The production design was top notch. I enjoyed the heist set-up and Andy was a great character. I didn't like the Deepfake CGI and felt there were too many lines and scenes lifted from the other films. Less fan service would have been preferred.
Pretty much my thoughts. Really enjoyed the movie overall, but that CGI character was awful, and volume of throwback quotes uncalled for. Re: the core movie, I'd rather they completely ignored Prometheus - not a fan of the black goo and "offspring". Also, where did they get all the face huggers, recognising that the whole premise of Alien 3 was Ripley having the only known specimen left. They found the Alien corpse from the first movie, and apparently that generated an army of face huggers? All that said, I liked the characters, great practical effects, the general setup was cool, I liked some of the new lore (how face huggers see, the cocoon the full size Alien emerged from), and the set pieces with gravity, and sneaking through the lab were fun. A worthy entry. For me though, nothing tops the original trilogy (and yes, I include the flawed Alien 3, which I've appreciated more over the years, particularly in production cut form).
Well said. I need to see it again, but I rank it #4 or #5 in the series(I am a Prometheus defender) lol. I think the practical Xenomorph has never looked better.
It wouldve made more sense if WeYu realised the station had fallen, and incentivised/bribed/blackmailed a crew to dock, investigate and recover the valuable data.
@@alexsilva28 the twist being one of the grunts is a Company man, highly trained. Andy is destroyed protecting his "sister." The Aliens develop differently due to the sun's atypical radiation. Lots of new elements to play with. Instead of rehashing old tropes.
People seem to forget that the WeYu corporation is extremely corrupt, as you saw in the beginning of the movie they literally just added more required working hours to continue working in the mines... Presumably for the rest of her life because they are just that evil. They are fully aware of what these creatures are at this point, but clearly whoever is in charge wants to keep it hush hush from the rest of the company so that's why it was abandoned the way it is.
What gets me is that Weyland sent a ship after what prometheus discovered hence why they have the goo on this station so why hasn't WeYu ( Star Trek Deep Space Nine Flashbacks there lol ) sent to recover his precious samples and the Alien big chap if he is obsessed with this creature? it's a mystery he has all this alien material Weyu are obsessed with but no rescue mission and yet prometheus discovered a lot less and yet a ship was sent.
The first 45 minutes were fantastic, great set design but the CGI deepfake really soured the film. Kudos to David Jonsson for Andy's portrayal, he was fantastic
The ridiculously bad CGI Ian Holm just broke the film for me. I loved it up to that scene. I was praying for him to get off the screen ASAP - but he just kept coming back for brainless exposition dumps.
@@kingayrton8327that’s what made it great. He’s broken and sad about it, he gives off shame for something he can’t control. When actually rain cared about him the way he was.
Oliver's presentation style make it sound as though it's a show from the 90s. It's a nice contrast to watch a review of a new Alien movie given the series originated in the late 1970s
The reviews are all over the place with this movie. Some people accuse it of being a nostalgia play for the clapping seals. Others criticise the ending. Some say that the characters are so unlikeable that you want the Alien to kill them all off, others say that the movie does nothing new and is like a coverband.
For me, the first hour crutched way too much on jump scares. The call backs didn't bother me, nor did they excite me. But I certainly preferred the second half of the movie.
The moment gravity kicks in and she starts falling down the elevator shaft is where the film came off the rails for me. After that they had several almost cool moments that they went too far with.
@@smugfortuneV2 built up? Meh, I don't agree. But then again, I really detest more than one or two well built up jump scares. I just think they are cheap.
hot take, Romulus isnt bad. i enjoyed it. fourth best in the ip, after the original trilogy. excellent atmosphere & environments. creepy and disturbing at times. the ending went off the rails a bit, sure. but it did alot of things right. its better than the slop we've been getting.
SPOT ON... If they got the ending better it would of been third best...but that black goo,engineer alien hyprid thing took down the movie a bit bcuz up til then was excellent .. So I agree it's just behind alien 3 on the list
I literally just realized that Romulus is just a Scooby Doo episode. You've got a gang of kids going into a spooky location, along with their talking pet.
i'd just like to add into the fact that surely if these kids have heard it then everybody with a ship should have and therefore everyone should be tearing it apart to get off world
@@ZXSPEX but doesn't the bust up droid say its been like a while, I'm certain he says "170+days since incident" if that's the case then assuming that a distress signal was sent the company now about it well before and even if a distress signal wasn't sent then surely the company wouldn't be receiving reports and would be like "You know that research station that's basically got a thing that can help the colonies we've got and are burning through at a rapid rate...yeah its gone dark and no one is picking the phone up"
@ZXSPEX but by this logic it also means a group of teens beat all the weyland yutani staff to the punch and that the space station wouldnt show up on radar or that the planet itself has no radar system in place. That is one step past suspension of disbelief than i am willing to go. It would have been easy to write around but someone had to write in the downtrodden planet aspect to really hit the story home (which for me it failed at especially with the subtlety of a hammer to the face symbolism of the canary in the cage).
Disney-fied, in the sense that it is a film filled with call backs that play on our nostalgia rather than serve the story or explore anything new. Movie looks great, and setup with the mining planet great, but ultimately it just becomes a weird checking off of reference scenes (get off her you b*tch, underwear scene, finding the nest scene, human hybrid scene, airlock scene). While Prometheus and covenant are messy af, with bad scrips, at least they tried something new.
I think as times goes on, more and more people are going to realise just how empty of ideas this movie really is. I must admit, I enjoyed myself (except the awful ending), but it only took 1-2 hours after leaving the cinema where it started to sink in, and I was pulling apart this movie in my head. It's barely a 6/10 for me.
@@stateazure Yeah, kinda same feeling about it. It looks really nice so it's hard to fault it, but it's shallow, nothing of substance. Kinda you basic teen movie where they go into a place they shouldn't and stuff happens.
@@patricorno I agree. It seemed like an amalgam of previous films, and the characters had almost no depth or charisma. The cameo was extra cringe worthy, and the final xenomorph was much more comical than frightening. The premise had promise that never came close to a payoff, imo.
I had no idea what to expect going in, but I really dug this film. Feels like a type of movie that we just haven't seen in a long ass time. Almost feels like a film that was made in the 90s. Despite some issues, overall the film delivered for me. The attention to world building, practical FX, and empathetic characters, it all went a long way in making me dig this entry as much as I did.
The first 40 minutes were wonderful, then it got a bit lost for the rest. For people who’ve never seen the original films, this film is pretty great. For the rest of us, it gets very call back-y.
I enjoyed it, but I understand people who think it's crap. I have a positive bias to see things I like in aliens and predator movies. Also: I usually expect garbage, so my standards have dropped to qualify something as "good." Callbacks were horrible, disrespectful.
I don't think the callbacks were disrespectful, most were needlessly stupid and so out of place. That said this movie is a literal rehash of scenes from all the films. It's first half is solid, then it tanks with some decent scenes in between. It's nowhere near the 3rd best Alien film IMO. I'd put Prometheus and Covenant above this, at least they tried to do something different.
I thought Romulus was decent, very well produced and it got all the important bits right. Fede and company were keen to please the fans. But it did need more fresh ideas (the zero-gravity sequence was pretty cool) as it does go over many familiar beats across the franchise. I wasn't fully invested in the characters either despite a reasonable script. The film may also be compared to Prey which I feel did a much better job of reinvigorating its series.
Agree that 'Prey' was a better sequel as it managed to do its own thing without compromising on the excitement and tension of having a Predator in the woods scenario again, it was just different enough that it carved an identity of its own. Zero callbacks to the other films (except for a lowkey one with the "if it bleeds we can kill it" without winking at the audience).
@@thetalentof Definitely, the callbacks in Prey didn't cross the lines and become too referential. Other ideas like the Predator working his way up the food chain and the French trappers I thought were very inspired.
The zero acid gravity sequence was great the characters were bland apart from Rain and Andy and the callbacks were groanworthy if Andy just said get away from her that would have been cool stop it there but no we got the full line.
I expected this would be a typical Alvarez take on an Alien film, and so I expected it to be only good/mediocre, but probably fun. with forgettable characters..we got that, mostly.. but it unfortunately got way worse than that due to Ridley's interference/forced Prometheus garbage. Be warned: if you disliked Alien: Resurrection end scene as much as most people, you're going to hate this. The trailer was much, much better, and you get the sense you're going to see some awesome xenomorph action and kills etc...well, no, you get Aliens style weak/bug xenomorphs, with only one kill iirc...even Scorched, the main xenomorph doesn't get a direct kill, and even saves one of the characters (lol). 6/10 for me from a huge Alien fan, and I'm being generous..I expect as time goes on I'll rate it much lower. Alien 3 is a better movie.
I liked the grossness and mystery of alien resurrection myself. The human hybrid idea is cool imo. I guess I’m with the fan base that doesn’t just see these just for xenomorphs but because of cool science fiction.
I liked it overall, but it would have been a lot better if it didn't devolve into memberberry fan service in the third act. Luckily, the final act was fantastically gross and weird, so it won me back. It was however extremely well made on a technical level.
@@1MrBryn wasn't that basically a combination of Shaw's 'baby' and the newborn? Nothing new or surprising there. They even did something similar in Requiem.
Visually the movie is great. The set-up (a scoob-doo gang raids an abandoned place) is the same as "Don´t breathe". The ending is the same as Covenant ansd Resurrection. Facehuggers are dumbed-down and ineffective. Movie is like "The Force Awakens" with an overload of "Memberberries", plot-conveniences and stuff to nitpick. Overall just "a mixed bag".
I liked it, while it has call backs to old movies and tons of references (which felt a bit too much some point), this was a solid scifi horror, non-stop ride from start to finish, and was REALLY scary too.
@@anthonymartensen3164 I'm going to watch it again at some point so I'll make a note but off the top of my head I remember "I prefer the term artificial person myself" "you have my sympathies" "get away from her you bitch". You could argue the android...sorry artificial person lines could be programmed in. The get way one though was against a regular xeno so the bitch bit was a bit far fetched. Anyway it's only me being super picky as Aliens is my favourite film of all time.
@danclifford1027 I respect your opinion. Personally I feel like every sequel to something widely beloved is always going to have references or a way of being "bigger" than what came before, but I didn't find the use of throwback lines to be particularly egregious or hit you over the head in this one.
'Get away from her' - said with gravitas, by the standout actor of the film, after a great action scene, with all the weight of their characters' strained relationship behind it Then 'You b-b-b-b-itch' The Marvel-film style punchline to rob the scene of everything that made it good -_-
I walked out disappointed, the set up is great, dirty, Grundy, small and detailed, indie view lens of the alien world with wetland yutani at the helm of ruining people's lives. Then when it gets going it all goes all over the place, it's like they asked a.i to pull parts from all the films and grind it in to one film and then run with it. Damn, it was such a shame, fedde had a great approach and ideas explored and added are brilliant but when the film tails off into a typical aliens film is when it feels like made by committee, which is not what you feel at the first 20/30 mins which is a great set up. It's like having Sam Rami for doctor strange and rather than let him run with it you strangle the film with committee control. No it's not the third best, controversy aside alien3 is cohesively a better film, a consistent tone and a incredible talented cast. The lead actress is incredibly over rated, she doesn't push anything that makes you feel she has any control. The android Andy is portrayed brilliantly and the actor is the stand out of this film easily, watch for how he tows the line between friend and corporate representative. Can I recommend this film in cinema.... It's a tough call, you'll go in and your blown away for that start....and then you're wondering how many calls backs you're in for because it gets boring quick. Unless you're hardcore for alien I can't recommend for cinema and wait for streaming. So close..... They had all the right ideas but the film falls flat, and Oliver, you're a great reviewer but I think you missed alot of depth to why it doesn't work.
Evidently the real problem was that audiences simply wanted a bunch of cheap, hackfraud 'member berries. Give the plebs that and they'll lap it up and ask for more.
@@Right_Said_BrettSo what if that’s the case? At least Romulus has an entertaining story even if it’s depending on nostalgia bait. The issues I had with Prometheus and Covenant wasn’t for its original concept surrounding the engineers. Its just that it had an interesting idea for a story but it was muddled by unlikable/stupid characters who were the central focus which made it both boring and a chore to get through. Because of that, I wasn’t invested or rooting rooting for anyone except ironically the villain of the film, David thanks to Michael Fassbender’s performance but he was was regulated to a side character rather than a main character.
Solid start, actually built the world a little in a way that felt plausible for the universe - wierdly I think someone might enjoy it more who's never seen the 1st films, and doesn't get every reference. As someone used to the franchise the accelerated 'life cycle' of everything was a bit off putting, but it only REALLY lost me at the final boss - SPOILER ALERT > it's a white guy!? XD (I joke of course!)
@@oranmccann2476 I just didn't like it, the entire end scene was almost a copy of Alien: Resurrection, but I think the Newborn was already done better and its death scene was way cooler too.
I liked the movie but I pretty much agree with Red Letter Media's quote "It is an AI fan movie". It really relies too much on nostalgia and callbacks and it is just stagnant and lacks innovation.
Really? It took a nose dive off a cliff about halfway through. Why is the complete alien life cycle only 15 minutes now? It should have been called ALIEN: Resurrection 2.
The xenomorph has ALWAYS grown up in record time. Go back to the very first Alien and it's a matter of hours between the little creature bursting out of Kane's chest (the crew was still trying to catch it with a net) and it being already the size of a large human. So the hybrid powered by the black goo becoming such a large creature in a matter of minutes is not really at odds with what we've seen in the series prior.
@ROMANTIKILLER2 it is explained right in the movie. "Z01contains the genome responsible for the Xenos ability to accelerate and slow down its metabolism at will" it can grow as fast as it wants to.
The magical space goo is the only possible explanation. Just the way it was introduced in the exposition dump by uncanny valley Ash was so cringe inducing it was hard to take any of it seriously. The movie was an excuse for characters to move from video game esque set piece to video game esque set piece. That's it.
Because universe integrity is f up beyond repair with deus ex devices from prometheus and other pieces of old Ridley shi. Not giving Alien to Blomkamp was a biggest mistake.
A wasted opportunity. Some good points but a lot of bad. I think whatever happened on the station beforehand was probably a more interesting storyline. The cgi of planets and ships was great but the creature and android scenes were awful. Characters not overly interesting and some idiotic decisions (taking a radio call whilst surrounded by face huggers!) for me it's the fourth best film. It did have some intense scenes as you would hope for a horror film but the final ending missed the mark and awful fan service. I didn't hate it like Covenant but it just seems like a missed opportunity
I think I had more joy watching Resurrection despite it obvious flaws. It had a singular identity and visual style, as for the first three. Romulus borrow from everywhere but doesn’t manage to have its own distinctive signature. Same with Evil dead, Alvarez is an excellent copycat …
His goddamn sister was in peril. This movie has recieved a lot valid criticism, but the characters are fine. They were completely rational by horror movie standards.
It's the 5th best film after all the Ripley ones. This reviewer gave this 4 out of 5 along with characters you care about??? Is he always like this or just smoking weed?
@@jazzdub4958 100% weed 🤣 I think we are so desperate for good content that we just have stockholm syndrom per se, we start loving mediocre content because we are experience a sea of trash on a daily basis. So anything visually stunning would get a 4 out of 5. Personally, it is a 2 out of 5. A miss opportunity if you ask me.
The ships were practical physical model shots by the way, which may have been mixed with CGI elements. In fact most of this movie was done practically with only certain scenes needing CGI, like the anti-gravity one with the floating acid blood and the CG deepfake for Rook, they didn't have enough money to do it properly.
I enjoyed the first half but then it became a mixed bag IMO, like it didn't know if it wanted to be, Alien, Aliens, Alien ³ and so on, I guess they wanted that but I thought it bogged it down then it went downhill in the last 20 minutes.
Nothing in the film makes sense. Nostromo wreckage was vaporized because of the factory holding mineral ore. Big chap alien doesn't produce face huggers. The Droid is a dead actor that looks like shit. The woman injecting herself with a substance she doesn't know makes 0 sense. The ending is Ridley Scott forcing the black goo to retcon the Queen for the third time. The good is the xenos and acting. The rest is all aesthetics made to be the force awakens of the Alien franchise
Why did the company comb the vastness of space for 20 years looking for something that could have been destroyed or drifted away? They could have just popped to LV-426 to get what they need.
@@Glocktologistto the fossilized space jockey that's been there thousands of years. The prequels and now this heap of garbage don't make sense and no matter how Ridley tries or how cool fede makes it look the black goo never makes logical sense. It's all just bells and whistles with the intent of keeping the casual alien fans distracted.
Some good points there. And, yes, the xenos looked great but they did almost nothing, they were very underused except for show and as cannon fodder. Scorched didn't get a single direct kill in the movie, actually I think only a single xeno got a kill, he even saved one of the cast 😂 acting was fine, casting was not. I did like Andy and Raine actually, but the rest were throwaway.
She was bleeding out. The only thing in her head was “this black substance will save my life”, since she overheard Andy and Rain discussing wether to inject her or not. Her action was reasonable.
3rd best in the franchise after the 1st 2 classic films. Now where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, the most recent Terminator which even if it really was the 3rd best, that didn't mean much.
At one point I was thinking "Dear God, we have ourselves an amazing new Xenomorph movie!" However, although it was a good movie with plenty to like, it dropped the ball in the back half of the runtime. It was very on the nose in regards to playing the franchise hits, which isn't inherently bad, but ultimately, at times, I was taken right out of what was a wonderful cinematic experience. Some subtlety would've gone a long way, especially in regards to the antagonist/s. First half of the movie 10/10. Second half 6/10.
Another opinion on the internet, Romulus was eye candy for scifi fans. Horror elements slowly trickling in as Andy changes. Then when Andy's objective changes, we get facehugger all over the ship and we have never seen them so aggressive on film. This is a great Alien film and would love to see Fede as a director in the Alien franchise continue.
agressive facehuggers? They were dumbed down and ineffective in Romulus! The scooby-gang avoided MULTILE facehugger attempts before they even knew hat they are and what they do. The facehuggers in the other movies were more succesful against EXPERIENCED or arnored victims.
That’s a good way to put it, Sci fi fans. I watch these movies because yes I love the Xenomorphs as a movie monster, but also the universe it inhabits and part of these movies charm is the sci fi aspects and setting. Then again, I fucking love the engineers and Prometheus too. Covenant was ehh..
Enjoyed the film, refreshingly well done vs. all the drab that has been released over recent years. First half of the film was the best, easily. The atmosphere was spot on, cinematography amazing. It really captured that 80s retro scifi feel, and it was very immersive. It made some mistakes that prevent it from being an outstanding film - the alien bursting out of the chest thing happened just way too quickly (they could have done this differently, to make it a suprise), the final 15 mins was just stupid (why!! and it looked CGI as hell), and there were too many fan-service nods to the original which prevents it from feeling like its own film (e.g. why the need for the quote 'get away from her you B' - thats something that character would never say).
If you remember earlier. Douche bag kid called him a bitch. So while I can understand you would think that. It may have been because of the earlier scene. My understanding is that the final creature while in the ship is not cgi.
@@alexzapf6422OK, point taken. However, they missed an oppourtunity to make it unique. There is also a bit of a character arc of Andy, transitioning into a more 'mature' android who can act on his own accord.
I really like the way this film sets up information critical for future sequences to work. The first 20 minutes are basically back to back Chekovs guns.
I agree with most of your points, it is more like an okay 3/5 for me, though. On a basic level, the movie didn't really nail the horror of the Xenomorph for me. The face huggers were cool with plenty of sexualized, gore-y fun, the creature design of the you-know-what was a total failure though. I reckon it would have been relatively easy to make that kind of creature idea disgusting and horrific to look at, instead it ended up a bit too ridiculous looking for my taste.
The RedLetterMedia review of this film is the only genuinely accurate review I've seen. The first 30 minutes are amazing but then the plot becomes utterly terrible. I'm really shocked you liked it so much, this was like watching Mark Kermode talking about how amazing the Twilight films are.
Great review as always Oliver. The 4th act is not my cup of tea as a lifetime Alien fan but I respect the risks taken and how it didnt ruin the movie like Resurrection did, imo, it's final act was just too silly for me to take it seriously.
It didn't ruin the movie like Resurrection did? It was basically a 1:1 copy of Resurrection's ending, only with an even worse/lame looking creature. I actually found the Newborn from Resurrection way more intimidating and creepy. This lanky Slenderman-Engineer with a big schnozzle looked laughably bad imo (it's a real guy by the way)
Dear OH, i very much enjoy your work (since at least 2-3 years) and it was a delight to get another great review from you, such a calm and gathered narrator. Personally i think there is a good window in the storyline to tell what has happened before the marines of Sulaco arrived to LV426.
Saw the movie with my girl yesterday and boy did we love it. A few throwbacks to alien, aliens and resurrection hahah damn even resurrection. Good story this new crew was on point. Hope to see the next installment in this new series
SPOILERS! It's for Alien franchise same way Force awakens was for Star Wars. Great visuals, practical effects, atmosphere, good acting but too much repeated from previous story to play it all safe. It takes the best ideas of the other movies and slightly fine tunes them into this new movie. But not much new stuff, except for the insight of slavery, use of zero gravity within the ship along with acid blood, the visuals of asteroids field grinding ship apart layer by layer and the handling of face huggers by manipulating temperature. All other stuff in script was re-runs of previous movies.
@@luxskywalker8094 Ridley is getting up there in age. I don't trust him anymore. He still has great sense of visuals but I really hate the way he killed of the hero of previous movie in such a emotionless horrific way offscreen just to show he's got the power to do whatever he feels like without giving a damn about what others think about repeating Alien 3's mistake. Latest Terminator did something similar with John Conor. A huge middle finger to fans from a director with mindset of a rebelious teen.
Wasn't expecting much but still pretty dissapointed. The last act was entirely unnecessary and the xenomorph life cycle so rushed it became laughable. The facehuggers that were shown to be incredibly strong in Aliens are thrown aside with one hand by teenagers and most of the characters are poorly written.
Facehuggers and the xenos were lame and useless in this movie...what was Fede thinking? did he forget the title of his own movie? They looked fantastic at least. Did you notice that only one xeno even had a kill? (I think), quickly outdone by the fact that Scorched actually saved Raine...😂
First half was brilliant. The rest I am still digesting after a 4th watch... Needed to be 15-30 mins longer in the middle section. And the Xenos needed to be something more than cannon fodder. Can easily tell where the studio came in with cuts. Still a wonderful film with some fine and some boulder sized eggs. Too many callbacks in my mind to the point of fan service but a justifiable job of connecting the ever expansive Alien universe.
It came out Friday, so you watched the Same Film four times in three days. Meaning you must have Watched it twice in one day. You must have a hell of a lot of free time.
All these main characters are almost kids. And not very smart and strong on the character side on top of that. Who's the target audience?! It seems to be competent on many fronts, but from the perspective of the long-time IP fan, it's still underwhelming, even when taking into consideration it's not a big numbered sequel, but a standalone entry point-(ish) project. I'm disappointed in the age rating and the characters, from the script perspective. Not saying it's Goonies in Space of the Xeno flavour, but it does give off 'hey kids' summer slasher movie vibes a lil bit, with a lot of familiar and overdone plot points. Remind me of the NT Star Wars movies in this regard. Running through dark corridors with a frail female lead at this point is not only overdone but almost a running gag. The universe is a big place. Why not focus on the company, androids, Xeno homeworld, mining planets, corporate warfare as a background? Anything. Xeno lifeforms running loose on a spaceship is a very safe and generic scheme.
@jjforcebreaker the target audience is a. People who love movies b. People who love Alien c. People who want to go see to a movie and get some thrills for 2 hours
Honestly I would love movies that explore that too, but then it's not really an Alien movie anymore is it? They would have to do a proper spinoff and maybe just use the Weyland-Yutani as a title. I think the upcoming Alien: Earth TV show will give you what you want though, with more emphasis on the company etc
Yes, I was thinking I've seen this movie many time before. A group of teenagers go to a place and stuff happens (start to die one by one). Granted it was done very well and visually stunning but it's shallow. The second half just felt like filler to me.
Once again the "gestation" is too quick, they manage to show us a cocoon to explain the growth of the classic xenomorph, but then the baby grows faster than me at an all you can eat buffet, and he doesn't eat !!!
Well yes and no. Few moments of those member berries sure tasted sour (two specific phrases and one CGI element on the table), but for most moments I thought of Quentin Tarantino, that does not shy away from taking something existing and making it his own. Movie needed more time with xenos and characters to flesh those out. Fede mentioned he spoke with Ridley on dynamics and trimmed some parts out. So I do hope for directors cut, as Alien, Aliens and Alien 3 I prefer extended cuts more.
@@swite989 Sour enough that I walked out early. This movie wasn't just recycling themes but outright emulating iconic shots from earlier entries. The deep fake Ian Holm looked atrocious and was a morally dubious inclusion imo. When it started parroting iconic lines I knew this wasn't art, just more witless Disney product.
@federalbureauofinvestigati3564 ooh wow, an Alien movie that has a couple references in a sea of new stuff for audiences to enjoy is "member berries", what an original observation.
I was pleasently surprised by this film. A lot of the call backs and references made me roll my eyes, and Deep Fake Ian Holmes explaining the entire plot in about 3 mins definitely took some points off for me BUT I loved everything else about it. The cinematography was gorgeous, the sound design and score were brilliant, it seems I enjoyed the score far more than most, as a synthesizer nerd it was great to hear those huge low end LFOs and filters in the theater. I thought the story was serviceable and I didn't mind the little bits of Prometheus/Covenant lore that made their way into the story. I'm glad to see this franchise return to Aliens on a spaceship. That's the way I prefer it.
The first act had me and I genuinely thought it might be third best in the franchise. During the second act, it dipped hard but I was hoping it would still double-back and end strong. By the end of the third act, I just wanted to go home.
@@stateazure Same. I thought that the first act was solid enough but it went rapidly downhill from there. In terms of the movie getting worse, the more I think about it; I initially walked away scoring the movie at 4/10, so I already didn't like it, but 24 hours later, I'd rate it as a 2/10 (and those 2 points are SOLELY for the set designs and the actor whom portrayed Andy).
@@Right_Said_Brett Wow, that's harsh, but I can understand it. It's kind of dropping for me too, initially a 6/10, I think it's a firm 5/10 now that I've let it sink in more. Unfortunately a TON of people absolutely love this movie, so I expect we'll get sequels of continued crap quality Alien movies for the next decade or so. It won't surprise me if we also get new AvP movies too, or maybe Aliens vs Spiderman? Can't wait..
I really wish Hollywood movies would either stop or become way more considerate when it comes to using CG Deepfakes. They can be okay in limited capacity but when used extensively (Ex. Dial of Destiny), they way more often not hit that uncanny valley. Even after all this time CG can barely hold up when an artificial face has to emote and mouth movements in particular tend to look overly robotic.
I found that less of an issue in this movie because Rook is a robot, and a badly damaged one at that. And the Ian Holm voice impersonater (not an AI) was excellent.
2/5. It was a huge disappointment, particularly the de-aged and completely unnecessary Ian Holms cameo, which very disrespectful. The overall plot was derivative and, although good looking, I wasn't scared, thrilled nor engaged with the narative or characters. Prometheus and Covenant were both more enjoyable.
Agreed, except for Covenant being better..I'm sorry but I just can't get over two synthetics fingering each other's flutes, and that awful chest burst scene with the little baby xenomorph cheering at David....some of the WORSE crap I've EVER seen in film.
Prometheus & Covenant were bloody awful. All they did was ruin the origins of the xenomorph & give us the most stupid crews in the entire franchise. I cheer every time that stupid woman blows up the lander & then stumbles out on fire in Covenant.
@@Zerofightervi I can't watch Covenant again...it's the only other movie after AvP: Requiem, that I just can't watch twice. Prometheus I can enjoy, as long as I tell myself that it has no connection to the Alien franchise.
I start by saying that I enjoyed the film overall, it's not perfect but it captures a good sense of suspense and is actually trying to give the watched a horror experience like the original. Rehashed ideas or not, they did the majority of it well. That Deepfake though, how that was kept in I've no idea, it looked ghastly. One part I do want to openly ask, do you not believe the characters did some logically questionable things? Going to list a few, so spoilers ahead. - Trying to depart on the only ship, dooming your friends/cousin to death to try and escape with someone who had a parasite on her face literally just described as "The perfect organism" His entire character seemed basement IQ to push plot conflict and drive plot. - Who the fuck takes a call during a sneaking section, or at least for the length of time that he did. "Keep comms clear or we die, we're coming to the hanger, hide..we will find you." - Why in the world would you inject yourself with a black substance that you have no idea what it would do, or neither increased or decreased her survival chance. This was just done in pure stupidity to add a Hybrid into the mix. Did I miss something that made her believe the black goo would save her? - The Acid in zero gravity, this is contrived but the complexities of liquid in a vacuum, the chances of the acid blood not getting flung all over the place is just improbable with a single Xeno, never mind the amount actually in the scene, flipping and jerking. It looked great and not really character issue I just wanted to include it, but I couldn't shake that one.
What ridley forgot when came to making alien movies was 3 things,the characters,pacing,and the atmosphere.those are the main 3 ingredients that goes into making a very integral film.but Fede understood it and married those 3 perfectly
What i like most in this movie was the Silent Irony of Ridley. When he is making Prometheus and Covenant, they obligated him to put an Alien in the Movie. Now as Executive he put his Engineer as a Final Boss Monster on Alien franchise movie haha
Amazing Alien movie, had everything I expected and wanted. The requirements from fans for a movie to be considered good have become insanely stupid and even toxic, asking for the most detailed explanation for the most small details. JUST ENJOY THE FUCKING FILM.
You need to raise your standards then. This film was boring, derivative, predictable, and 30 minutes too long thanks to an awful schlock horror final act.
Isabela Merced was cast as CJ Martin in the 2014 Nickelodeon TV show 100 Things to Do Before High School. She was "Isabela Moner" in her early work. She is going to play Hawkgirl in the next Superman movie.
@@jasongradyphstiger6179 I have not seen Transformers 5(2017). The movie critics hated it. There was a British Megan Fox clone in it. I guess Isabela and Squeaks were redeeming factors.
@@repletereplete8002my whole theater and people watching with me disagree with you! I think it shows it made you uncomfortable and at least wierded you out, that’s the point!..
It is divisive between fans. For me, it was a huge disappointment. The story is really a rehash of the first one with a younger cast targeting a younger audience. Fede has no new ideas, there's no horror or tension, there's no character development, you cannot root for these characters, because they were poorly written, and I didn't like the unnecessary references from the older entries. The music is subpar, it just does not holds up to Goldsmith, Horner or Goldenthal. The sets are beautifully done, and the space scenes look good. I think it's time to stop the franchise. If you want to see a REAL horror, watch a kinda Alien rip off abandoned spaceship horror, called Event Horizon. (they advertised it, that this movie goes back to its horror roots. I mean, where??) For me it was a 2 from 5.
I feel the same way. It made me appreciate Resurrection even more. The only thing i thought was new and cool was the zero gravity acid scene...and yet, it was only possible because of a deus ex machina pulse rifle that shoots for you. I thought they had some great potential with the Andy character, but then he had his 10th seizure and went back to his original programming. I guess the first encounter with yhe facehuggers was cool too. That's about it that was new for me. Even the acid death scene...could have been way wore exhilarating Alot of missed opportunities, drowned by unnecessary nostalgia
I think people will appreciate it more with time. Much like rogue one initially JUST like this, divided everyone and today, pretty damn good movie, although flawed like the SW prequels. I enjoyed Romulus and can’t really understand how somone could hate it, aside from thinking it’s mediocre i guess.
I really enjoyed this in theaters. There was actual tension and fright. The sound design was great, as were the set design and effects, except the cameo, were top notch. Not perfect, definitely a bit heavy on the nostalgia, but overall this is a solid entry into the franchise for me. Yes, they're teenagers, but overall, they are well written and react normally for their age. I dunno, I hate Covenant, but some people love it. Some films are just divisive.
I'll start with a funny story, So Friday I took the day off work (my sink needed repairing in my flat in Cromer and it would take all day) so I was like right I'm going out for the day, so I asked my brother if he wants to go into the city, so we took the bus and chose to go see Alien: Romulus at the half-past 12 showing at the Odeon, we had to wait for the screen to open in the foyer, and then I went to get closer to screen 2 doors and my brother said "You've just walked past Oliver Harper" and I was like what! he said Oliver Harper is over there, and I was like oh yeah! I wanted to say "hi, can't wait for the review" but you were with someone and I thought it would be rude to randomly approach you on your time out, thought it might be awkward, it was great to see you though. About the film, it's ok. David Jonsson is fantastic and steels the film, the production design is great but the script is weak (bare bones) it's about the half-way mark it starts to feel like the same old same old, it starts to have the same structure as Alien Resurrection with a dash of Covenant, like we go to a room complete that task, go to the next room complete that task and I started to get bored, and like the Terminator franchise you realise this has taken all the bad sequels and mash them together including Resurrections last act which was mixed then and felt like they just pumped out another one, so not the Alien and Aliens promised. But the worst thing about the movie is the actor they brought back, it was the WORST example of ghoulish, like the actor never even knew he was in the movie, and if he was he would probably make different creative choices, so stop that! no one likes it. By the way how many trailers did we get, at my local Movieplex it's always three or two trailers, but here it was like I don't know we had Captain America, Venom, Joker 2, Smile 2, The Substance, The Crow, The Monkey I guess 7 trailers maybe I'm missing one, but it felt like I paid for trailers forgot why I was there and got a bonus movie. 🤣
I give this movie 7 out of 10. Maybe i am being generous. The movie played it too safe. It wasnt gorey or gruesome as the other alien movies. It seemed to borrow ideas from all of the previous alien movies. But can you blame the studio? Alien fans hated prometheus and covenant because they tried something new. So all we got was a remake of alien and aliens - which seems to have made the general public happy. Also, you can tell this had a lower budget. Some shots and effects looked laughibly bad. I honestly rate alien, aliens and even prometheus higher. Maybe even alien 3 is better Im glad this has made money so we get more aliens movies, but it could have been way better
I loathe what Ridley done after Prometheus, instead of following new interesting path, he caved in and started to remake original alien, for 2nd time in a row now.
Romulus is a very solid film. Is it as good as Alien and Aliens? No, but it's a close 3rd place. I think the fanservice references all throughout the film were heavyhanded and I think the film's pacing and story beats copies the og film a little too much. Also, the side characters other than Rain and Andy were very forgettable. Bjorn's animosity towards androids could've been more fleshed out and he should've gone through more character development, it was very lazy writing just to say "Oh ya his loved ones died" and then kill him off a little bit later. What I will say is that the third act was great and I don't understand the division behind it. It was nowhere near as wild or crazy as people are making it seem, like you'd think the film turns into an arthouse A24 film but it really wasn't that crazy. Overall, a 7.5/10 film. Very tense, well directed, but could've easily been masterful.
I'm just not as in love with this movie as everybody else is. I didn't hate it or anything. I'm glad I went to go see it. But I just don't feel like it really did much of anything new, and at a certain point in the film it started to really bank on nostalgia, including forcing characters to awkwardly repeat famous lines from other films. This isn't Deadpool where everybody can be self-aware about it, it just felt really cringy in this one. But I certainly don't think it's bad, it just kind of floats around somewhere in the middle of the franchise for me for where I would rank in amongst my favorites. If you include AVP there's nine aliens films at this point, Romulus sits in those middle three for me along with Prometheus and Resurrection. Can't quite figure out exactly which of them I like better. But it's not bottom three and it's not top three It's fine. I'll watch it again at some point. I just wouldn't probably give this movie more than like a seven if I was scoring it
It’s so interesting to me that Fede wanted it to be such a “self contained story” yet the very reasoning for such plot contrivances rely so heavily on knowledge based from previous instalments. I had to tell a few colleagues that the black goo reacts to A because of B and doesn’t do C because of D and so forth. It was just interesting seeing someone like me (obsessed with the Alien lore) reacting to someone who (is a more normal human being and not obsessed with a weird sexual fetish metaphor) isn’t as in tuned with the lore and mythology of the Xenos and Engineers.
Ridley Scott had a big hand in this film and produced it, I had massive issues with this film, after 30mins the fedde film disappeared and it becomes a Ridley Prometheus tied in movie, I can't recommend it, fine for streaming but there's too many issues and starts to feel made by committee.
And the black goo they labelled in this as Prometheus 5, so it's probably not the same level as the pure form that the engineers had, so the effects are unknown, and how it distills hence the chimera at the end, but that's just me speculating
Ridley retains some creative input into the Alien franchise since 2012 so although Cameron, Fincher and Pierre-Jeunet didn't have to answer to him, Blomkamp and Alvarez did and Ridley insisted on ensuring there was an acknowledgement of his Prometheus films in Romulus so Alvarez didn't have a choice if he wanted to make an Alien film.
Went to this theater with other people who are only vaguely familiar with alien 1 and they understood it without a problem. They seemed surprised when I told them how many elements came from other movies.
with the possibility of being contentious in place, i thoroughly loved the movie, was fantastic to finally see another decent Alien movie in the cinema. Andy did, as others have already said, steal the show, but i pretty much loved all of the performances, they were gritty and relatable. i loved the focus on the threat of the face-huggers, it was awesome to see them moving in concert a couple of times, gives you a good idea as to how Hadley's Hope fell in Aliens, and gave them a great sense of menace. i would not place this as the 3rd best of the main sequence of movies, but that is only because i have thoroughly enjoyed all of the main sequence films, this would be equal 3rd with Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, AVP was ok, AVP 2 not so much so, and Covenant / Prometheus, both OK but am in no hurry to watch them again.
I can't help but feel the directors hands were tied , Mr Alverez is normally an amazing director , and what was that nonsense at the end ?? I can't say i'm not disappointed, I was really looking forward to seeing this movie .
I couldn't believe how well done this was. One could argue some of the secondary conflicts were introduced for the sake of conflict; especially when it comes to the ex-boyfriend's cousin. I believe that was likely one of the few nitpicks I had. That said, the movie feels and looks extremely well shot, not using quick edits to mask poorly performed action scenes, and does a fine job crescendo-ing to a final scene that felt strangely familiar yet different. This probably the best movie since Alien to dive deep enough into character development that you care, but not soo deep that you end up 90 minutes into the movie before something besides drama occurs. I also had to give a small face palm to the Andy character as well. Perhaps I'm just so used to Fassbender and Henriksen... but Andy felt like a guy trying to act like a machine while Fassbender and Henniksen felt "real" and "synthetic" at the same time. I do hope they continue on with Alverez at the helm. For someone to take the entire mess that was the first 6 movies, run a narrative thread through them, and bring things back to where they're supposed to be, he deserves to carry this forward. Despite it not being scary, the second and third act feel so much like Aliens (without Marines) you really do start getting to edge of your seat.
Since when were the Alien movies about comfort? You guys bitched for decades when all the new movies deviated even slightly from what you loved when you were kids (the first two) and the result is a safe, sanitized, corporate film that's more about the IP itself than any unique themes. This is the same trajectory that killed Star Wars, among other franchises.
People are justifiably complaining about the CGI posthumous character, but I thought they did a good job with a lot of that by translating it through the monitors instead of having the character directly on camera. They could have done more to eliminate the direct lighting and the focus to tone that down when in those scenes on camera. Or just damage it more a few seconds after appearing with some acid mishap. That would have been just fine. They really need to stop trusting CGI to make perfect faces.
This movie was okay. I think people are overrating it right now like they usually do if they have a decent day out at the cinema and the movie isn't terrible. It's not something you could watch multiple times at home. And the black goo shit just completely ruins it for the people who were hoping to get away from that garbage. Also...why the HELL do people keep quoting lines from conversations they couldn't possibly know about? Stop doing that! It's not nostalgic! It completely kills any immersion! The fact that this seems like a pretty good entry in the series, just shows how far standards have fallen. Yeah, it's the best since Aliens, but that's not hard.
Im all for the black goo. These films are moving past just the Xenomorphs and it’s a good thing. Their was always more to the alien franchise than them. The Space jockey/engineer from the first alien opened that can of worms, and the black goo makes alien universe horror have unlimited potential. Prometheus was damn good and bitter fans that want a slasher in space need to realize it was never even about that too. I agree on the one liners tho, aside from that, fucking great ending too. The human hybrid stuff IS awesome and creepy.
I can only really describe Romulus as frustrating. On one hand it has some excellent set pieces, world building, brings new ideas to the table and explores the creature in a somewhat new way, and visually it’s pretty decent except for one particular part involving a certain android. The characters were serviceable too I thought, some more so than others. On the other hand it’s annoyingly filled with unnecessary callbacks to previous films rather than choosing to go its own way, and that ending completely took me out of the whole experience and was literally there to service Ridley Scott’s ego. Personally speaking, the alien franchise will only survive if we just do away with the over indulgent mythology that Scott tried in desperate vain to install. We need to get back to basics. This film had the chance to do that and it just couldn’t help itself. It’s still worth a watch if you’re a fan of the franchise, but this movie could have been better.
I loved the movie. The practical effects were fantastic, and the cast was marvelous. The fan services are good, and it is probably my favorite movie of year so far.
I only cared about the android, Andy. The movie was creative in many ways. It lacked the weight of Alien but that’s not surprising. It’s not as bad as people are making it seem. Also not surprising.
Dear Oliver, I can’t believe you think these characters are ‘well written’. They get killed off one by one, but I had ZERO emotional reaction to any of those deaths. I think the characters were the weakest aspect of the film. They are flat AF.
@@leejones8582 Even Rain and Andy I wasn’t really feeling. When she went back to save him I felt that the dramatic music score was almost trying to force me to get some kind of emotional reaction, when I really wasn’t!! And that says a lot, cuz I’m the type that can really cry during a film.
I absolutly loved it. Only thing that bugged me was Deepfake/CGI Ian Holm Face. some shots it looked okay-ish other times not so much. It only sticks out so much because he is in quite a bit of the film otherwise if it were a smaller role i wouldn't have cared as much. just looked distracting when everything else looks so top notch and fantastic. maybe if they obscured his face in shadow more.
You Ain't Lying. How many times have you seen a sequel that tried to juggle lore and storybeats from 5 other films in its franchise? Sadly, one of those movies is Alien Resurrection (referring to the ending of Romulus). With so many other films it was balancing, it's own voice and identity got suffocated
Felt too fan servicy and like a video game for my liking. Instead of doing anything really new on its own (Apart from casting the characters as young 20 somethings to cater to a younger audience) it cherry picks different pieces from the franchise. Say what people will about Prometheous, Covenant and even resurection, those films at least tried to be a bit different from the rest of the series, or tried to do some new things. But this was a paint by numbers book, that felt like a bigger budget TH-cam fan film. It was ok, but it wasn't great.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 88 | คู่เอก "ป้อมเพชร vs อัสลามจอน"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1ZqTVVbMgbo/mqdefault.jpg)
"You get invested in their journey and don't want them to die."
I wanted all but two characters in this film to die horribly.
The production design was top notch. I enjoyed the heist set-up and Andy was a great character. I didn't like the Deepfake CGI and felt there were too many lines and scenes lifted from the other films. Less fan service would have been preferred.
Spot on, had potential but all those spliced in call backs is where it felt it was being formed by committee rather than just alveres vision
Pretty much my thoughts. Really enjoyed the movie overall, but that CGI character was awful, and volume of throwback quotes uncalled for.
Re: the core movie, I'd rather they completely ignored Prometheus - not a fan of the black goo and "offspring". Also, where did they get all the face huggers, recognising that the whole premise of Alien 3 was Ripley having the only known specimen left. They found the Alien corpse from the first movie, and apparently that generated an army of face huggers?
All that said, I liked the characters, great practical effects, the general setup was cool, I liked some of the new lore (how face huggers see, the cocoon the full size Alien emerged from), and the set pieces with gravity, and sneaking through the lab were fun. A worthy entry.
For me though, nothing tops the original trilogy (and yes, I include the flawed Alien 3, which I've appreciated more over the years, particularly in production cut form).
Well said.
I need to see it again, but I rank it #4 or #5 in the series(I am a Prometheus defender) lol. I think the practical Xenomorph has never looked better.
The whole "story" was just a bunch of fan service. Awful. Did absolutely nothing to further the franchise and the characters were forgettable.
I was ok with the fan service until the get away from her you bitch. That was just too much and completely broke my immersion.
It wouldve made more sense if WeYu realised the station had fallen, and incentivised/bribed/blackmailed a crew to dock, investigate and recover the valuable data.
Now that makes more sense but then again they would not send some grunts to retrieve their highly classified experiments.
@@alexsilva28 the twist being one of the grunts is a Company man, highly trained. Andy is destroyed protecting his "sister." The Aliens develop differently due to the sun's atypical radiation. Lots of new elements to play with. Instead of rehashing old tropes.
People seem to forget that the WeYu corporation is extremely corrupt, as you saw in the beginning of the movie they literally just added more required working hours to continue working in the mines... Presumably for the rest of her life because they are just that evil.
They are fully aware of what these creatures are at this point, but clearly whoever is in charge wants to keep it hush hush from the rest of the company so that's why it was abandoned the way it is.
@@JimElford i thought it was a trap, set by weyland to lure people to the station. prey for the facehuggers. but nope.
What gets me is that Weyland sent a ship after what prometheus discovered hence why they have the goo on this station so why hasn't WeYu ( Star Trek Deep Space Nine Flashbacks there lol ) sent to recover his precious samples and the Alien big chap if he is obsessed with this creature? it's a mystery he has all this alien material Weyu are obsessed with but no rescue mission and yet prometheus discovered a lot less and yet a ship was sent.
The first 45 minutes were fantastic, great set design but the CGI deepfake really soured the film. Kudos to David Jonsson for Andy's portrayal, he was fantastic
They could probably redo Ian Holm for the home release. In fact I would have prefer a modern animatronic version which would have made it more eery.
The first 45 minutes dragged. It didn’t get good until the midway point.
I agree the first half was very intense but then it went too hollywood
The ridiculously bad CGI Ian Holm just broke the film for me. I loved it up to that scene. I was praying for him to get off the screen ASAP - but he just kept coming back for brainless exposition dumps.
Andy stole the show!! best character by far
worst android ever........good for kids and you.......
Every android in the Alien franchise steals the show if you think about it.
It is the 3rd film in a row with the best character being an Android.
They need Ripley back.
@@kingayrton8327probably more human than you
@@kingayrton8327that’s what made it great. He’s broken and sad about it, he gives off shame for something he can’t control. When actually rain cared about him the way he was.
Oliver's presentation style make it sound as though it's a show from the 90s. It's a nice contrast to watch a review of a new Alien movie given the series originated in the late 1970s
It's a naff paid up review obviously. How can anyone like this cast of characters and their retarded actions?
The reviews are all over the place with this movie. Some people accuse it of being a nostalgia play for the clapping seals. Others criticise the ending. Some say that the characters are so unlikeable that you want the Alien to kill them all off, others say that the movie does nothing new and is like a coverband.
It's all of those
Don’t listen to all of those review. Watch it for yourself and make your own judgement. I thought this was a really good movie.
@@manunited1235 I’ll see it on streaming.
@walter_the_wobot2349 I feel the film is at its best on the big screen. At home, it'll just be an adequate 3/5 B-monster flick.
I was waiting forever for the Alien to kill them. Wasn't everyone?
1rst hour was great then it lost me when it became Alien Fan Service land despite some cool scenes.
For me, the first hour crutched way too much on jump scares. The call backs didn't bother me, nor did they excite me. But I certainly preferred the second half of the movie.
@klompb
The movie built up the jump scares did we even watch the same movie
The moment gravity kicks in and she starts falling down the elevator shaft is where the film came off the rails for me. After that they had several almost cool moments that they went too far with.
@@smugfortuneV2 built up? Meh, I don't agree. But then again, I really detest more than one or two well built up jump scares. I just think they are cheap.
@@Warrior_warlock The scares worked great because they weren't fake.
hot take, Romulus isnt bad. i enjoyed it.
fourth best in the ip, after the original trilogy.
excellent atmosphere & environments. creepy and disturbing at times. the ending went off the rails a bit, sure. but it did alot of things right. its better than the slop we've been getting.
SPOT ON...
If they got the ending better it would of been third best...but that black goo,engineer alien hyprid thing took down the movie a bit bcuz up til then was excellent ..
So I agree it's just behind alien 3 on the list
I literally just realized that Romulus is just a Scooby Doo episode. You've got a gang of kids going into a spooky location, along with their talking pet.
And then you basically have the classic running through corridors gag.
I can’t recall a talking animal in the film
Lol
Andy: 💀
I couldn’t get past the fact that this space station is just sitting there and the company lets a group of teenagers find it before they do 🤣🤷♂️
i'd just like to add into the fact that surely if these kids have heard it then everybody with a ship should have and therefore everyone should be tearing it apart to get off world
@@ZXSPEX but doesn't the bust up droid say its been like a while, I'm certain he says "170+days since incident" if that's the case then assuming that a distress signal was sent the company now about it well before and even if a distress signal wasn't sent then surely the company wouldn't be receiving reports and would be like "You know that research station that's basically got a thing that can help the colonies we've got and are burning through at a rapid rate...yeah its gone dark and no one is picking the phone up"
Rook ruined it for me. He looked like a Funko Pop version of a classic character and couldn't say "perfect organism" enough. Yes we know!!
@ZXSPEX but by this logic it also means a group of teens beat all the weyland yutani staff to the punch and that the space station wouldnt show up on radar or that the planet itself has no radar system in place. That is one step past suspension of disbelief than i am willing to go.
It would have been easy to write around but someone had to write in the downtrodden planet aspect to really hit the story home (which for me it failed at especially with the subtlety of a hammer to the face symbolism of the canary in the cage).
be original
Disney-fied, in the sense that it is a film filled with call backs that play on our nostalgia rather than serve the story or explore anything new. Movie looks great, and setup with the mining planet great, but ultimately it just becomes a weird checking off of reference scenes (get off her you b*tch, underwear scene, finding the nest scene, human hybrid scene, airlock scene).
While Prometheus and covenant are messy af, with bad scrips, at least they tried something new.
I think as times goes on, more and more people are going to realise just how empty of ideas this movie really is. I must admit, I enjoyed myself (except the awful ending), but it only took 1-2 hours after leaving the cinema where it started to sink in, and I was pulling apart this movie in my head. It's barely a 6/10 for me.
It’s “Get away from her, you bitch”,
not get off her 😂
@@stateazure Yeah, kinda same feeling about it. It looks really nice so it's hard to fault it, but it's shallow, nothing of substance. Kinda you basic teen movie where they go into a place they shouldn't and stuff happens.
@@patricorno I agree. It seemed like an amalgam of previous films, and the characters had almost no depth or charisma. The cameo was extra cringe worthy, and the final xenomorph was much more comical than frightening. The premise had promise that never came close to a payoff, imo.
It had a ton of callbacks, but done the right way. They werent cheap copy-paste scenes. It was very creatively done, and even expanded some lore
The Predator franchise gave us Prey, the Alien one, Romulus, Terminator, the world's looking at you now.
I am so hoping that Netflix series turns out decent. 🤞
Prey suck tho
@@corymiller536 Yeah Prey was abysmal.
@@videogamesandfilm6821it was better than the one before it
“Did IQs drop sharply while I was away?”
Anyway, after Alien Romulus, can’t wait for Alien: Biggus Dickus.
or Alien Prolapse, where the alien spends the entire film trying to put his guts back in because of how hard the franchise has been raped.
i feel like you are my spiritual movie nostalgia brother. movies like alien romulus havent officially arrived until oliver has weighed in
I had no idea what to expect going in, but I really dug this film. Feels like a type of movie that we just haven't seen in a long ass time. Almost feels like a film that was made in the 90s. Despite some issues, overall the film delivered for me. The attention to world building, practical FX, and empathetic characters, it all went a long way in making me dig this entry as much as I did.
The first 40 minutes were wonderful, then it got a bit lost for the rest.
For people who’ve never seen the original films, this film is pretty great. For the rest of us, it gets very call back-y.
I enjoyed it, but I understand people who think it's crap.
I have a positive bias to see things I like in aliens and predator movies. Also: I usually expect garbage, so my standards have dropped to qualify something as "good."
Callbacks were horrible, disrespectful.
Agreed on all fronts
How else was this movie supposed to correlate to the original it made sense
@OdinAesthetic they are not disrespectful. Literally the only people who have say if Ian Holm's likeness can be used is his family, and they ok'd it.
I don't think the callbacks were disrespectful, most were needlessly stupid and so out of place. That said this movie is a literal rehash of scenes from all the films. It's first half is solid, then it tanks with some decent scenes in between. It's nowhere near the 3rd best Alien film IMO. I'd put Prometheus and Covenant above this, at least they tried to do something different.
@@muccmaster so CGI xenomorphs>practical old school, simply because it's trying something "new"?
I thought Romulus was decent, very well produced and it got all the important bits right. Fede and company were keen to please the fans.
But it did need more fresh ideas (the zero-gravity sequence was pretty cool) as it does go over many familiar beats across the franchise. I wasn't fully invested in the characters either despite a reasonable script.
The film may also be compared to Prey which I feel did a much better job of reinvigorating its series.
Agree that 'Prey' was a better sequel as it managed to do its own thing without compromising on the excitement and tension of having a Predator in the woods scenario again, it was just different enough that it carved an identity of its own. Zero callbacks to the other films (except for a lowkey one with the "if it bleeds we can kill it" without winking at the audience).
@@thetalentof Definitely, the callbacks in Prey didn't cross the lines and become too referential.
Other ideas like the Predator working his way up the food chain and the French trappers I thought were very inspired.
The zero acid gravity sequence was great the characters were bland apart from Rain and Andy and the callbacks were groanworthy if Andy just said get away from her that would have been cool stop it there but no we got the full line.
@@robcain8865 Yet to see Prey but that wounds amazing and genius!
@@leejones8582 Yeah, only Ripley is allowed to say that
I expected this would be a typical Alvarez take on an Alien film, and so I expected it to be only good/mediocre, but probably fun. with forgettable characters..we got that, mostly.. but it unfortunately got way worse than that due to Ridley's interference/forced Prometheus garbage. Be warned: if you disliked Alien: Resurrection end scene as much as most people, you're going to hate this. The trailer was much, much better, and you get the sense you're going to see some awesome xenomorph action and kills etc...well, no, you get Aliens style weak/bug xenomorphs, with only one kill iirc...even Scorched, the main xenomorph doesn't get a direct kill, and even saves one of the characters (lol). 6/10 for me from a huge Alien fan, and I'm being generous..I expect as time goes on I'll rate it much lower. Alien 3 is a better movie.
I liked the grossness and mystery of alien resurrection myself. The human hybrid idea is cool imo. I guess I’m with the fan base that doesn’t just see these just for xenomorphs but because of cool science fiction.
I love the cast, especially Andy and Rain so good!
I liked it overall, but it would have been a lot better if it didn't devolve into memberberry fan service in the third act.
Luckily, the final act was fantastically gross and weird, so it won me back.
It was however extremely well made on a technical level.
@@1MrBryn wasn't that basically a combination of Shaw's 'baby' and the newborn? Nothing new or surprising there. They even did something similar in Requiem.
@@LEEDM101 but it was done extremely well.
The other stuff was clunky and forced. It it was done better, it wouldn't have bothered me.
Visually the movie is great. The set-up (a scoob-doo gang raids an abandoned place) is the same as "Don´t breathe". The ending is the same as Covenant ansd Resurrection. Facehuggers are dumbed-down and ineffective. Movie is like "The Force Awakens" with an overload of "Memberberries", plot-conveniences and stuff to nitpick. Overall just "a mixed bag".
A much more accurate and honest review
“Third best Alien film” means nothing.. It’s like saying “This is my third best nipple.”
I liked it, while it has call backs to old movies and tons of references (which felt a bit too much some point), this was a solid scifi horror, non-stop ride from start to finish, and was REALLY scary too.
My major gripe was the overuse of exact quotes from previous films,one maybe but i felt there were too many.
@@danclifford1027 too many? Name them.
@@anthonymartensen3164 I'm going to watch it again at some point so I'll make a note but off the top of my head I remember "I prefer the term artificial person myself" "you have my sympathies" "get away from her you bitch".
You could argue the android...sorry artificial person lines could be programmed in.
The get way one though was against a regular xeno so the bitch bit was a bit far fetched.
Anyway it's only me being super picky as Aliens is my favourite film of all time.
@danclifford1027 I respect your opinion. Personally I feel like every sequel to something widely beloved is always going to have references or a way of being "bigger" than what came before, but I didn't find the use of throwback lines to be particularly egregious or hit you over the head in this one.
@@danclifford1027 And now canonically a robot says that line before Ripley does which makes no sense.
'Get away from her' - said with gravitas, by the standout actor of the film, after a great action scene, with all the weight of their characters' strained relationship behind it
Then
'You b-b-b-b-itch'
The Marvel-film style punchline to rob the scene of everything that made it good -_-
I walked out disappointed, the set up is great, dirty, Grundy, small and detailed, indie view lens of the alien world with wetland yutani at the helm of ruining people's lives. Then when it gets going it all goes all over the place, it's like they asked a.i to pull parts from all the films and grind it in to one film and then run with it.
Damn, it was such a shame, fedde had a great approach and ideas explored and added are brilliant but when the film tails off into a typical aliens film is when it feels like made by committee, which is not what you feel at the first 20/30 mins which is a great set up.
It's like having Sam Rami for doctor strange and rather than let him run with it you strangle the film with committee control.
No it's not the third best, controversy aside alien3 is cohesively a better film, a consistent tone and a incredible talented cast.
The lead actress is incredibly over rated, she doesn't push anything that makes you feel she has any control.
The android Andy is portrayed brilliantly and the actor is the stand out of this film easily, watch for how he tows the line between friend and corporate representative.
Can I recommend this film in cinema.... It's a tough call, you'll go in and your blown away for that start....and then you're wondering how many calls backs you're in for because it gets boring quick.
Unless you're hardcore for alien I can't recommend for cinema and wait for streaming.
So close..... They had all the right ideas but the film falls flat, and Oliver, you're a great reviewer but I think you missed alot of depth to why it doesn't work.
I loved the opening and Jonsson's performance. Everything after felt like a video game demo.
But he clearly thought the film worked. So he didn't miss any "depth", he just has a different opinion than you...
Weyland, not Wetland. Fede, not Fedde. Raimi, not Rami.
Alien 3 and Prometheus are significantly better
thank you
And Ridley Scott blamed the lack of success for Alien Covenant due to “franchise fatigue”.😂
Evidently the real problem was that audiences simply wanted a bunch of cheap, hackfraud 'member berries. Give the plebs that and they'll lap it up and ask for more.
@@Right_Said_BrettSo what if that’s the case? At least Romulus has an entertaining story even if it’s depending on nostalgia bait.
The issues I had with Prometheus and Covenant wasn’t for its original concept surrounding the engineers. Its just that it had an interesting idea for a story but it was muddled by unlikable/stupid characters who were the central focus which made it both boring and a chore to get through.
Because of that, I wasn’t invested or rooting rooting for anyone except ironically the villain of the film, David thanks to Michael Fassbender’s performance but he was was regulated to a side character rather than a main character.
@@Jackal_El_Lobo34 I never said that Prometheus was a good movie. It's not at all. Neither is Alien Romulus.
Damn
@@Right_Said_Brett Except it was good
Solid start, actually built the world a little in a way that felt plausible for the universe - wierdly I think someone might enjoy it more who's never seen the 1st films, and doesn't get every reference. As someone used to the franchise the accelerated 'life cycle' of everything was a bit off putting, but it only REALLY lost me at the final boss - SPOILER ALERT > it's a white guy!? XD (I joke of course!)
I liked the ending. It expands on the other movies.
How??! How does it expand??
@@BlackWolf6420 who knows ahahah
I will admit that i nearly jumped out of my seat for that bit at the end
Me too
I nearly left my seat at that point, and I mean voluntarily
@stateazure Why?
@@oranmccann2476 I just didn't like it, the entire end scene was almost a copy of Alien: Resurrection, but I think the Newborn was already done better and its death scene was way cooler too.
@@stateazure yeah right, you paid and stayed
This was fun, definitely captured the Alien feel, some cool interesting set pieces, and I loved all the practical effects
Better than it deserved to be, but no where near as good as we deserve!
What killed it for me were the callbacks and THAT “cameo”
Andy was the standout performance for me. He was fantastic.
Can't wait for the Covenant retrospective 😀
I'll save you time: its utter pretentious badly written shite. Time in your life you wont get back
@@serenityinside1 ill take that over this greatest hits collection..that had to hype itself
It was really good. I liked it. Andy was the best character in the whole movie.
I liked the movie but I pretty much agree with Red Letter Media's quote "It is an AI fan movie". It really relies too much on nostalgia and callbacks and it is just stagnant and lacks innovation.
a 7 out of 10.....it has its flaws but is is the best Alien Movie since Alien 3..
Really? It took a nose dive off a cliff about halfway through. Why is the complete alien life cycle only 15 minutes now? It should have been called ALIEN: Resurrection 2.
Could be because of there version of the black goo made it quicker ? 🤷♂️😂 i was wondering that too .
The xenomorph has ALWAYS grown up in record time. Go back to the very first Alien and it's a matter of hours between the little creature bursting out of Kane's chest (the crew was still trying to catch it with a net) and it being already the size of a large human.
So the hybrid powered by the black goo becoming such a large creature in a matter of minutes is not really at odds with what we've seen in the series prior.
@ROMANTIKILLER2 it is explained right in the movie. "Z01contains the genome responsible for the Xenos ability to accelerate and slow down its metabolism at will" it can grow as fast as it wants to.
The magical space goo is the only possible explanation. Just the way it was introduced in the exposition dump by uncanny valley Ash was so cringe inducing it was hard to take any of it seriously.
The movie was an excuse for characters to move from video game esque set piece to video game esque set piece. That's it.
Because universe integrity is f up beyond repair with deus ex devices from prometheus and other pieces of old Ridley shi. Not giving Alien to Blomkamp was a biggest mistake.
A wasted opportunity. Some good points but a lot of bad. I think whatever happened on the station beforehand was probably a more interesting storyline. The cgi of planets and ships was great but the creature and android scenes were awful. Characters not overly interesting and some idiotic decisions (taking a radio call whilst surrounded by face huggers!) for me it's the fourth best film. It did have some intense scenes as you would hope for a horror film but the final ending missed the mark and awful fan service. I didn't hate it like Covenant but it just seems like a missed opportunity
I think I had more joy watching Resurrection despite it obvious flaws. It had a singular identity and visual style, as for the first three. Romulus borrow from everywhere but doesn’t manage to have its own distinctive signature. Same with Evil dead, Alvarez is an excellent copycat …
His goddamn sister was in peril. This movie has recieved a lot valid criticism, but the characters are fine. They were completely rational by horror movie standards.
It's the 5th best film after all the Ripley ones. This reviewer gave this 4 out of 5 along with characters you care about??? Is he always like this or just smoking weed?
@@jazzdub4958 100% weed 🤣 I think we are so desperate for good content that we just have stockholm syndrom per se, we start loving mediocre content because we are experience a sea of trash on a daily basis. So anything visually stunning would get a 4 out of 5. Personally, it is a 2 out of 5. A miss opportunity if you ask me.
The ships were practical physical model shots by the way, which may have been mixed with CGI elements. In fact most of this movie was done practically with only certain scenes needing CGI, like the anti-gravity one with the floating acid blood and the CG deepfake for Rook, they didn't have enough money to do it properly.
I enjoyed the first half but then it became a mixed bag IMO, like it didn't know if it wanted to be, Alien, Aliens, Alien ³ and so on, I guess they wanted that but I thought it bogged it down then it went downhill in the last 20 minutes.
Mixed bag does describe most of the films in the franchise tbh.
@@qfnoyvoy6353 yeah. Except this one. This is easily the most fun and cool looking Alien sequel.
Nothing in the film makes sense.
Nostromo wreckage was vaporized because of the factory holding mineral ore.
Big chap alien doesn't produce face huggers.
The Droid is a dead actor that looks like shit.
The woman injecting herself with a substance she doesn't know makes 0 sense.
The ending is Ridley Scott forcing the black goo to retcon the Queen for the third time.
The good is the xenos and acting. The rest is all aesthetics made to be the force awakens of the Alien franchise
Why did the company comb the vastness of space for 20 years looking for something that could have been destroyed or drifted away?
They could have just popped to LV-426 to get what they need.
@@Glocktologistto the fossilized space jockey that's been there thousands of years.
The prequels and now this heap of garbage don't make sense and no matter how Ridley tries or how cool fede makes it look the black goo never makes logical sense. It's all just bells and whistles with the intent of keeping the casual alien fans distracted.
Some good points there. And, yes, the xenos looked great but they did almost nothing, they were very underused except for show and as cannon fodder. Scorched didn't get a single direct kill in the movie, actually I think only a single xeno got a kill, he even saved one of the cast 😂 acting was fine, casting was not. I did like Andy and Raine actually, but the rest were throwaway.
She was bleeding out. The only thing in her head was “this black substance will save my life”, since she overheard Andy and Rain discussing wether to inject her or not. Her action was reasonable.
Very accurate, sadly.
3rd best in the franchise after the 1st 2 classic films. Now where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, the most recent Terminator which even if it really was the 3rd best, that didn't mean much.
No way 3rd best, it comes in 5th best at best. Guy reviewing it comes across as a classic shill for crap products.
@@jazzdub4958 I'd say 4th best after Alien 3. It beats Resurrection.
At one point I was thinking "Dear God, we have ourselves an amazing new Xenomorph movie!"
However, although it was a good movie with plenty to like, it dropped the ball in the back half of the runtime. It was very on the nose in regards to playing the franchise hits, which isn't inherently bad, but ultimately, at times, I was taken right out of what was a wonderful cinematic experience.
Some subtlety would've gone a long way, especially in regards to the antagonist/s. First half of the movie 10/10. Second half 6/10.
Another opinion on the internet, Romulus was eye candy for scifi fans. Horror elements slowly trickling in as Andy changes. Then when Andy's objective changes, we get facehugger all over the ship and we have never seen them so aggressive on film. This is a great Alien film and would love to see Fede as a director in the Alien franchise continue.
agressive facehuggers? They were dumbed down and ineffective in Romulus! The scooby-gang avoided MULTILE facehugger attempts before they even knew hat they are and what they do. The facehuggers in the other movies were more succesful against EXPERIENCED or arnored victims.
Another opinion on the internet
That’s a good way to put it, Sci fi fans. I watch these movies because yes I love the Xenomorphs as a movie monster, but also the universe it inhabits and part of these movies charm is the sci fi aspects and setting. Then again, I fucking love the engineers and Prometheus too. Covenant was ehh..
OLIVER ON THE SPOT!
Long time fan! Love the quick turn around with these reviews; wish there were more movies so we could get more content!
Enjoyed the film, refreshingly well done vs. all the drab that has been released over recent years. First half of the film was the best, easily. The atmosphere was spot on, cinematography amazing. It really captured that 80s retro scifi feel, and it was very immersive. It made some mistakes that prevent it from being an outstanding film - the alien bursting out of the chest thing happened just way too quickly (they could have done this differently, to make it a suprise), the final 15 mins was just stupid (why!! and it looked CGI as hell), and there were too many fan-service nods to the original which prevents it from feeling like its own film (e.g. why the need for the quote 'get away from her you B' - thats something that character would never say).
If you remember earlier. Douche bag kid called him a bitch. So while I can understand you would think that. It may have been because of the earlier scene. My understanding is that the final creature while in the ship is not cgi.
@@alexzapf6422OK, point taken. However, they missed an oppourtunity to make it unique. There is also a bit of a character arc of Andy, transitioning into a more 'mature' android who can act on his own accord.
I really like the way this film sets up information critical for future sequences to work. The first 20 minutes are basically back to back Chekovs guns.
It makes the space station feel like an actual location with it's own internal logic too, so good.
I agree with most of your points, it is more like an okay 3/5 for me, though. On a basic level, the movie didn't really nail the horror of the Xenomorph for me. The face huggers were cool with plenty of sexualized, gore-y fun, the creature design of the you-know-what was a total failure though. I reckon it would have been relatively easy to make that kind of creature idea disgusting and horrific to look at, instead it ended up a bit too ridiculous looking for my taste.
That final creature is a real person by the way, he's 7ft 7 tall, obviously with makeup to make him look like an engineer.
@@stateazure Oh wow I did not know that. Fascinating! He seems like a sweet kid, and maybe that added to my not being particularly scared :D
The RedLetterMedia review of this film is the only genuinely accurate review I've seen. The first 30 minutes are amazing but then the plot becomes utterly terrible.
I'm really shocked you liked it so much, this was like watching Mark Kermode talking about how amazing the Twilight films are.
Great review as always Oliver. The 4th act is not my cup of tea as a lifetime Alien fan but I respect the risks taken and how it didnt ruin the movie like Resurrection did, imo, it's final act was just too silly for me to take it seriously.
It didn't ruin the movie like Resurrection did? It was basically a 1:1 copy of Resurrection's ending, only with an even worse/lame looking creature. I actually found the Newborn from Resurrection way more intimidating and creepy. This lanky Slenderman-Engineer with a big schnozzle looked laughably bad imo (it's a real guy by the way)
Dear OH, i very much enjoy your work (since at least 2-3 years) and it was a delight to get another great review from you, such a calm and gathered narrator. Personally i think there is a good window in the storyline to tell what has happened before the marines of Sulaco arrived to LV426.
i liked it too. best alienfilm since part 4
Saw the movie with my girl yesterday and boy did we love it. A few throwbacks to alien, aliens and resurrection hahah damn even resurrection. Good story this new crew was on point. Hope to see the next installment in this new series
SPOILERS! It's for Alien franchise same way Force awakens was for Star Wars. Great visuals, practical effects, atmosphere, good acting but too much repeated from previous story to play it all safe. It takes the best ideas of the other movies and slightly fine tunes them into this new movie. But not much new stuff, except for the insight of slavery, use of zero gravity within the ship along with acid blood, the visuals of asteroids field grinding ship apart layer by layer and the handling of face huggers by manipulating temperature. All other stuff in script was re-runs of previous movies.
they played it "safe" again
Yes. Completely Disney-fied. Right down to a Rey and Finn dynamic.
Agree. It's not masterpiece like Trilogy but is good. I hope after this movie Ridley will get green light to make another movie with David as a lead 😊
@@luxskywalker8094 Ridley is getting up there in age. I don't trust him anymore. He still has great sense of visuals but I really hate the way he killed of the hero of previous movie in such a emotionless horrific way offscreen just to show he's got the power to do whatever he feels like without giving a damn about what others think about repeating Alien 3's mistake. Latest Terminator did something similar with John Conor. A huge middle finger to fans from a director with mindset of a rebelious teen.
great job and agree! loved the sound design especially. btw original line cut for time was 'bruvah,sumpins in the wa-ah inne nahmean guvnah'
Wasn't expecting much but still pretty dissapointed. The last act was entirely unnecessary and the xenomorph life cycle so rushed it became laughable. The facehuggers that were shown to be incredibly strong in Aliens are thrown aside with one hand by teenagers and most of the characters are poorly written.
Facehuggers and the xenos were lame and useless in this movie...what was Fede thinking? did he forget the title of his own movie? They looked fantastic at least. Did you notice that only one xeno even had a kill? (I think), quickly outdone by the fact that Scorched actually saved Raine...😂
There's something in the f****g wahter!
@@stateazure saved to be used by the facehugger...........
Can't wait to see what David Jonsson does next! Seems like everyone on social media is talking about Andy! Also, great video!
He was so good
First half was brilliant. The rest I am still digesting after a 4th watch... Needed to be 15-30 mins longer in the middle section. And the Xenos needed to be something more than cannon fodder. Can easily tell where the studio came in with cuts. Still a wonderful film with some fine and some boulder sized eggs. Too many callbacks in my mind to the point of fan service but a justifiable job of connecting the ever expansive Alien universe.
You watched a mediocre film 4 times? Ooof!
@@TheGoldenCapstoneno wonder they keep making bad films, they gaslight the audience to think they're the problem, not the movies
It came out Friday, so you watched the Same Film four times in three days. Meaning you must have Watched it twice in one day. You must have a hell of a lot of free time.
4th watch????? Yeah,utter crap film...
I loved it!! Perfect miniature work and retro vibesssss. Moreee Please
All these main characters are almost kids. And not very smart and strong on the character side on top of that. Who's the target audience?! It seems to be competent on many fronts, but from the perspective of the long-time IP fan, it's still underwhelming, even when taking into consideration it's not a big numbered sequel, but a standalone entry point-(ish) project. I'm disappointed in the age rating and the characters, from the script perspective. Not saying it's Goonies in Space of the Xeno flavour, but it does give off 'hey kids' summer slasher movie vibes a lil bit, with a lot of familiar and overdone plot points. Remind me of the NT Star Wars movies in this regard. Running through dark corridors with a frail female lead at this point is not only overdone but almost a running gag. The universe is a big place.
Why not focus on the company, androids, Xeno homeworld, mining planets, corporate warfare as a background? Anything. Xeno lifeforms running loose on a spaceship is a very safe and generic scheme.
@jjforcebreaker the target audience is a. People who love movies b. People who love Alien c. People who want to go see to a movie and get some thrills for 2 hours
Honestly I would love movies that explore that too, but then it's not really an Alien movie anymore is it? They would have to do a proper spinoff and maybe just use the Weyland-Yutani as a title. I think the upcoming Alien: Earth TV show will give you what you want though, with more emphasis on the company etc
Yes, I was thinking I've seen this movie many time before. A group of teenagers go to a place and stuff happens (start to die one by one). Granted it was done very well and visually stunning but it's shallow. The second half just felt like filler to me.
@@samik83 what did you think of homegirl giving birth to the xenomorph-human?
@@anthonymartensen3164That was ok, but the xenomorph death was too much. Way too over the top and nothing but cgi.
Once again the "gestation" is too quick, they manage to show us a cocoon to explain the growth of the classic xenomorph, but then the baby grows faster than me at an all you can eat buffet, and he doesn't eat !!!
But it was quite good 😊
Alien: Member Berries
When Andy said, 'Get away from her... you bitch!', I cringed so hard.
Well yes and no. Few moments of those member berries sure tasted sour (two specific phrases and one CGI element on the table), but for most moments I thought of Quentin Tarantino, that does not shy away from taking something existing and making it his own. Movie needed more time with xenos and characters to flesh those out. Fede mentioned he spoke with Ridley on dynamics and trimmed some parts out. So I do hope for directors cut, as Alien, Aliens and Alien 3 I prefer extended cuts more.
@@swite989 Sour enough that I walked out early. This movie wasn't just recycling themes but outright emulating iconic shots from earlier entries. The deep fake Ian Holm looked atrocious and was a morally dubious inclusion imo. When it started parroting iconic lines I knew this wasn't art, just more witless Disney product.
That is ALL it was indeed.
@federalbureauofinvestigati3564 ooh wow, an Alien movie that has a couple references in a sea of new stuff for audiences to enjoy is "member berries", what an original observation.
I was pleasently surprised by this film. A lot of the call backs and references made me roll my eyes, and Deep Fake Ian Holmes explaining the entire plot in about 3 mins definitely took some points off for me BUT I loved everything else about it. The cinematography was gorgeous, the sound design and score were brilliant, it seems I enjoyed the score far more than most, as a synthesizer nerd it was great to hear those huge low end LFOs and filters in the theater. I thought the story was serviceable and I didn't mind the little bits of Prometheus/Covenant lore that made their way into the story. I'm glad to see this franchise return to Aliens on a spaceship. That's the way I prefer it.
The first act had me and I genuinely thought it might be third best in the franchise. During the second act, it dipped hard but I was hoping it would still double-back and end strong. By the end of the third act, I just wanted to go home.
I felt exactly the same, started off a good 8/10 for me, it dropped hard...and the more I think about it the lower the score is getting.
@@stateazure Nothing worse than watching a movie fall apart and seeing how very obvious changes would have made it better.
@@thepodbaydoorshal Yeah, it's quite sad actually. I think RLM nailed it with their review too. The first 30 minutes were really great.
@@stateazure Same. I thought that the first act was solid enough but it went rapidly downhill from there. In terms of the movie getting worse, the more I think about it; I initially walked away scoring the movie at 4/10, so I already didn't like it, but 24 hours later, I'd rate it as a 2/10 (and those 2 points are SOLELY for the set designs and the actor whom portrayed Andy).
@@Right_Said_Brett Wow, that's harsh, but I can understand it. It's kind of dropping for me too, initially a 6/10, I think it's a firm 5/10 now that I've let it sink in more. Unfortunately a TON of people absolutely love this movie, so I expect we'll get sequels of continued crap quality Alien movies for the next decade or so. It won't surprise me if we also get new AvP movies too, or maybe Aliens vs Spiderman? Can't wait..
I really wish Hollywood movies would either stop or become way more considerate when it comes to using CG Deepfakes. They can be okay in limited capacity but when used extensively (Ex. Dial of Destiny), they way more often not hit that uncanny valley. Even after all this time CG can barely hold up when an artificial face has to emote and mouth movements in particular tend to look overly robotic.
I found that less of an issue in this movie because Rook is a robot, and a badly damaged one at that. And the Ian Holm voice impersonater (not an AI) was excellent.
2/5. It was a huge disappointment, particularly the de-aged and completely unnecessary Ian Holms cameo, which very disrespectful.
The overall plot was derivative and, although good looking, I wasn't scared, thrilled nor engaged with the narative or characters.
Prometheus and Covenant were both more enjoyable.
Agreed, except for Covenant being better..I'm sorry but I just can't get over two synthetics fingering each other's flutes, and that awful chest burst scene with the little baby xenomorph cheering at David....some of the WORSE crap I've EVER seen in film.
Prometheus & Covenant were bloody awful.
All they did was ruin the origins of the xenomorph & give us the most stupid crews in the entire franchise.
I cheer every time that stupid woman blows up the lander & then stumbles out on fire in Covenant.
@@Zerofightervi I can't watch Covenant again...it's the only other movie after AvP: Requiem, that I just can't watch twice. Prometheus I can enjoy, as long as I tell myself that it has no connection to the Alien franchise.
I start by saying that I enjoyed the film overall, it's not perfect but it captures a good sense of suspense and is actually trying to give the watched a horror experience like the original.
Rehashed ideas or not, they did the majority of it well. That Deepfake though, how that was kept in I've no idea, it looked ghastly.
One part I do want to openly ask, do you not believe the characters did some logically questionable things? Going to list a few, so spoilers ahead.
- Trying to depart on the only ship, dooming your friends/cousin to death to try and escape with someone who had a parasite on her face literally just described as "The perfect organism"
His entire character seemed basement IQ to push plot conflict and drive plot.
- Who the fuck takes a call during a sneaking section, or at least for the length of time that he did. "Keep comms clear or we die, we're coming to the hanger, hide..we will find you."
- Why in the world would you inject yourself with a black substance that you have no idea what it would do, or neither increased or decreased her survival chance.
This was just done in pure stupidity to add a Hybrid into the mix. Did I miss something that made her believe the black goo would save her?
- The Acid in zero gravity, this is contrived but the complexities of liquid in a vacuum, the chances of the acid blood not getting flung all over the place is just improbable with a single Xeno, never mind the amount actually in the scene, flipping and jerking. It looked great and not really character issue I just wanted to include it, but I couldn't shake that one.
What ridley forgot when came to making alien movies was 3 things,the characters,pacing,and the atmosphere.those are the main 3 ingredients that goes into making a very integral film.but Fede understood it and married those 3 perfectly
shame then Fede speed-ran a bunch of completely cliched and forgettable characters through an adequate copy of Alien's aesthetics.
What i like most in this movie was the Silent Irony of Ridley. When he is making Prometheus and Covenant, they obligated him to put an Alien in the Movie. Now as Executive he put his Engineer as a Final Boss Monster on Alien franchise movie haha
Amazing Alien movie, had everything I expected and wanted. The requirements from fans for a movie to be considered good have become insanely stupid and even toxic, asking for the most detailed explanation for the most small details.
JUST ENJOY THE FUCKING FILM.
You need to raise your standards then. This film was boring, derivative, predictable, and 30 minutes too long thanks to an awful schlock horror final act.
Honestly this movie is the best alien movie .
Thank you! Was hoping to see one comment in this thread like this. No one is happy with anything nowadays.
@@u2robn People, and in this instance film goers, need to stop settling for mediocre, or worse, stuff.
@@lesktube .......in your opinion.
Isabela Merced was cast as CJ Martin in the 2014 Nickelodeon TV show 100 Things to Do Before High School. She was "Isabela Moner" in her early work. She is going to play Hawkgirl in the next Superman movie.
And she was also in transformers the last knight as izzy A child survivor of Chicago And also a friend of squeaks Who helped out the Final battle.
Wasn't she also Dora in that live action Dora movie a few years ago?
@@NeoConnor1 yes she did.
@@jasongradyphstiger6179 I have not seen Transformers 5(2017). The movie critics hated it. There was a British Megan Fox clone in it. I guess Isabela and Squeaks were redeeming factors.
Loved it, cant wait to watch it again on bluray. Last 20 min was absolute nightmare fuel.
I laughed out loud at that. Hardly nightmare fuel.
@@repletereplete8002my whole theater and people watching with me disagree with you! I think it shows it made you uncomfortable and at least wierded you out, that’s the point!..
It is divisive between fans. For me, it was a huge disappointment. The story is really a rehash of the first one with a younger cast targeting a younger audience. Fede has no new ideas, there's no horror or tension, there's no character development, you cannot root for these characters, because they were poorly written, and I didn't like the unnecessary references from the older entries. The music is subpar, it just does not holds up to Goldsmith, Horner or Goldenthal. The sets are beautifully done, and the space scenes look good. I think it's time to stop the franchise. If you want to see a REAL horror, watch a kinda Alien rip off abandoned spaceship horror, called Event Horizon. (they advertised it, that this movie goes back to its horror roots. I mean, where??) For me it was a 2 from 5.
I feel the same way. It made me appreciate Resurrection even more.
The only thing i thought was new and cool was the zero gravity acid scene...and yet, it was only possible because of a deus ex machina pulse rifle that shoots for you.
I thought they had some great potential with the Andy character, but then he had his 10th seizure and went back to his original programming.
I guess the first encounter with yhe facehuggers was cool too.
That's about it that was new for me.
Even the acid death scene...could have been way wore exhilarating
Alot of missed opportunities, drowned by unnecessary nostalgia
I think people will appreciate it more with time. Much like rogue one initially JUST like this, divided everyone and today, pretty damn good movie, although flawed like the SW prequels. I enjoyed Romulus and can’t really understand how somone could hate it, aside from thinking it’s mediocre i guess.
I really enjoyed this in theaters. There was actual tension and fright. The sound design was great, as were the set design and effects, except the cameo, were top notch. Not perfect, definitely a bit heavy on the nostalgia, but overall this is a solid entry into the franchise for me. Yes, they're teenagers, but overall, they are well written and react normally for their age. I dunno, I hate Covenant, but some people love it. Some films are just divisive.
20대입니다 10대가 아니에요
I'll start with a funny story, So Friday I took the day off work (my sink needed repairing in my flat in Cromer and it would take all day) so I was like right I'm going out for the day, so I asked my brother if he wants to go into the city, so we took the bus and chose to go see Alien: Romulus at the half-past 12 showing at the Odeon, we had to wait for the screen to open in the foyer, and then I went to get closer to screen 2 doors and my brother said "You've just walked past Oliver Harper" and I was like what! he said Oliver Harper is over there, and I was like oh yeah! I wanted to say "hi, can't wait for the review" but you were with someone and I thought it would be rude to randomly approach you on your time out, thought it might be awkward, it was great to see you though. About the film, it's ok. David Jonsson is fantastic and steels the film, the production design is great but the script is weak (bare bones) it's about the half-way mark it starts to feel like the same old same old, it starts to have the same structure as Alien Resurrection with a dash of Covenant, like we go to a room complete that task, go to the next room complete that task and I started to get bored, and like the Terminator franchise you realise this has taken all the bad sequels and mash them together including Resurrections last act which was mixed then and felt like they just pumped out another one, so not the Alien and Aliens promised. But the worst thing about the movie is the actor they brought back, it was the WORST example of ghoulish, like the actor never even knew he was in the movie, and if he was he would probably make different creative choices, so stop that! no one likes it. By the way how many trailers did we get, at my local Movieplex it's always three or two trailers, but here it was like I don't know we had Captain America, Venom, Joker 2, Smile 2, The Substance, The Crow, The Monkey I guess 7 trailers maybe I'm missing one, but it felt like I paid for trailers forgot why I was there and got a bonus movie. 🤣
I give this movie 7 out of 10. Maybe i am being generous.
The movie played it too safe. It wasnt gorey or gruesome as the other alien movies. It seemed to borrow ideas from all of the previous alien movies. But can you blame the studio? Alien fans hated prometheus and covenant because they tried something new. So all we got was a remake of alien and aliens - which seems to have made the general public happy.
Also, you can tell this had a lower budget. Some shots and effects looked laughibly bad.
I honestly rate alien, aliens and even prometheus higher. Maybe even alien 3 is better
Im glad this has made money so we get more aliens movies, but it could have been way better
I am not sure we watched the same movie, Harper.
same
Harper needs to pay the bills
I loathe what Ridley done after Prometheus, instead of following new interesting path, he caved in and started to remake original alien, for 2nd time in a row now.
It was 9000 rotegens - Not great, not terrible...
@@Kacpa2better than Alien covenant?
Romulus is a very solid film. Is it as good as Alien and Aliens? No, but it's a close 3rd place. I think the fanservice references all throughout the film were heavyhanded and I think the film's pacing and story beats copies the og film a little too much.
Also, the side characters other than Rain and Andy were very forgettable. Bjorn's animosity towards androids could've been more fleshed out and he should've gone through more character development, it was very lazy writing just to say "Oh ya his loved ones died" and then kill him off a little bit later.
What I will say is that the third act was great and I don't understand the division behind it. It was nowhere near as wild or crazy as people are making it seem, like you'd think the film turns into an arthouse A24 film but it really wasn't that crazy.
Overall, a 7.5/10 film. Very tense, well directed, but could've easily been masterful.
Great review as allways. I mostly agree with you, it was a solid 7/10 for me.
I'm just not as in love with this movie as everybody else is. I didn't hate it or anything. I'm glad I went to go see it. But I just don't feel like it really did much of anything new, and at a certain point in the film it started to really bank on nostalgia, including forcing characters to awkwardly repeat famous lines from other films.
This isn't Deadpool where everybody can be self-aware about it, it just felt really cringy in this one.
But I certainly don't think it's bad, it just kind of floats around somewhere in the middle of the franchise for me for where I would rank in amongst my favorites. If you include AVP there's nine aliens films at this point, Romulus sits in those middle three for me along with Prometheus and Resurrection. Can't quite figure out exactly which of them I like better. But it's not bottom three and it's not top three
It's fine. I'll watch it again at some point. I just wouldn't probably give this movie more than like a seven if I was scoring it
It’s so interesting to me that Fede wanted it to be such a “self contained story” yet the very reasoning for such plot contrivances rely so heavily on knowledge based from previous instalments.
I had to tell a few colleagues that the black goo reacts to A because of B and doesn’t do C because of D and so forth. It was just interesting seeing someone like me (obsessed with the Alien lore) reacting to someone who (is a more normal human being and not obsessed with a weird sexual fetish metaphor) isn’t as in tuned with the lore and mythology of the Xenos and Engineers.
Ridley Scott had a big hand in this film and produced it, I had massive issues with this film, after 30mins the fedde film disappeared and it becomes a Ridley Prometheus tied in movie, I can't recommend it, fine for streaming but there's too many issues and starts to feel made by committee.
And the black goo they labelled in this as Prometheus 5, so it's probably not the same level as the pure form that the engineers had, so the effects are unknown, and how it distills hence the chimera at the end, but that's just me speculating
what exactly didn't they get?
Ridley retains some creative input into the Alien franchise since 2012 so although Cameron, Fincher and Pierre-Jeunet didn't have to answer to him, Blomkamp and Alvarez did and Ridley insisted on ensuring there was an acknowledgement of his Prometheus films in Romulus so Alvarez didn't have a choice if he wanted to make an Alien film.
Went to this theater with other people who are only vaguely familiar with alien 1 and they understood it without a problem. They seemed surprised when I told them how many elements came from other movies.
with the possibility of being contentious in place, i thoroughly loved the movie, was fantastic to finally see another decent Alien movie in the cinema. Andy did, as others have already said, steal the show, but i pretty much loved all of the performances, they were gritty and relatable. i loved the focus on the threat of the face-huggers, it was awesome to see them moving in concert a couple of times, gives you a good idea as to how Hadley's Hope fell in Aliens, and gave them a great sense of menace. i would not place this as the 3rd best of the main sequence of movies, but that is only because i have thoroughly enjoyed all of the main sequence films, this would be equal 3rd with Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, AVP was ok, AVP 2 not so much so, and Covenant / Prometheus, both OK but am in no hurry to watch them again.
I can't help but feel the directors hands were tied , Mr Alverez is normally an amazing director , and what was that nonsense at the end ?? I can't say i'm not disappointed, I was really looking forward to seeing this movie .
I couldn't believe how well done this was. One could argue some of the secondary conflicts were introduced for the sake of conflict; especially when it comes to the ex-boyfriend's cousin. I believe that was likely one of the few nitpicks I had. That said, the movie feels and looks extremely well shot, not using quick edits to mask poorly performed action scenes, and does a fine job crescendo-ing to a final scene that felt strangely familiar yet different. This probably the best movie since Alien to dive deep enough into character development that you care, but not soo deep that you end up 90 minutes into the movie before something besides drama occurs. I also had to give a small face palm to the Andy character as well. Perhaps I'm just so used to Fassbender and Henriksen... but Andy felt like a guy trying to act like a machine while Fassbender and Henniksen felt "real" and "synthetic" at the same time.
I do hope they continue on with Alverez at the helm. For someone to take the entire mess that was the first 6 movies, run a narrative thread through them, and bring things back to where they're supposed to be, he deserves to carry this forward. Despite it not being scary, the second and third act feel so much like Aliens (without Marines) you really do start getting to edge of your seat.
Since when were the Alien movies about comfort? You guys bitched for decades when all the new movies deviated even slightly from what you loved when you were kids (the first two) and the result is a safe, sanitized, corporate film that's more about the IP itself than any unique themes. This is the same trajectory that killed Star Wars, among other franchises.
People are justifiably complaining about the CGI posthumous character, but I thought they did a good job with a lot of that by translating it through the monitors instead of having the character directly on camera. They could have done more to eliminate the direct lighting and the focus to tone that down when in those scenes on camera. Or just damage it more a few seconds after appearing with some acid mishap. That would have been just fine. They really need to stop trusting CGI to make perfect faces.
This movie was okay. I think people are overrating it right now like they usually do if they have a decent day out at the cinema and the movie isn't terrible. It's not something you could watch multiple times at home. And the black goo shit just completely ruins it for the people who were hoping to get away from that garbage. Also...why the HELL do people keep quoting lines from conversations they couldn't possibly know about? Stop doing that! It's not nostalgic! It completely kills any immersion!
The fact that this seems like a pretty good entry in the series, just shows how far standards have fallen. Yeah, it's the best since Aliens, but that's not hard.
Im all for the black goo. These films are moving past just the Xenomorphs and it’s a good thing. Their was always more to the alien franchise than them. The Space jockey/engineer from the first alien opened that can of worms, and the black goo makes alien universe horror have unlimited potential. Prometheus was damn good and bitter fans that want a slasher in space need to realize it was never even about that too. I agree on the one liners tho, aside from that, fucking great ending too. The human hybrid stuff IS awesome and creepy.
I can only really describe Romulus as frustrating.
On one hand it has some excellent set pieces, world building, brings new ideas to the table and explores the creature in a somewhat new way, and visually it’s pretty decent except for one particular part involving a certain android. The characters were serviceable too I thought, some more so than others.
On the other hand it’s annoyingly filled with unnecessary callbacks to previous films rather than choosing to go its own way, and that ending completely took me out of the whole experience and was literally there to service Ridley Scott’s ego.
Personally speaking, the alien franchise will only survive if we just do away with the over indulgent mythology that Scott tried in desperate vain to install. We need to get back to basics. This film had the chance to do that and it just couldn’t help itself.
It’s still worth a watch if you’re a fan of the franchise, but this movie could have been better.
I loved the movie. The practical effects were fantastic, and the cast was marvelous. The fan services are good, and it is probably my favorite movie of year so far.
I only cared about the android, Andy. The movie was creative in many ways. It lacked the weight of Alien but that’s not surprising. It’s not as bad as people are making it seem. Also not surprising.
It falls off for me in the second half.
So this review just jumps right into a pretty detailed summary of the plot, with no spoiler warning whatsoever.
Cool cool cool.
Thanks for that.
Please look at The Omen franchise.
ooooo yes!
Great, fair review. I really love this movie! Huge fan of the first two but I also enjoy the newer ones for what they are.
Dear Oliver, I can’t believe you think these characters are ‘well written’. They get killed off one by one, but I had ZERO emotional reaction to any of those deaths. I think the characters were the weakest aspect of the film. They are flat AF.
I agree other than Rain and Andy the rest were bland especially did not like Bjorn there's something in the facking woiter.
@@leejones8582 Even Rain and Andy I wasn’t really feeling. When she went back to save him I felt that the dramatic music score was almost trying to force me to get some kind of emotional reaction, when I really wasn’t!! And that says a lot, cuz I’m the type that can really cry during a film.
I absolutly loved it. Only thing that bugged me was Deepfake/CGI Ian Holm Face. some shots it looked okay-ish other times not so much. It only sticks out so much because he is in quite a bit of the film otherwise if it were a smaller role i wouldn't have cared as much. just looked distracting when everything else looks so top notch and fantastic. maybe if they obscured his face in shadow more.
Memberberry movie.
I bet you fucking adored Deadpool 3 though, right ?
nothing wrong with that
@@CZJames20 Never watched it.
You Ain't Lying. How many times have you seen a sequel that tried to juggle lore and storybeats from 5 other films in its franchise? Sadly, one of those movies is Alien Resurrection (referring to the ending of Romulus). With so many other films it was balancing, it's own voice and identity got suffocated
@@CZJames20 What was wrong with Deadpool 3? I can tell you many things that are wrong with Romulus though..
you film reviews remain the best on this platform - thank you
Felt too fan servicy and like a video game for my liking. Instead of doing anything really new on its own (Apart from casting the characters as young 20 somethings to cater to a younger audience) it cherry picks different pieces from the franchise.
Say what people will about Prometheous, Covenant and even resurection, those films at least tried to be a bit different from the rest of the series, or tried to do some new things. But this was a paint by numbers book, that felt like a bigger budget TH-cam fan film.
It was ok, but it wasn't great.