*BEWARE SPOILERS* Alien: Romulus

[Rotfish]

Watched this as well, second time. It's still a 6/10, might've been a 7 were it not for the derivative plot and overuse of classic lines (one or two minor ones would've been fine, but they pretty much used every iconic line possible).

On the point of it being derivative, I couldn't help but think about The Force Awakens this time around. It's as if they threw Alien and Aliens into a blender, then sprinkled some Prometheus-isms on top. Let's just hope they don't Last Jedi the next one.

And Prey absolutely remains the better of the two.

 

[abake]

Interesting opinion on Scott's present output:

 

[ScoutingForToys]

Watched this as well, second time. It's still a 6/10, might've been a 7 were it not for the derivative plot and overuse of classic lines (one or two minor ones would've been fine, but they pretty much used every iconic line possible).

On the point of it being derivative, I couldn't help but think about The Force Awakens this time around. It's as if they threw Alien and Aliens into a blender, then sprinkled some Prometheus-isms on top. Let's just hope they don't Last Jedi the next one.

And Prey absolutely remains the better of the two.

I had no intention of seeing this due to the stupid hybrid and black goo nonsense, however, I did end up seeing it a couple of months ago. I was guilt tripped into going basically. Very briefly, my brothers and our dad used to see movies a lot until around 15 years or so ago. My dad being a big Alien fan wanted us all to go to cinema again as a "for old times sake" kind of thing and he's not getting any younger.
Anyway....
I knew I wouldn't like the ending. I don't like the goo and I've never liked this silly hybrid business. Saw the end bit on YouTube, the hybrid is hilarious. What possessed them to do the Alien Resurrection ending?!
I was expecting however, to like the film up to that point, so was extremely disappointed to find the film mediocre. A 6/10 seems fair.
It starts so well. I enjoyed the world building, I enjoyed the initial exploration scenes. I quite liked the attention they paid the facehuggers, however I've never been particularly creeped out by them and I'm still not now, but it's nice he tried to do something interesting with them and make them stand out beyond a necessary point to get to the real focus of an Alien movie, the Xenomorph.
However, it all went wrong once the Xeno showed up. Any originality seemed to go out the window. It was paint by numbers Alien movie. If you've seen any Alien movie before, you've seen this.
Once the Xeno shows up, it's a speed run of Aliens (except with one person with a pulse rifle instead of a platoon of Marines) straight into the Alien Resurrection ending.

The Xenomorph was so wasted in this movie. I struggle to think of anything memorable. Sure they did the cocoon thing, but seriously is that it? Is that all the creativity and originality they could muster?

Honestly it felt like a very well produced fan film at times. The amount of call backs and lines was ridiculous.

As I've found with Alvarez's previous films, the characters were incredibly forgettable and weakly written. I honestly only remember Andy and Rain.
I couldn't wait for the 2 English douches to die. The Asian pilot and Latina baby mamma were such non characters.

The digital necromancy of Ian Holm was rather unnecessary. Didn't hate it but again, it's unoriginal. They could have come up with an original character.

The pulse rifle was just ridiculous. Why the hell did the Colonial Marines stop using that beauty? They'd have had cleared Hadley's Hope in half an hour and been home in time for tea and medals.
If one untrained teenager can wreck most of a hive in 3 mins of screen time, a platoon of trained Marines would have hilariously stomped the Xenos. No need to worry about acid destroying the ship either as they weren't on a ship.

An extremely derivative film. It looks pretty. Practical effects looked good.
As a whole it's fine, just nothing special. Not very memorable. One of those movies I'll catch on TV in a few years time and have almost no memory of having watched it previously.

 

[JAWS]

My dad finally watched this and asked “How come a bunch of teenagers did better against the Aliens than the space marines did?”

I had no answer lol

 

[chrisstbh]

My dad finally watched this and asked “How come a bunch of teenagers did better against the Aliens than the space marines did?”

I had no answer lol

Did he ask the same about Ripley?

 

[Khev]

My dad finally watched this and asked “How come a bunch of teenagers did better against the Aliens than the space marines did?”

I had no answer lol

You and your dad really should pay better attention when you watch movies.

 

[Dave_W]

Newt was surviving perfectly well until the marines arrived and ****** it all up.

 

[JAWS]

I had no intention of seeing this due to the stupid hybrid and black goo nonsense, however, I did end up seeing it a couple of months ago. I was guilt tripped into going basically. Very briefly, my brothers and our dad used to see movies a lot until around 15 years or so ago. My dad being a big Alien fan wanted us all to go to cinema again as a "for old times sake" kind of thing and he's not getting any younger.
Anyway....
I knew I wouldn't like the ending. I don't like the goo and I've never liked this silly hybrid business. Saw the end bit on YouTube, the hybrid is hilarious. What possessed them to do the Alien Resurrection ending?!
I was expecting however, to like the film up to that point, so was extremely disappointed to find the film mediocre. A 6/10 seems fair.
It starts so well. I enjoyed the world building, I enjoyed the initial exploration scenes. I quite liked the attention they paid the facehuggers, however I've never been particularly creeped out by them and I'm still not now, but it's nice he tried to do something interesting with them and make them stand out beyond a necessary point to get to the real focus of an Alien movie, the Xenomorph.
However, it all went wrong once the Xeno showed up. Any originality seemed to go out the window. It was paint by numbers Alien movie. If you've seen any Alien movie before, you've seen this.

Yep

Once the Xeno shows up, it's a speed run of Aliens (except with one person with a pulse rifle instead of a platoon of Marines) straight into the Alien Resurrection ending.

The Xenomorph was so wasted in this movie. I struggle to think of anything memorable. Sure they did the cocoon thing, but seriously is that it? Is that all the creativity and originality they could muster?

Loved seeing what the acid would do to a human.

Honestly it felt like a very well produced fan film at times. The amount of call backs and lines was ridiculous.

Ruined much of the film

As I've found with Alvarez's previous films, the characters were incredibly forgettable and weakly written. I honestly only remember Andy and Rain.
I couldn't wait for the 2 English douches to die. The Asian pilot and Latina baby mamma were such non characters.

My 2nd biggest issue. I did not care for anyone in this film.

The digital necromancy of Ian Holm was rather unnecessary. Didn't hate it but again, it's unoriginal. They could have come up with an original character.

The pulse rifle was just ridiculous. Why the hell did the Colonial Marines stop using that beauty? They'd have had cleared Hadley's Hope in half an hour and been home in time for tea and medals.
If one untrained teenager can wreck most of a hive in 3 mins of screen time, a platoon of trained Marines would have hilariously stomped the Xenos. No need to worry about acid destroying the ship either as they weren't on a ship.

They had to give up their Ammo due to the possibility of blowing up the area because they were located near/above/below a heat exchanger

But my dad had the same questions lol

An extremely derivative film. It looks pretty. Practical effects looked good.
As a whole it's fine, just nothing special. Not very memorable. One of those movies I'll catch on TV in a few years time and have almost no memory of having watched it previously.

Like I said earlier. If I look at it as part three to the two prequel films I like it much more.

But like those films I don’t accept it as part of the alien franchise.

 

[JAWS]

You and your dad really should pay better attention when you watch movies.

Yeah I know. Heat exhaust.

But Ripley and 5 marines really struggled with two face huggers.

Two teens survived a room of them and they didn’t know they were there.

Teens were overpowered and Aliens underpowered

 

[JAWS]

Newt was surving perfectly well until the marines arrived and ****** it all up.

True but hiding makes a boring movie

 

[Khev]

Yeah I know. Heat exhaust.

But Ripley and 5 marines really struggled with two face huggers.

Facehuggers like to give their prey a sporting chance. How else do you explain them not taking advantage of a SLEEPING Ripley and Newt?

 

[Khev]

The callbacks, Ash CGI, and Offspring design are definitely flaws. Could have been avoided but they don't ruin the film for me.

Rain survives because of AI assistance (Andy and smartgun) combined with blind luck. Just how it should be.

I've seen people say "how come the pulse rifles in this film are more advanced than the ones the marines carried???" Well welcome to the modern military. FA/18 Hornets have been around since 1983 but all those pilots didn't just magically get F-35's when the new gens came out. In fact Hornets are still being used and aren't forecasted to be decommissioned until 2030. 2030! That's practically when Romulus takes place right there, lol.

 

[abake]

B-52's are still flying...

 

[Wor-Gar]

Rain survives .... with blind luck.

 

[ScoutingForToys]

The callbacks, Ash CGI, and Offspring design are definitely flaws. Could have been avoided but they don't ruin the film for me.

Rain survives because of AI assistance (Andy and smartgun) combined with blind luck. Just how it should be.

I've seen people say "how come the pulse rifles in this film are more advanced than the ones the marines carried???" Well welcome to the modern military. FA/18 Hornets have been around since 1983 but all those pilots didn't just magically get F-35's when the new gens came out. In fact Hornets are still being used and aren't forecasted to be decommissioned until 2030. 2030! That's practically when Romulus takes place right there, lol.

To be fair, the pulse rifle in Romulus and the one in Aliens seem to have the same role. It's not some sort of squad support weapon like the smart gun in Aliens. Judging by the way they're just racked up, no other weapon with them, I suspect they're meant to be standard for troopers.
So they're a direct comparison to each pulse rifle from both movies.
They've objectively down graded from the Romulus model to the Aliens model.
Using your analogy, that's like going from an F-22 to the F-18 as the replacement.
If the Aliens version of the pulse rifle was also in Romulus, that would fit the real world. An old rifle kept around for so long.
However they replaced a far superior rifle with a less effective one.
The only reason I could think of that made sense, is the Romulus pulse rifle, although very effective, is also extremely expensive. Too expensive to continue to arm every Marine with, so they design a cheaper, more basic version, and the expensive tracking/aim assist technology went into the smart gun. A weapon that wouldn't be in every Marines hands, just a couple per squad.

 

[abake]

But the Romulus operation was a W-Y gig, not a Colonial Marines op. So it's possible that W-Y (despite Hudson's protestations) didn't equip the Colonial Marines with the latest and greatest. Or maybe the Colonial Marines didn't think their grunts would need such gimmicky weapons and could rely more on their training and tactics.

 

[ScoutingForToys]

But the Romulus operation was a W-Y gig, not a Colonial Marines op. So it's possible that W-Y (despite Hudson's protestations) didn't equip the Colonial Marines with the latest and greatest. Or maybe the Colonial Marines didn't think their grunts would need such gimmicky weapons and could rely more on their training and tactics.

I thought that originally but English ****** number 2 (forgot his characters name) tells Rain its the one the Colonial Marines use (in that scene he explains how the rifle works)

 

[Khev]

I thought that originally but English ****** number 2 (forgot his characters name) tells Rain its the one the Colonial Marines use (in that scene he explains how the rifle works)

No different than me telling a girl that an F-35 is a fighter that Navy pilots use and then a few years later a squad of pilots using much older FA/18 Hornets go flying by.

 

[Khev]

But the Romulus operation was a W-Y gig, not a Colonial Marines op. So it's possible that W-Y (despite Hudson's protestations) didn't equip the Colonial Marines with the latest and greatest. Or maybe the Colonial Marines didn't think their grunts would need such gimmicky weapons and could rely more on their training and tactics.

I'm also reminded of that scene in Batman Begins.

"Why aren't these standard issue?"
"I guess the bean counters didn't think that a US soldier was worth $100,000 a pop."
Might not be quoting it exactly but you get the idea.

Or like Hicks' 12 gauge maybe Apone's crew just *likes* the more basic Pulse rifles. Or maybe smart targeting is a no no when they're going on rescue ops and can't trust AI to differentiate friend from foe. Many possible explanations.

 

[ScoutingForToys]

No different than me telling a girl that an F-35 is a fighter that Navy pilots use and then a few years later a squad of pilots using much older FA/18 Hornets go flying by.

He knows what the weapon is called and how to use it in detail. I'm going to trust that the character knows it's used by the Colonial Marines.
I'm not going to assume the character is lying when there is no evidence of it and he clearly knows a lot about the weapon.