{"id":2326,"date":"2024-08-16T19:19:12","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T19:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2326"},"modified":"2024-10-19T21:54:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T01:54:29","slug":"alien-romulus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/16\/alien-romulus\/","title":{"rendered":"Alien: Romulus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Alien: Romulus<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th<\/sup> Century\/Sci-Fi-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 119 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (bloody violent content and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Fede Alvarez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Benjamin Wallfisch\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Galo Olivares\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Release date: August 16, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0First things first, you probably want to know where Alien: Romulus<\/strong> fits into the Alien timeline if you don\u2019t already know. The events of this seventh installment of the series take place between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). While considered a stand-alone sequel, there is a major connection to the first film that can\u2019t be ignored. I won\u2019t say what it is, but it\u2019s sure to be the subject of debate come Monday. That\u2019s all I\u2019ll say on the subject.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I recently rewatched all of the Alien films including the non-fave AvP ones. It was only my second time seeing the previous installment Alien: Covenant. I remember liking it when it came out, but I didn\u2019t care for it this time. It has a lot of deficiencies like the bad VFX created by an outfit rather than actual artists and a lame heroine who\u2019s not even a pale imitation of Ellen Ripley. It doesn\u2019t even feel like a real Alien movie with Danny McBride and James Franco in the cast. I prayed hard to the movie gods that Alien: Romulus<\/strong> would be better. Apparently, they heard and heeded my prayers. It\u2019s a good movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Director Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead, Don\u2019t Breathe) doesn\u2019t let Alien: Romulus<\/strong> get weighed down by the weighty philosophical matters explored in the previous two movies- Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017)- by Ridley Scott. Instead, he goes back to basics with a plot involving a group of people who come face-to-face hugger with Xenomorphs in a derelict space station. They\u2019re there to scavenge cryostasis chambers for an unauthorized trip from the mining colony planet they involuntarily call home.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Rain Carradine (Spaeny, Priscilla), the heroine of this story, wants nothing more from life than to leave her hellhole home for greener pastures on Yvaga, a paradise planet that promises a better life. She thinks she\u2019s racked up enough credits to get the necessary papers, but Weyland-Yutani changed the terms of her contract without her knowledge. She\u2019s stuck on this rock for another several years. Or maybe not.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Rain hooks up with a group of friends- ex-boyfriend Tyler (Renaux, Shadow and Bone), his pregnant sister Kay (Merced, Madame Web), his cousin Bjorn (Fearn, Back to Black) and his girlfriend, pilot Navarro (newbie Wu)-\u00a0 who tell her about the derelict spacecraft just floating around up there. The plan is simple; go in, take what they need and get out of Dodge. Unfortunately, it\u2019s not actually that easy. The craft, actually a space station, might be abandoned, but it\u2019s not unoccupied. They find this out after they make entry. They spend the rest of the film trying to fight their way out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now what do all Alien movies have in common? What haven\u2019t I mentioned thus far? Did you guess synthetics (i.e. humanoid robots)? If so, that is correctamundo! Of course, Alien: Romulus<\/strong> has one. His name is Andy (Jonsson, Industry) and he belongs to Rain. He\u2019s like her brother. His one directive is to look after Rain. He\u2019s an essential part of the team because he\u2019s the only one who can communicate with the ship\u2019s computers. It\u2019s a safe bet he\u2019ll malfunction at some point.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I harbored some doubts about Alien: Romulus<\/strong> because of its August release date. It\u2019s typically a time of doldrums with folks getting in those last weekends at the shore before Labor Day. Studios know this and use these weeks as a dumping ground for films they don\u2019t have a lot of confidence in. Now I can\u2019t say for sure what fate awaits Alien: Romulus<\/strong> at the box office. What I can say is that Alvarez breathes life back into a franchise in danger of going extinct. He doesn\u2019t do anything new or original which is precisely the point. He delivers a good, old-fashioned sci-fi-horror made for the sole purpose of thrilling audiences. Is it as great as Aliens? NO, not by a long shot. To be fair, James Cameron set the bar impossibly high with his 1986 sequel. I don\u2019t think anybody could surmount it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Getting back to the business at hand, Alien: Romulus <\/strong>is mighty impressive on a visual level. The animatronic alien effects look incredible. I\u2019m glad to see Alvarez retained the original creature design by H.R. Giger. It\u2019s a welcome return to form after the generic CGI that helped sink the previous film. The cinematography by Galo Olivares gives the film a claustrophobic feel with the hand-held camerawork inside the space station. The production design by Naaman Marshall is also quite good. The sets, be it inside the space station or down on the mining planet, give the movie a realistic feel. There\u2019s none of the shine and sheen of Star Wars or Marvel.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Spaeny, who I still say was robbed of an Oscar nomination for her outstanding lead performance in last year\u2019s Priscilla Presley biopic, does a good job in the lead. She\u2019s pretty bad ass. In fact, she comes the closest to recapturing the spirit of Sigourney Weaver. Jonsson has some interesting moments as Andy, a synthetic questioning his true purpose after the company gets involved with his programming. I wish they gave Merced more to do. If I\u2019m being completely honest, I would have loved to see her take the lead in Alien: Romulus<\/strong>. She definitely has the stuff of an action heroine.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Don\u2019t be put off by its late summer arrival. Alien: Romulus<\/strong> is a good popcorn flick. It\u2019s meant to be watched at the cinema with a crowd. It\u2019s a fun ride through sci-fi-horror territory with a generous dash of action and a completely bonkers ending. It\u2019s the Alien movie we\u2019ve been waiting a long time for. Now go and enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alien: Romulus (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century\/Sci-Fi-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 119 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (bloody violent content and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Fede Alvarez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Benjamin Wallfisch\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Galo Olivares\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Release date: August 16, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu. Rating: *** \u00a0First things first, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-fi-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Alien-Romulus-PIC.png?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2492,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions\/2492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}