphere from literally the title credits. In fact I don’t think a single word is spoken in that movie until like 10 minutes in. It’s one of the most antmospheric movies ever. The sequel is NOT that. It’s action through and through.

"Attempts".



Cameron cooked up a classic. Why remake the same film again? Why not do something a little different? It's a risk, but fuck me, it paid off. He also did that with T2, which is considered one of the best action movies ever made, yet it's a very different beast to the first Terminator.
Terminator 2 is a much better film than aliens. A top tier action movie, one of the best ever. Has one of the best film villains ever, which is also an original character, and kept the horror elements of the original. All while being a groundbreaking action movie when it comes to set pieces and visual effects. Aliens, truthfully, can’t hold a candle to T2.
Why would it be hated? Because it's a tone shift? I don't think so. There are many sequels that change the tone of the original and are loved and successful.
Because people love to hate everything these days. Anything that takes a different route than source material today is typically shit on. Gender swap, shit on. Race swap, shit on. Tone swap, shit on. I guarantee you if Romulus was straight action, with zero/minimal horror elements.. it would have terrible backlash. Especially from movie critics.
It is, that's his whole shtick trolling and being contrarian. So he can live up to his name and tag
Typical sensitive internet guy post. Different opinion = trolling 😂

I think Romulus is a better film than aliens, deal with it.

Aliens is a great action movie but it is not a timeless classic like Alien, or Terminator 2.

There’s a reason why T2 is universally mentioned as one of, if not the greatest action movies ever. And Aliens is never in the discussion. It’s never mentioned.
 
Last edited:

Days like these...

Have a Blessed Day
Typical sensitive internet guy post. Different opinion = trolling 😂

I think Romulus is a better film than aliens, deal with it.
Straight out of the troll handbook when called out on your trolling hide behind "it's my opinion" because no one can prove otherwise. I give you credit for straddling that line though many here take you at face value. It's actually pretty sublime. You should give classes 🤣
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
I never said I didn’t like it. In fact I said it’s great. Just not a timeless masterpiece/classic like the original

Nowhere near as effective as the original. The original was dripping and oozing with atmosphere from literally the title credits. In fact I don’t think a single word is spoken in that movie until like 10 minutes in. It’s one of the most antmospheric movies ever. The sequel is NOT that. It’s action through and through.


Terminator 2 is a much better film than aliens. A top tier action movie, one of the best ever. Has one of the best film villains ever, which is also an original character, and kept the horror elements of the original. All while being a groundbreaking action movie when it comes to set pieces and visual effects. Aliens, truthfully, can’t hold a candle to T2.

Because people love to hate everything these days. Anything that takes a different route than source material today is typically shit on. Gender swap, shit on. Race swap, shit on. Tone swap, shit on. I guarantee you if Romulus was straight action, with zero/minimal horror elements.. it would have terrible backlash. Especially from movie critics.

Typical sensitive internet guy post. Different opinion = trolling 😂

I think Romulus is a better film than aliens, deal with it.

Aliens is a great action movie but it is not a timeless classic like Alien, or Terminator 2.

There’s a reason why T2 is universally mentioned as one of, if not the greatest action movies ever. And Aliens is never in the discussion. It’s never mentioned.

Mate, I'm not going to respond to all that (when did I say Aleins was better than T2?)

You think Aliens is a great film, but not a classic because it's different from the original, but you think T2 is the dogs bollocks, even though it's very different from the original. Right.

You're entitled to your opinion, but as mentioned before, you're opinion is factually incorrect.
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
Aliens is a great action movie but it is not a timeless classic like Alien, or Terminator 2.

There’s a reason why T2 is universally mentioned as one of, if not the greatest action movies ever. And Aliens is never in the discussion. It’s never mentioned.

Here's a great example of your opinion is not fact:

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-mov...-action-movies-1183713/aliens-1986-3-1189714/

Aliens above T2.

https://www.timeout.com/film/the-101-best-action-movies-ever-made

Aliens second, way above T2.

https://variety.com/lists/best-action-movies/seven-samurai-1954-2/

Aliens above T2

https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/g26455274/best-action-movies/

Aliens above T2

There are more of these, but you get the point.

You're entitled to your personal opinion, but the idea T2 is always regarded as a better action movie than Aliens in discussions about the subject? No. You're absolutely wrong. And you're clearly absolutely wrong about Aliens never 'being in the discussion'.

Aliens is one of, if not the, best sci-fi action movies of all time.
 
Last edited:

XXL

Gold Member
Nah. This was a good movie. People have rose tinted glasses when it comes to the second one, Aliens. This is a better sequel. Aliens is not some timeless classic, it completely gutted all the horror and suspense elements from the original. The original is a damn masterpiece. This is easily the best sequel to me. Its the only one to nail Horror, gore/nastiness AND action. The second one was way over the top, without any horror in it. People let nostalgia cloud their judgement. I re-watched it the day before this came out, this is better
Alien is one of the best sci fi movies.

Aliens is an amazing action movie.

Romulus is half of a good movie.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Alien is one of the best sci fi movies.

Aliens is an amazing action movie.

Romulus is half of a good movie.
It’s the exact same movie except it came out in 2024. You judge it harder because it’s not original and came out decades later.

Never said otherwise. But great action movie =\= “timeless masterpiece”.
 

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23


Lets GOOOO



LETS GOOOO X2



LETS GOOOOO X3

As negative as this damn thread is, it seems the vast majority of the audience loved it (this is literally the only negative thread ive seen on the internet when it comes to his movie lol)- And its completely brought this franchise back to life. We're getting a sequel to Alien: Isolation thanks to the success of Alien: Romulus.


I think a sequel messes up the timeline. Unless you have them go die and the girl becomes NEWTs mom. But that is still not within the timeframe.
 

Doom85

Gold Member
I think a sequel messes up the timeline.

How so? Everyone could die; the survivors have reasons to not tell anyone about what they encountered; they do tell people but have zero proof and are just written off as crazies; etc. Like, the only major continuity I remember that they have to keep in mind is Ripley being told at the start of Aliens that no creature that she described has ever been officially discovered. The Company having knowledge of it as we find out in Romulus doesn’t contradict that as of course they would keep that information to themselves so what Ripley was told still holds up.
 

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
How so? Everyone could die; the survivors have reasons to not tell anyone about what they encountered; they do tell people but have zero proof and are just written off as crazies; etc. Like, the only major continuity I remember that they have to keep in mind is Ripley being told at the start of Aliens that no creature that she described has ever been officially discovered. The Company having knowledge of it as we find out in Romulus doesn’t contradict that as of course they would keep that information to themselves so what Ripley was told still holds up.
I am not really worried about it, a fun movie is fun even if it is inconsistent. I just don't know how you get them to encounter more aliens. And I better never see that basketball player alien again either.
 

Doom85

Gold Member
I am not really worried about it, a fun movie is fun even if it is inconsistent. I just don't know how you get them to encounter more aliens. And I better never see that basketball player alien again either.

Um, we better see that basketball player alien again, otherwise how are we going to get the most epic 1v1 basketball game of all time?!

 

Trilobit

Gold Member
It’s the exact same movie except it came out in 2024. You judge it harder because it’s not original and came out decades later.

Never said otherwise. But great action movie =\= “timeless masterpiece”.

I hope you're talking about Aliens and not Alien as Romulus is nowhere near that horror flick. I agree with Aliens though, I never really liked it and thought it went too far away from the horror genre.
 
I watched this last night, I thought it was good actually.

The visuals really impressed me, loved the low fi tech, the fact that visually most movies are so bad looking these days and this one could actually stand to to toe with the old ones is worthy of praise, I love seeing sci fi of the 70s/80s being done this level of justice in 2024.

But the pacing of the movie is way too fast, too much exposition and bits of story go by too fast, remember the slow pacing of the original Alien and the dreamlike atmosphere that gave it? This one is too hyperactive, like they're worried if it's not always moving, moving, moving people will get bored, some aspects needed a bit more room to breath.

And there's just a few too many callbacks, why would Andy say "get away from her you bitch"? But I liked how it starts off with an Alien 3 feel and then the station is like a perfect halfway point between Alien and Aliens, yes, that's what it's doing, making a hodgepodge of all the other films, but I felt like it did that well and I feel the reason it adds for WHY Weyland Yutani cares about the Xenomorph makes a lot of sense and feels like it was always the case.

Overall it's a solid film, it's weird that Disney can do Predator and Alien justice but not Star Wars.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Alien is a timeless classic.

Aliens is a great action film.

It removed all of the horror elements that made the original so great and memorable. All of the suspense, the tension… gone.
Oh come now, thats just wrong. The ENTIRE Ripley/Newt locked in the lab by Burke scene (spoilers) was a horror scene, as well as the initial exploration of the hive and escape sequences. What Aliens did was show that overwhelming force CAN NOT defeat the xenes. Alien was about regular folks losing to the xeno, Aliens was about the military industrial complex doing the same. The underlying greed of Weyland in continuing to pursue the promise of the xeno is mans folly. It's not misuse of Prometheus' fire like Ridley likes to think with his black goo, but rather the FUNDAMENTAL INCOMPATIBILITY OF MAN IN SPACE, no matter how we struggle, there are things out there that will f us up. Romulus sorta got that but I think they fumbled the landing by being saddled with too much legacy aspects and a timeline they were being squeezed into for the sake of continuity.
 

Ulysses 31

Gold Member
What Aliens did was show that overwhelming force CAN NOT defeat the xenes.
Eh, it absolutely can. I think even the movie knew that and they had to nerf the marines by making them lose most of their ammo in the first attack, cut off their support so they couldn't just nuke the aliens from orbit. And lets not go into the sentry guns taking out many aliens before running out of ammo.
 
Last edited:

jason10mm

Gold Member
Eh, it absolutely can. I think even the movie knew that and they had to nerf the marines by making them lose most of their ammo in the first attack, cut off their support so they couldn't just nuke the aliens from orbit. And lets not go into the sentry guns taking out many aliens before running out of ammo.
Nah, Cameron threw in "what can go wrong, will go wrong" realism into the film. Incompetent leadership, poor rear security, underestimating the enemy, unwillingless to engage in total war. These are HUMAN failings. The xenos WILL exploit any gap or weakness as they are like ants; relentless, unstoppable, unresting. This is meta-horror, its not about jump scares, gore, or personal risk; it's about the dread due to lack of faith in society.
 

Ulysses 31

Gold Member
Nah, Cameron threw in "what can go wrong, will go wrong" realism into the film. Incompetent leadership, poor rear security, underestimating the enemy, unwillingless to engage in total war. These are HUMAN failings. The xenos WILL exploit any gap or weakness as they are like ants; relentless, unstoppable, unresting. This is meta-horror, its not about jump scares, gore, or personal risk; it's about the dread due to lack of faith in society.
So a well informed and trained space marine force would've easily taken care of the alien infestation with the weapons at their disposal.
 
Last edited:

jason10mm

Gold Member
So a well informed and trained marine force would've easily taken care of the alien infestation with the weapons at their disposal.
If such a thing exists. The corporate machine ensured the Marines were NOT as well informed and equipped as they could have been. I go on the theory Gorman was put in charge SPECIFICALLY because of his weak personality and inexperience to make him more pliable for Burke.

In an open field, 500 meters apart, xenos on one side, Marines with artillery, heavy weapons, tanks, and air support on the other? Sure, Marines win. Problem is that the xenos didn't get the memo that this was supposed to be a stand up fight and they already got onboard the circling gunship and are about to crash it, they are lying dormant under the ground beneath the marines, they sent a wave of face huggers to infect large animals and now there are supermassive xenos inbound, and corporate "forgot" to mention that the marines were just injected with an experimental drug that makes them more aggressive but lose unit cohesion just to see is a human can go mano-y-mano with a xeno. Human nature defeats itself.
 
Top Bottom