Alien: Romulus - Is it the only good thing since Isolation?

[CharlesPhipps]

ALIEN: ROMULUS is good. This is something that should be said in the start of the review because it is a miracle on par with Moses parting the Red Sea or the resurrection of Lazarus. It may sound as if I'm engaged in hyperbole but I'm a fan of the Aliens franchise since I bought one of those incredibly mismarketed children's toys when I was ten. In simple terms, my summary of Aliens can be viewed as, "Alien is good, Aliens is good, Aliens vs. Predator the video game is good, the Dark Horse, comics were good, Alien: Isolation is good, and everything else is crap." There's degrees of crap among the Alien franchise and some things are much worse than others but there is a lot of crap in the franchise and some of it is historically bad like Aliens: Colonial Marines.

The issues are many but boil down to the fact that much of the movie is about the mystery of the xenomorphs and them becoming a known quantity after the first movie. Prometheus failed because they tried to set up a grand mythology around what amounted to, "a bunch of space wasp-spider-ants tear into us." I've long held to the belief that the best way to view the original Alien was a space trucker was transporting some moldly alien caviar and the eggs hatched, killing everyone. Space is hostile in Alien and no one can hear you scream but the horror is multi-layered with the real terror being that in the year XXXX, we're still a capitalist dystopia.

Alien: Romulus mostly gets it right. It's the story of a bunch of twenty-somethings barely out of their teens that are trying to escape a colony world where they're treated as little more than slave labor by Weyland-Yutani. They decide on the risky plan of heading up to a seemingly abandoned space station in order to do some looting and get themselves to a planet where they aren't expected to die in the mines. It is not a spoiler to state that the abandoned space station is full of face-huggers, xenomorphs, and signs that Weyland-Yutani have been conducting unethical experiments like their spiritual descendants in Resident Evil's Umbrella Corporation.

Indeed, if I have a small complaint, it's that Alien: Romulus feels very much like a video game and the Alien: Isolation influences are obvious. There's more monsters, more action, and more puzzles that our heroes have to solve in order to escape. The cast is also younger, prettier, and, honestly, feel a bit like extras from The Force Awakens with Rain (Cailee Spaeny) having a Rey-like quality about her. I say this is a small complaint because it is a very good video game. I also enjoyed this a helluva lot more than The Force Awakens and I didn't hate that as much as most fans. If you're going to steal, steal from the best in your franchise and Alien: Isolation is up there.

I'm not getting too much into the plot of the movie because there's not that much of one to describe. It was a very bad idea to come to this space station and getting off becomes a very challenging task. There's an attempt to weave together all of the mythology from the franchise, including elements from Alien: Resurrection and Prometheus. This I'm iffier about as I am happy consigning them to the dustbin of non-canon but Romulus does better with both film's concepts than either film. I'm not going to spoil but there's an element here from Resurrection that was incredibly stupid there but is genuinely horrifying in this one.

The acting is good, the characters are more than paper-thin, and I enjoyed the action even if I would have slowed it down a bit. I wasn't a fan of using Ian Holm's face for a CGI performance by an "Ash"-model android. I feel like they could have easily cast Lance Henrikson instead and it would have made a lot more sense with none of the necromancy element. Rain may not be a Ripley but she's a solid lead.

In conclusion, Alien: Romulus is a solid space horror film that reminds me of a lot of the better elements of the franchise while ignoring most of the worst. I give it a solid 8 out of 10. That may not sound like a super-ringing endorsement but it's fantastic by comparison to much of the regurgitated garbage that just makes use of the HR Giger puppets.

[Winter]

I mentioned this in my own talks about Alien: Romulus, Fede Álvarez is an skilled director who has never made a film I like and often ones I hate. I HATE Don't Breath, I despise it because of that film's big twist that the blind man is a rapist and the film trying to make us feel sympathy for him and then made a sequel about him as the hero that we're meant to root for.

I can't forgive him for this, he crossed a line here and is proud that he did so and keeps defending it.

I bring this up because it taints my views on all his works, that he is a director who often uses rape as a storytelling device just to shock the audience. Of the the six films he's made only One has not included some form a sexual assault which was Texas Chainsaw Massacre from 2022.

While Alien has always had a strong undertone of sexual assault in it the series kept it rather subdued and it was easy to just see it as some freaky alien thing. But in AR the film makes it clear what is happening and it feels like it's just doing that for it's own sake.

It's impossible for me to look past this because of the director's use of this subject over the years.

I will say that, doing my best to put this aside, I just found the film to be just okay. It has it's moments and all the actors are putting in real effort, but I'm not a fan how this film continues to canonize the Prometheus Prequels which just makes me long for Alien Earth which will apparently be ignoring everything except the first two films.

One scene that bugs me is the bit where the main character is learning how to use the gun and she's told to point it at the andriod, the one who is he's best chance to keep them all alive, with the line "Don't worry the safety is on". Even before joining the SF Debris forum I hated this because I have relatives who are gun collectors and the one thing they drilled into me is NEVER ASSUME THE SAFETY IS WORKING!

My uncle, who showed me a hand gun refused to let anyone handle a run unless he was 100 present certain it was unloaded and even then told us NOT to point it at anyone and to make sure our fingers weren't on the trigger. I learned at a young age that gun safety is a serious matter and that the safety is not reliable. So seeing this film just so casually disregard it with someone flat out saying to point the gun at the thing they REALLY shouldn't be aiming at just pissed me off.

One positive thing I will say about Álvarez is the man does know how to direct a scene. The bit where the gravity is turned off and they have to maneuver through the acid blood is amazing. He knows how to get a good performance out of his actors and has a firm grasp of how suspense works.

But for me, the film is just mildly better then Alien: Covenant but nowhere near as good as Alien: Isolation.

Sorry about that rant at the start but, again, it's impossible for me to separate Álvarez from his other works, all of which I hate. It's not a judgement on anyone who does like his films it's just something I can't get past.

[CharlesPhipps]

At the risk of poking the bear, I actually expected MORE SA in the set up from Romulus. Basically, with the revelation the father of the baby is her cousin, I was expecting that it had been nonconesnsual and he was intimidating her into covering it up.

Especially with the themes of forced impregnation of Alien.

[Winter]

At the risk of poking the bear, I actually expected MORE SA in the set up from Romulus. Basically, with the revelation the father of the baby is her cousin, I was expecting that it had been nonconesnsual and he was intimidating her into covering it up.

Especially with the themes of forced impregnation of Alien.

And then there's that, the treatment of the pregnant woman in this film. It reminded me of how Joss Whedon treated Charisma Carpenter over on Angel. The treatment of Isabela Merced's character is honestly the thing that pisses me off most about this film because it is so... needlessly cruel and again, reminds me of Whedon's treatment of Carpenter.

I do apologize for taking this conversation in this direction, just putting that out there and if you want I'll step out of this discussion.

[CharlesPhipps]

And then there's that, the treatment of the pregnant woman in this film. It reminded me of how Joss Whedon treated Charisma Carpenter over on Angel. The treatment of Isabela Merced's character is honestly the thing that pisses me off most about this film because it is so... needlessly cruel and again, reminds me of Whedon's treatment of Carpenter.

I do apologize for taking this conversation in this direction, just putting that out there and if you want I'll step out of this discussion.

I don't compare fictional treatments of characters with real life ones. Her horrifying death is probably the most memorable part of the movie and subverts the usual expectations that the pregnant woman would survive.

[Winter]

And then there's that, the treatment of the pregnant woman in this film. It reminded me of how Joss Whedon treated Charisma Carpenter over on Angel. The treatment of Isabela Merced's character is honestly the thing that pisses me off most about this film because it is so... needlessly cruel and again, reminds me of Whedon's treatment of Carpenter.

I do apologize for taking this conversation in this direction, just putting that out there and if you want I'll step out of this discussion.

I don't compare fictional treatments of characters with real life ones. Her horrifying death is probably the most memorable part of the movie and subverts the usual expectations that the pregnant woman would survive.

I can understand that but for me, it's impossible to look past that with all the other things this guy has written. Am I reading to much into this, maybe but then again I didn't make a movie where a rapist was the hero of the story.

But to drop that subject I don't care for the Engineer/Alien hybrid that we got cause I really don't like the Prometheus Prequels. That's a whole other can or worms, kinda literally, that I just don't care about as I just dislike the origin of the Aliens there and this film basically confirming it just makes me role my eyes.

For me there's so much baggage to this film that makes it impossible for me to really enjoy it. It's direct by someone who's work I don't like, it canonizes two films I don't like and plays into ideas that I outright hate.

I get that the film is trying to be disturbing and it does succeed at that in many ways but for me I just can't get past those issues I have.

[clearspira]

And then there's that, the treatment of the pregnant woman in this film. It reminded me of how Joss Whedon treated Charisma Carpenter over on Angel. The treatment of Isabela Merced's character is honestly the thing that pisses me off most about this film because it is so... needlessly cruel and again, reminds me of Whedon's treatment of Carpenter.

I do apologize for taking this conversation in this direction, just putting that out there and if you want I'll step out of this discussion.

I don't compare fictional treatments of characters with real life ones. Her horrifying death is probably the most memorable part of the movie and subverts the usual expectations that the pregnant woman would survive.

Agreed. Being pregnant or a child in one of these movies is the equivalent of being made of adamantium. I'm sure there are age certificate reasons going on, but as I was saying over on the Dragonball GT thread, when you remove stakes and consequences you remove drama. If I know that someone is guaranteed to live going in, I just don't care. It is also one of the reasons why I hate prequels of any description. ''Oh no! Anakin and Obi Wan are in danger! Pity that I already know that they 100% have to survive this.''

The ''anyone can die'' nature of The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones was very refreshing to begin with because it really did keep you on the edge of your seat. It just got played out as time went on because they began to artificially force it such as Glen under the dumpster.

[CharlesPhipps]

To think so much of the movie's second climax is based around a simple phrase issue.

Rain says, "Take this T-Virus looking thing." Meaning, "Take it with you."

The pregnant woman hears, "Take this T-Virus looking thing." Meaning, "Take it as a supplement."