REVIEW: Alien: Romulus (2024) – Geeks + Gamers

Review: Alien: Romulus (2024)

Movie Reviews

Trailer Alien: Romulus It was sold as a return to the franchise's origins, and it certainly is that, but not in the way most of us expected. It's just not the same kind of horror story Foreigner But this is another sequel that stands like a shaky ladder on the franchise's past, with plenty of callbacks and outright copying of scenes, imagery and more. The problem is that most of the new material is so shoddy that you can understand why Fede Alvarez based his film on earlier films.

At a Weyland-Yutani work colony called Jackson's Star, employee Ren Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her “brother”, an android named Andy (David Johnson), find themselves stuck longer than they'd like, so they join up with a crew of scavengers to steal some equipment from a derelict ship that will take them to the planet Yavaga. Once aboard the ship, they discover some of Weyland-Yutani's secrets and a creepy creature that causes havoc.

The biggest flaw of the film is its characters. Alien: Romulus We don't care about anyone beyond superficial reasons, and even those are rare. Ren and Andy grew up together, but we never get a sense of their bond; we're just told that they have a bond. There's another brother-sister pair in the Space Raiders team – a more traditional pair – and the same thing happens to them: we find out they're related, and that's the end of the human connection. They're all stock characters: the female protagonist who pales in comparison to most Ripley imitations, let alone the real deal; the more traditional weak and scared girl; the team leader who's moral and decent; the constantly jerky guy who gets himself into trouble for no apparent reason; the tough-looking woman with a buzz cut; and the requisite android. And they all speak in a very modern language, which is annoying. If you've seen the previous Foreigner Movies or other science fiction, you have seen all this done in a much better way.

It doesn't help that they're played by terrible actors, or at least actors who give terrible performances. I liked Cailee Spaeny Civil WarBut here, she's as lifeless as the derelict ship she's searching for, with no personality ever emerging. Maybe it's a bad movie, and Civil War it was very goodI'm not as familiar with the other actors, but knowing Spaeny's ability to do better I don't want to blame them entirely. There are some odd and downright awful narrative and character decisions that could have hindered the performance. Ren has a moment Alien: Romulus where she asks Andy a question when he's not in the room that's so bad it's the biggest laugh in the movie. And David Johnson plays Andy like he's mentally challenged, which I don't understand; the other androids in the movie Foreigner The movies never depicted them this way, and this later change adds nothing other than a twist that's more silly than interesting or scary. Everyone else is more tasteless than oatmeal mix, and stands out from the others ForeignerWhen the monsters come out to play it's hard to care if they'll live or die.

first part due to lack of spark Alien: Romulus It feels like it will never end. The very long scene in which they inspect the abandoned ship is hardly crawling at all, and that's at least partly because you're stuck spending time with people who make Ferris Bueller's teacher look like a live wire. It's also not very exciting to watch people wander around a lifeless ship like that. Remember Foreigner When they went to the planet where the facehuggers' eggs were? That scene was great because it was full of surprise, discovery, and the uneasy feeling that something is very wrong, even if we don't know what it is. Alien: Romulus is going for that atmosphere, but it doesn't achieve it because there are no surprises in a dirty ship, and there's no mystery because we know what the aliens and the facehuggers are, so we're just left waiting for the inevitable rather than wondering what's going to happen next. It's the difference between unbearable tension and checking your watch because you wonder when they'll get to the good stuff.

At least the ship looks nice, as most ships do. Alien: RomulusThe design of the vessel is very much in keeping with this. Nostromo; It appears to be a inhabited and abandoned place, even if its environment is not used as before ForeignerThe same applies to Jackson's star, the work colony, which looks like a depressing place to live; you can imagine a ruthless company like Weyland-Yutani forcing its workers to live there, and you can understand why everyone wants to get out as soon as possible. The special effects are also mostly fantastic, with the CGI (presumably) never looking fake when the ships are flying; however, there is one instance I don't want to spoil that is absolutely awful (which is fair because it's an eye-rolling plot point), something we've seen far too often lately, and rarely well. The aliens look great, perhaps their best ever. Aliens;Again, the CGI works, and they fit seamlessly with the actors and sets.

It also has some cool filming techniques Alien: Romulus From director Fede Alvarez, who maintains a refreshing restraint rather than showing off with some fancy tricks that don't work. Zero gravity is conveyed with a few tilts and slow turns that give the feeling of weightlessness without going crazy for cheap thrills. And while the exploration of the ship goes on too long, the slow motion scenes work well on their own and would be even better if there were fewer of them. The score is also very effective, giving the film a creepy vibe that I wish was more justified, and some tracks from some older films are well used. Alien: Romulus There's a lot that's right on a technical level; I just wish the story and characters were half-as-good.

I also wish it left the past alone a little more. The music cues are great, but there are too many callbacks Foreigner And AliensFrom recreated scenes to repeated lines and things that I don't want to spoil but which are not only unnecessary but also insulting. Like some other legacy sequels – Ghostbusters: AfterlifeDisney Star Wars , Alien: Romulus weakens the incidence of Foreignerthinks itself clever for using elements from that film to strengthen its story, without giving it much thought to what it's doing to the original. I'm tired of seeing this happen, to the point that I want almost everything left as is. The repeated lines do nothing except remind you of much better films (and reinforce this film's audacity that it's anywhere near as good), and the mirrored scenes and shots don't have the same tension or excitement. Oh my god, it even makes copying terrible seem tacky Alien: Resurrection to a point, and it makes less sense than that sorry movie.

To be honest, I didn't have very high expectations Alien: RomuluYet it turns out to be worse than I thought. It's a boring sci-fi horror movie that no one cares about, is overly reliant on its predecessors, and lacks tension or excitement. It has some nice camerawork, the music is great, and the special effects mostly work well (though when they don't, they're terrible), but it's all a sham for a movie.