Protagonist of the new Alien movie "Alien: Romulus (2024)", actress Cailee Spaeny - known from her starring roles in the science fiction monster movie "Pacific Rim Uprising (2018)", the supernatural horror movie "The Craft: Legacy (2020)" and the biopic " Priscilla (2023)" - has revealed to Variety, that 'It’s supposed to slot in between the first movie and the second movie' and 'They brought the same team from Aliens, the James Cameron film. The same people who built those xenomorphs actually came on and built ours. So getting to see the original design with the original people who have been working on these films for 45-plus years and has been so much of their life has been really incredible'.
The plot is still under wraps, but Uruguayan film director Fede Álvarez - known from the supernatural horror movie "Evil Dead (2013)" - has said that the story follows a 'group of young people on a distant world who find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe'.
The movie is now in post-production and expected to be released in the theatres on 14 August 2024 (France, Germany), and 16 August 2024 (Canada, UK, USA).
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Reply by northcoast
on August 16, 2024 at 8:16 PM
Minor spoilers follow . . .
Alien: Romulus is a refreshing return to the basics. Loads of practical effects, modelling of futuristic environments/spaceships and frequent use of actual sets as opposed to greenscreen. The spacecraft interiors and exteriors are not smooth, sterile, and androgynous, but instead bulky, angular, and dirty.
The director, Fede Alvarez, does a good job of retrograding the technology to the timeframe between Alien and Aliens. The spacecraft onboard computer graphics are blocky and 1980s-ish. Watching the end credits, they are among the longest I've ever seen; one wonders how much of the film's $80 million budget went just to payroll!
Plenty of gore, but, surprisingly, perhaps less than Aliens (1986). Just more gross than anything else.
Cailee Spaeny definitely makes her mark as the new Ripley.
There is also a satisfying return to a reasonable runtime-- just under two hours. I've no issue per se with long movies, but not every single theatrical release these days needs to be 150 minutes to three hours or more!
Also, there has been much speculation in recent years that the Alien franchise is firmly nestled within the Blade Runner universe; savvy viewers will now recognize while watching Alien: Romulus that this is all but confirmed. For better or for worse.
Alien: Romulus--
A 6 out of 10 from me (not a masterpiece, but well-made and rewatchable).
Reply by aholejones
on August 18, 2024 at 4:16 PM
I thought it was pretty crappy and I'd give it a 4/10. I could live with the run of the mill and beaten to death strong independent female angle since the original Alien movies are pretty much the "posterboy" for that, but the problem is that Sigorney Weaver's character was actually the sensible person in those movies, but "Rain" here seems to be the exact opposite and does the dumbest possible thing time and time again. For example I couldn't help but to let out a loud sigh when she is releasing those clamps and the last one is missing and instead of releasing it she starts looking for the alien-human hybrid that she already knows is after her. Speaking of said hybrid that was one goofy looking critter and I wish they'd give up already trying to make all these new alien creatures as they just look silly. What else....the gestation period of an alien is now a couple minutes apparently and the pulse rifle now apparently comes with a built in wallhack that auto-aims at the critters. Kind of begs the question why doesn't it just function as a turret and if it actually needs a person holding it for some reason wouldn't it have made more sense to give it the robot friend?
What is the Blade Runner Alien connection? I think I missed that if there was something in the movie.
tldr; bleh and meh. Go watch Prometheus again if you are bored of the originals.
Reply by northcoast
on August 18, 2024 at 8:07 PM
I'm going to let that one sit. Someone else can answer if they wish; I might come back to it later.
It's not a bad question I just prefer to let the treasure remain for others to discover at this point.
I'm sorry you didn't like it, jones, but I for one, am grateful for the fan service Alien: Romulus attempted. Perhaps it's like Rogue One (2016)-- it's a no-win situation. Original fans cry out for years for fidelity to the original franchise, and when someone finally comes along and tries (Alvarez for Romulus, Gareth Edwards for Rogue One), they get lampooned (I for one really liked Rogue One).
But to each his own.
Reply by cpheonix
on August 20, 2024 at 4:51 PM
I agree it was good, but I also want to know what confirmed this as being in the same universe as blade runner?
Generally I really enjoyed this, mainly because the android Andy was great. The actor did an amazing job. Having said that, one of the few things I didn't like was him copying Ripley's line, pausing to end with "...you bitch." Felt forced and definitely one for the fans.
Reply by northcoast
on August 24, 2024 at 8:05 PM
jones and cphoenix--
Re: The Blade Runner connection
In 2019, the first Replicant manufacturing company-- Tyrell Corporation, founded perhaps 10 years prior, around 2009 (going by dialogue between Lt. Joshi and Agent K in the sequel film-- "We didn't have any of you when I was growing up)
Succeeded by Wallace Corporation shortly after Tyrell's death
Alien, set in 2122, the Company being Weyland-Yutani Corporation, itself the product of a merger of those two individual companies in 2099.
In the movie Prometheus, the company Weyland is depicted pre-merger (Prometheus takes place in 2089).
This is only a snapshot, but an online search will reveal a complicated web of various companies in both the Blade Runner and Alien universes, and, the thinking goes (as far as I can tell), in the world of Blade Runner and Alien fandom it is possible to overlay these various companies with each other to come up with the theory that the two film franchises are interconnected.
Interlinked!!! (Sorry, had to say it)
Now, some of this appears to be a case of "George Lucas Syndrome", where Ridley Scott has, apparently, recently said that Blade Runner and Alien are related, whereas he never said this back in the 1980s and 1990s. Sort of like how George Lucas has been accused of "retconning" parts of the Stars Wars story (although those accusations go back much further, all the way to 1983, just to name one example, when in Return of the Jedi he made Princess Leia Luke's sister when apparently this was not his original intention when portraying those two characters in 1980's Empire Strikes Back).
Interlinked!!! (Damn it, there I go again)
Anyway, while watching Alien: Romulus, the connections just clicked for me, concerning the Blade Runner and Alien universes-- the massive influence of Corporations, to the point where the Government and Military are both subordinate, and workers merely pawns whose contracts can be extended endlessly amid horrid working conditions. In this worldview, humans are basically no better off than Replicants. Slave labor for Off-World building.
There is a lot more online about this, jones and cphoenix, and that's just my take on it. Film-- like all art --is highly subjective, and viewers can take it or leave it.
Interlinked!!! (Oops, sorry, last time!)
Reply by Joe79
on August 27, 2024 at 7:48 AM
So nothing specific in Romulus apart from general aesthetic and theme? The fact, introduced in Romulus, there are synth free worlds would also fit with that general narrative.
There are a couple of more concrete links in the franchise though:
“A mentor and long-departed competitor once told me that it was time to put away childish things and abandon my “toys.” He encouraged me to come work for him and together we would take over the world and become new Gods. That’s how he ran his corporation, like a God on top of a pyramid overlooking a city of angels. Of course, he chose to replicate the power of creation in an unoriginal way, by simply copying God. And look how that turned out for the poor bastard. Literally blew up in the old man’s face. I always suggested he stick with simple robotics instead of those genetic abominations he enslaved and sold off-world, although his idea to implant them with false memories was, well… “amusing,” is how I would put it politely.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/comments/fantax/the_tyrell_corporation_exists_in_aliens_1986/