Alien: Romulus

In space, no one can hear you cringe. The Disneyfication of Alien was a success. And much like the Predator: Prey, apparently most audiences are fine with it, but I'm not. That Fede Álvarez was only going to come out with a straightforward slasher film with lame characters that here merely replicate the template of the trivial characters of his previous films was clear from the start. But that the film would offer nothing more than perhaps good production design and practical effects, even if these too only skillfully copy and purposefully recall the original, and would only be a variation of what we had seen before, lacking all the tension, directorial invention and, in short, characters in which we could invest our fears, was not something I wanted to believe. To add to that, my fears that it would come to a mindless repetition of elements and catchphrases from the original films, the plague of all contemporary follow-ups to classic franchises, were realized and here it downright hurts. The opening still holds up, but then you can practically identify the turning point in the film when it all starts to go to shit. Last year's Infested was a better follow-up to Alien than this corporate fanservice product, and even managed to do one of the key would-be action-horror scenes more effectively. If you want inspiration from the greats in independent waters and outside of established franchises, you won't find it at Disney. (08/14/2024)

Fede Álvarez, director of the best Evil Dead and Don't Breathe, one of the best original modern genre films, delivers for the third time (I’m ignoring the existence of The Girl in the Spider's Web). But flawless perfection it is not this time. He does well what he does best: offering an intense horror ride full of attractions that slowly makes it impossible to breathe. But what I have the biggest problem with regarding the new Alien is time and space. Once it gets going, it feels insanely fast-paced. For one thing, the development of the monsters is absurdly fast, and for another, I would have liked the human characters to have time to pause for a moment and let it sink in how much shit they've got themselves into. And the space, I found the action awkwardly cut at times in terms of orientation. Especially the elevator scene and its ending I didn't get at all, maybe a chunk of the film had to be missing there (?). The much criticised fanservice didn't bother me, or rather I didn't pay much attention to it and it didn't actively distract me – though I have the "advantage" in this that I very rarely watch films repeatedly, so I certainly don't know any of the Alien movies by heart and can't quote from them. I found all but one moment (at the end of the aforementioned elevator scene) unworthy. The criticised digicam is totally fine, I really don’t know what the problem is, it looks completely appropriate given the state "it" is in right now. The final ten minutes are easily the best part of the film; and the main pair of characters realistically have a lot more charisma than anyone who came after Ripley in the franchise. 8/10 (08/16/2024)

After the excellent trailers, it wasn't hard to become excited for Alien: Romulus, but there was still a little red light in my head. It subtly reminded me that behind the camera was Fede Álvarez, a man who certainly has a lot of talent, but not for the horror genre. I suffered through his Evil Dead, and Don’t Breathe was fine at best. And unfortunately, I should have listened to that red light, because while Romulus has its merits, it disappoints in the most fundamental way, it doesn't work as a genre film. Alien: Romulus looks great, and I enjoyed the analog computers, the grey metals, the industrial atmosphere full of hissing pipes, likewise with unexpectedly good actors and interesting characters who behaved surprisingly smart. But that’s not enough when Álvarez can't build a scary atmosphere and his scares are dull and uninteresting. Part of the problem is that this is more a game of referencing and quoting old films, leaving little room for the new. As a result, it's a nice fanservice from someone who knows how it should look, sound and work, but he just can't quite put it together into a workable horror film. Álvarez may be a good producer with an interesting vision, but unfortunately he's not a good director or executor. (08/14/2024)

Fede Álvarez has made one of the best sci-fi films of our time. I haven't seen any Alien movies (yes, I'm a philistine), so I can happily judge based on the qualities of this film and not on my bias or love for the entire franchise, which makes my rating far more objective, and even then I have to say that the result is simply flawless. 1) The atmosphere on the ship is suffocating as shit, all the wanderings in it are filled with tension and I was waiting to see what would happen next. 2) The scares work as well, there are no heart attacks, it's more like scene work and the situational jump-scares are casual and clever. 3) The characters are fine, no one is irritating, and even better, no one here acts like an idiot, the decisions are rational, and most importantly there is not a single scene scene of sentimental bullshit or extensive debates and sadly stating the death of a partner. I can’t remember when was the last time I saw a movie this thoughtful. 4) The visuals, the sets, the varied environments of the ship, the look of the Xenomorphs and in general the whole face to face monster and human scenes are absolutely brilliant and breathtaking. You can feel the acid sizzling off the screen, sweating along with the characters and just devouring every scene with those insanely naturalistic monsters. 5) The use of the ship is literally flawless. All the rooms, the gadgets, the work with gravity, the acid, the cryo-chamber, you can see perfectly well that someone has put some work on that, that there's a team behind it that knows what to deliver. I simply have nothing to complain about here, and I haven't been this satisfied with the sci-fi genre in a long time. It's all the better that both fans of the franchise and the uninitiated will find something to enjoy, as this is a full-fledged, stand-alone film that introduces the viewer with all the necessary "what, when, where and why" information so they feel like they actually know the franchise. I have no words - EXCELLENT!! (08/15/2024)