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Started a thread to reply to this post from FMjoelb in the Alien vs. Aliens thread

joelb wrote: Fri Aug 30, 2024 9:27 am Went to see Romulus last night. It was...fine? A competent action horror movie but little to do with any of the other films. A few odd choices jarred the flow for me.

SPOILERZZZ



Respectfully disagree! I'd say it had too much to do with the others. At it's worst it felt like a best of. I really enjoyed the early parts, glimpses of the colony and the wider galaxy. I'm a sucker for world building and people playing well in sandboxes. Also, grimey SF, defective but beloved obsolete replicant. Yes please.

BUT! At many points, it felt like an autotuned megamix of the hits. Also, fucking hell. Poor Ian Holme (RIP). Fitting the worst special effects involve his head.

Loved the production design, but maybe the slavish dedication showed the limitations. Also, they're all meant to have been mining for 5 years on a planet with no sun please

I liked it, but it's probably only 4th or so in the Alien pantheon for me.

With that said, I'm going to seek out everything David Jonsson does, because he was magnetic and incredibly dextrous in this.

Would have been great without all the bad decisions that went into making it.

(Production Design, Cinematography were both excellent. I like the two leads as well)

Blergh. I enjoyed it at the begging, I was hoping there will be more world building about the mining planet and then absolute havoc with aliens running free there, but the film quickly (like really quickly, Dune 2 style) went to the standard faceugger/xenomporph on a space ship material and my interested was fading with each following scene borrowed from earlier films in the franchise.
By half way point I was only wondering about thought process behind it as I can't imagine somebody choosing to write this screenplay - somebody thought that "the best of" approach would be a guaranteed hit among audience who hasn't seen any of the Alien films? And that best of/remix was happening scene after scene, including black goo (who the fuck is interested in a homage/nod/tribute to fucking Prometheus?) And alien-human hybrid from Alien 4 who was super lame. I was shocked there was no queen.
Visuals were great, though, really super cool. I enjoyed the nods to "Alien Isolation" which is still the best thing in this 'universe' outside of the first Alien film.
The no gravity dodging Alien blood scene was really cool and so was the guy being melted by acid showed with surprising amount details.

Oh and it was way too long, should have ended many scenes earlier.

CRAP, but I wasn't as annoyed at it as with Prometheus, more like bored and puzzled. In terms of Alien franchise I guess it's behind the first 4 films and maybe in front of the Prometheus, arguably? But that's the who cares land anyway.


edit: So I agree with FM strontiumtom. And oh my fucking god, CGI face of Ian Holm, WHY.

The Red Letter Red review sums up my opinion.



As soon as I noticed it was just a collection of fan service scenes cobbled together I hated it. I rarely genuinely hate movies but this one actually made me pissed off.

Gramsci wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2024 12:57 am As soon as I noticed it was just a collection of fan service scenes cobbled together I hated it.

Star Wars was the exact same.

It seems like studios finally relented to "listen to the fans" but is their interpretation of that.

andyman wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2024 1:27 am

Gramsci wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2024 12:57 am As soon as I noticed it was just a collection of fan service scenes cobbled together I hated it.

Star Wars was the exact same.

It seems like studios finally relented to "listen to the fans" but is their interpretation of that.

There was a good film in there somewhere. I found all the aped dialogue and scene for scene shots totally unnecessary to improve the film, it completely detracts from the actual plot. It felt like the director was “fans will absolutely love when Andy says ‘get away from her…’ for no reason whatsoever…” or “let’s have her redo the gun scene from Aliens… and then she can get in a spacesuit like at the end of Alien.”

It looked great but holy crap everything else blew.

andyman wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2024 1:27 am

Gramsci wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2024 12:57 am As soon as I noticed it was just a collection of fan service scenes cobbled together I hated it.

Star Wars was the exact same.

Correct, I was thinking about "Force Awakens" during watching this ctrl+c/v work, but to its credit it managed to keep me interested for longer (up untill Han Solo going "well, since the death star had a flaw the previous time around, this one surely has it too" to be exact)

emmanuelle cunt wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2024 2:50 am

andyman wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2024 1:27 am

Gramsci wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2024 12:57 am As soon as I noticed it was just a collection of fan service scenes cobbled together I hated it.

Star Wars was the exact same.

Correct, I was thinking about "Force Awakens" during watching this ctrl+c/v work, but to its credit it managed to keep me interested for longer (up untill Han Solo going "well, since the death star had a flaw the previous time around, this one surely has it too" to be exact)

I think Rogue One is the only recent SW film that was any good. To be honest it was a massive exercise in fan service but it got it right mostly by aping the vibe of A New Hope but not actually doing a soft reboot just a branching plot line. Obviously there’s the Leia thing at the end that could have been toned down but it was showing something that was happening not copying a previous scene.

Honestly though, I gave up giving a shit about SW a long time ago.

Fucking awful. It's like that post-millennial Archie Comics show, where Archie is a shredded heartthrob who solves crimes, and Reggie is a date-rapist or whatever they were doing with that horseshit.....but in space!!!! Who are these forgettable talentless mannequins parading around spouting grade D dialogue? Why is AI Ian Holm a different robot on a different spaceship, that has been ALSO sliced in half by an alien. Ohhh so so creepy guys, the alien baby looks like Aphex Twin. How original. I need to revisit Alien vs Predator I and II, but I think I can place this installment squarely at the bottom, preferably below the firmament, well buried, covered with lye and forgotten forever.