Don’t get to
the cinema as often as I used to, in some respects that’s because I don’t have
the time I used to have, and in recent months, thanks to Worldcon, I’ve not had
time at all. The other reason is that there
are less films coming out that I want to see on the big screen, but every once
in a while, there’s a film that you just really need to go to the cinema for.
In advance, I’m
a huge fan of the Alien concept, note that I didn’t say the franchise, which
has varied wildly depending on which film it was. But like many others, it means that I know most
of the franchise from top to bottom.
Alien Romulus
combines both the best and worst of the franchise. From the opening scene just
outside Zeta 2 Reticuli, and they bring something back on board, to the first
shots of a mostly terraformed world, and the massive tower of the atmosphere
processor rising above the surface. The
opening to the film is superb, everything the Ridleyverse ever promised, you
can imagine replicants running around out there, you can see why everyone is
only in it for themselves, and it’s the first time we’ve really seen the Alien
universe as it really is, not a separate universe such as the AVP parts of the franchise,
not Covenant or Prometheus where it’s another world entirely, this is the
universe as it was originally envisaged, dark, dirty, hopeless.
Loved it…
Up to the space
station on perfectly reasonable reasons, not going walking on an alien planet
without space suits, not treating strange alien creatures like squishmallows,
none of that, every action taken is sensible and the characters are realistic,
with fully fleshed out motivations.
Of course,
things go sideways, aliens start occurring, and the characters start
dying. Gestation times are sped up as they
have been in every film since the first, but the first chestburster (it’s in the
trailer), is weaker because of how quickly it was implanted, it doesn’t just
burst out in the manner of John Hurt, but has to slowly tear its way through because
its not strong enough to do it in one hit.
Considerations
like that, are gold to fans like me.
I see a lot of
people saying the first half of the film was too slow, and I suspect that that’s
a generational thing, I don’t mind a half hour of setup, particularly when the
opening scene has such promise. This was
well thought out and had a good premise that was not spoiled by too much CGI or
stupid plots. I didn’t like the last ten
to fifteen minutes, but that’s because it veered very close to Prometheus and
Alien:Resurrection, for my money the two weakest films in the series.
And on that
subject: Fan Service
If the sound
you use is exactly the same as one from a previous film, fans are going to
notice, if the doors are taken from Alien:Isolation, we’ll notice, if you say “Get
away from her…” we know which words come next.
And that’s not
a bad thing…
In small doses…
I would hope
that this film provides enough return to allow Fede Alvarez to get another
film, one where he puts together something that isn’t catering to older fans
like me, but instead is its own story, taking its own path. Don’t get me wrong, if you like Alien films,
go see this, definitely go see this, it’s easily in the top three of the Alien
films, and as we all know, Alien and Aliens are the first two (whichever order
you put them in), so this marks a return to form for the franchise, and a film
that had our whole group glued to the screen for the entire film.
And Androids…
You ever think
the Alien is the scariest thing in that universe? Think again, superbly nuanced performance
from David Jonsson, worth the entrance price for him alone.
