*BEWARE SPOILERS* Alien: Romulus

[Rotfish]

Can't say I noticed a difference on my physical watch a few weeks back. Then again, that was several months after my theater watch. Hard to tell without comparing the two side by side.

 

[Khev]

Huh, I didn't realize they had done this. Does the Ian Holm FX look any better on streaming? Apparently they reverted back more to the puppet.

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/alien-romulus-fixed-ian-holm-cgi-home-release/

I've watched it twice on disc and didn't realize that the effects were updated, so I'm guessing anyone that hated it before will feel largely the same.

I *did* think he looked better than I remembered, but assumed it was because I was viewing it on a smaller screen.

EDIT: They did include a deleted scene that showed the Rook animatronic with no CGI at all and I actually wish they had gone that route for the entire film. No it didn't look "real" but it still fit the aesthetic better than what we got IMO.

 

[choombaz]

Another thing, one of my very favorite scenes out of all the Nightmare on Elm Street films is in the second one where the one kid is trapped in his own bedroom as Freddy is being "birthed" out of the main character just a few feet away. The kid's all freaking out and trying to open the door while his parents are frantically trying to do the same on the other side. That scene just always hit me as being extra freaky due to how prolonged it was with Freddy not rushing at all and just being all nonchalant as he came into being while the kid could do absolutely nothing to escape.

I love that scene and film. Was my very first horror film at the cinema and really freaked me out.

holy **** wtf is that?

That’s Robert Picardo by way of Rob Bottin from Total Recall. Intentionally cheesy.

That's pretty cool, I hope they put that on the streaming platforms as well.

It should be, Disney put up extra money for Alvarez to make the additional changes for home video.

 

[Khev]

It should be, Disney put up extra money for Alvarez to make the additional changes for home video.

And yet would NOT pay the royalty fee to IMAX for the full aspect ratio on disc.

 

[Rotfish]

And yet would NOT pay the royalty fee to IMAX for the full aspect ratio on disc.

To be fair, how often do we get IMAX ratios on the physical release?

 

[jye4ever]

To be fair, how often do we get IMAX ratios on the physical release?

Doesn’t make it right though.

Cheap *** Disney.

 

[T8OO]

To be fair, how often do we get IMAX ratios on the physical release?

Especially full 70mm IMAX ratio of 1.43:1. Is BvS remastered the only one?

 

[Khev]

To be fair, how often do we get IMAX ratios on the physical release?

Often enough to be annoying as hell when they don't, especially for films like Romulus where IMAX was used for the entire film and didn't alternate aspect ratios from scene to scene (like Top Gun: Maverick and Oppenheimer which *did* provide IMAX formatting on disc).

 

[Wor-Gar]

why did they "fix" Ash... uh, Rook?

 

[JAWS]

But most importantly, I really hated the connections to the prometheus movies. I don't like what Scott did with those, I don't like the black goo, I don't like the connections between the engineers and the aliens, and I kind of hate that this is going to be a major focus of the franchise moving forward apparently.

I would have preferred they steer clear of that junk and just focus on the aliens. Oh well.

Nothing in Romulus requires you to pretend that those films are canon though.

Well since Romulus is not canon either.

I said this a few pages back but It’s more a sequel to Covenant than it is to Alien. And its ideas and call backs are more related to the Prequel films. Which makes the film much better. Imagine it was David and not Ash. So much better and fitting.

my original, insightful, and brilliant thoughts here

So I finally watched this again last night. I did not hate it as much as the first time.

I think its a better Prometheus / Covenant sequel then an Alien Prequel and fits much better in that Universe then the ALIEN Universe (Yes they are different Universes to me)

In fact I am about 100% sure this was Ridley's idea for the 3rd David movie.

It would have been David's ship that was discovered with some of the passengers not scientist that would be stuck in the walls, and it would have been David not Ash that they found.

The Film title even mentions the ship like the other two Prequel films

I would have much preferred all that to what we got. No dumb Ash F/X, no callbacks to the original films, the dumb creature at the end is more acceptable and maybe the cast could have been a bit more mature and likable.

 

[Khev]

Well since Romulus is not canon either.

If you don't include it in your head canon that's fine with me.

I said this a few pages back but It’s more a sequel to Covenant than it is to Alien. And its ideas and call backs are more related to the Prequel films. Which makes the film much better. Imagine it was David and not Ash. So much better and fitting.

my original, insightful, and brilliant thoughts here

Yeah I read your thoughts the first time and...definitely don't agree.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Extra! Extra! Get your HT Rain figures! Just revealed!

 

[ironwez20]

I’m glad this movie did do well with everyone that we are still talking about it.

 

[JAWS]

If you don't include it in your head canon that's fine with me.

You will come around one day.

Yeah I read your thoughts the first time and...definitely don't agree.

The repost was more for karmazov

Having said that

Nothing in Romulus requires you to pretend that those films are canon though.

Accept black goo, the company trying to find ways to cheat death with said black goo, and freaking Engineer baby

Anyways, just curios Khev

You don’t agree that it makes a better sequel to covenant or that it was that it was not originally a bunch of ideas Ridley had for the 3rd part of that series

Because if you take that opening, exchange ash for David, and the scientist for the crew at the end of Covenant, you pretty much have a direct sequel to the Prequel films.

I’m 100% certain they just threw the Nostromo, big chap, and Ash in the film just so they could say it was not a direct sequel to Covenant.

I mean ultimately it’s all our own head cannon but boy all the pieces are there for this to just be a follow up to Covenant and IMO, would have been a much better movie if it just did that instead of all the memberberries. David for Ash alone would have improved the film greatly.


Of course it would have been another box office bomb

 

[ironwez20]

Wow. I forgot all about covenant lol

 

[Rotfish]

I mean ultimately it’s all our own head cannon but boy all the pieces are there for this to just be a follow up to Covenant and IMO, would have been a much better movie if it just did that instead of all the memberberries. David for Ash alone would have improved the film greatly.

Of course it would have been another box office bomb

I'm actually not sure about this. They kept Ash, Big Chap, the Nostromo and the black goo under wraps in the trailers. I don't see why David couldn't have been a surprise too. Unless he would've insisted on top billing, but he wouldn't have been a lead at all here.

I'm just bummed we didn't even get a snippet of Big Chap alive and intact; Hot Toys and other companies would probably have revisited him if he were. Guess all we have to tell that story is the Romulus prequel comic.

 

[Khev]

You will come around one day.

The repost was more for karmazov

Having said that


Accept black goo, the company trying to find ways to cheat death with said black goo, and freaking Engineer baby

Anyways, just curios Khev

You don’t agree that it makes a better sequel to covenant or that it was that it was not originally a bunch of ideas Ridley had for the 3rd part of that series

Because if you take that opening, exchange ash for David, and the scientist for the crew at the end of Covenant, you pretty much have a direct sequel to the Prequel films.

I’m 100% certain they just threw the Nostromo, big chap, and Ash in the film just so they could say it was not a direct sequel to Covenant.

I mean ultimately it’s all our own head cannon but boy all the pieces are there for this to just be a follow up to Covenant and IMO, would have been a much better movie if it just did that instead of all the memberberries. David for Ash alone would have improved the film greatly.


Of course it would have been another box office bomb

Well there's a lot more that connects the film to ALIEN than Covenant so it doesn't make much sense to me to claim that it fits more seamlessly to the latter than the former. I mean I could just as easily say "you know if you swap the Alien Queen with an Engineer and Bishop with David then ALIENS actually fits better with Prometheus than ALIEN." Well duh, lol.

I don't believe for one second that Romulus was ever intended to be a sequel to Covenant. If you followed any of the behind the scenes interviews or documentaries you'll quickly see that this was 100% Fede Alvarez' baby. He came up with the story of the kids stranded at Jackson's Star to mimic the isolation he felt living down in Uruguay when he wanted to be in the US making Hollywood movies. He was the one that came up with the hybrid birth at the end that Disney executives felt nervous about including in the movie. So this wasn't some Ridley Scott passion project that got shifted to him and then tweaked to change the timeline.

The main Covenant actress even stated publicly after the success of Romulus that now she hopes that Disney will now consider continuing the Covenant story so they're definitely two entirely separate things. Just the fact that the entire premise of Romulus isn't flat out stupid tells me that it was never written to be part of the Prometheus canon (yes I separate them too.) All the complaints against Romulus are against the window dressing (Rook CGI and Offspring design) and some dialogue repeated from past films. That's pretty much it. The complaints against Prometheus and Covenant are how STUPID it was to make the Space Jockey alien a suit for the dumb engineers, how lame it was to suggest the engineers created humans and how utterly moronic ALL the characters were from BOTH films.

Note that in Romulus the first thing the kids do before entering the station is analyze the temperature and air supply, and go in with *masks* on (just like the salvage team at the beginning of ALIENS) instead of just walking around alien planets with no protection whatsoever (as we saw the "experts" and "geniuses" do in both Prometheus and Covenant.) Good lord those are lame ass films, lol.

 

[Khev]

I'm just bummed we didn't even get a snippet of Big Chap alive and intact

That could have easily been a "damned if they do/damned if they don't" situation though. The Big Chap is such a sacred cinematic monster at this point I'm kind of glad that we all just get to imagine how he laid waste to an entire station.

 

[Rotfish]

That could have easily been a "damned if they do/damned if they don't" situation though. The Big Chap is such a sacred cinematic monster at this point I'm kind of glad that we all just get to imagine how he laid waste to an entire station.

It probably would've dragged the film down, yes. Or it could've been a Darth Vader in Rogue One scenario. I'd love to see that particular Alien doing all the things it was dreamed up to do: contorting itself, moving in bizarre ways, going from total stillness to hyper aggression. We've seen these behaviors in so many possession films, but never with Giger's baby. And that part is key; I don't think it would be as effective if it looks like a beast with raptor legs.

There's a reason the Offspring made such an impact on casual viewers. Had the actual Aliens been treated the same, he may not have been needed.

 

[The Buffinator]

Wow. I forgot all about covenant lol

I would have too if I'd actually seen it lol...