Alien: Romulus (2024)
In space, no one can hear you.
Setting and tech feels more authentic to original Alien film
Effects work is great, practical and not
Makes the face hugger stage of the xeno lifecycle far more menacing
Pretty well acted
Some of the story beats/elements are really nice
Little throw away references to the old flicks integrated into the movie where it doesn’t feel like you will be lost if you haven’t seen those references
Still feels like the “Big corpo” is the baddie, which makes things not just look authentic to the older films but also have that thematic core that feels authentic.
A fun new twist on androids, complete with piles of puns
Actually has the alien in it (suck on that Prometheus)
Good use of audio.
Does a good job adding in a couple of extra Giger-esque elements
.Most the characters feel disposable from an audience perspective outside of the main two, regardless of how much history it implies may be between some of the characters.
Given how Predators (and that one Star Wars) was received, I’d assume all the references have a chance to backfire and make people feel like things are a little too similar to stuff we’ve seen
Nothing super stand-out from the music department despite it still being well done for it’s purpose of adding to scenes.
Has a few changes on the xeno side that pretty much all the rest of the franchise has (inconsistent incubation time, for example)
People may have been worried about a Disney-era Alien, but I enjoyed the heck out of this and am glad I finally got to see an Alien movie in theaters that actually felt like it was an Alien movie. The side-story nature of it keeps it in universe but doesn’t force characters into it when it’s really not all that necessary (like the Star Wars films incessant desire to have to make everything revolve around a Skywalker). Despite not knowing any of the actors, they did a pretty good job in their time on screen, although the characters probably could have benefited from a little more screen time pre-horror if they had wanted me to feel more attached to any of them past the main two. I had to be pretty nitpicky with the cons on this one, as I really just enjoyed the entire thing on that one watch in theaters, and my biggest complaint coming out of it is that there won’t be a cross over with Fireteam Elite to give me that sweet new gun that was in it. It solves my biggest problem with the newer Scott directed Alien movies - that it felt way to high tech and like it wasn’t in the same universe. It also has the added benefit of not feeling overly preachy, so it ends up just being a dang fun little dangerous ride.