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[Last updated August 14, 2024]
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While delving into the depths of an abandoned space station, a group of young space colonists come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. See how the Alien franchise movies rank, based on IMDb user ratings. Director Fede Alvarez sought out the special effects team from Alien 2 (1986) to work on the creatures. Physical sets, practical creatures, and miniatures were used wherever possible to help ground the subsequent visual effects work. When Rain turns off the ship’s gravity and shoots all the aliens, all of their blood is suspended in the air in long, smeared patterns. Zero gravity in real life causes liquids to form spherical shapes, not spread out in long, flat pieces like in the movie.
Alien Theme Written by Jerry Goldsmith
Andy: The solution for a claustrophobic astronaut is to give him more space. The 20th Century Studios fanfare freezes and turns ominous, much like in Alien 3 (1992), leading into the film’s opening scene. The logo itself suffers a static explosion and turns green. Featured on Nerdrotic: The Acolyte: Force is Female CONFIRMED? The Death of Theaters – The Real BBC @MauLer @HeelvsBabyface (2024). First the positives: good action, great practical special effects, and good visual effects.
The action was thrilling with some scary moments
Director Fede Alvarez and his production team have captured the grim atmosphere of Alien and the thrilling action of Aliens almost perfectly. The use of practical effects and realistic miniatures was very refreshing to see in this age of CGI overkill. Seeing a fully realized Xenomorph in the flesh blew me away, and the space scenes were beautiful. This camera work, visual presentation, and quality though limited use of CGI when needed was excellent. Negatives: Average acting, nostalgia-baiting story, copy-pasted dialogue from better Alien movies, and inclusion of elements of inferior prequel lore that I wish didn’t exist in the official canon. Also, the villain reveal was an “oh get out of here” moment, I won’t say more.
Also, the overuse of copied and pasted dialogue from Sigourney Weaver’s best Alien movies was pretty embarrassing
Aside from the great lead actress Spaeny playing her role, the rest of the cast of actors/characters were just okay. I thought the nostalgia-baiting story was boring, glaring and almost breaking the fourth wall, ruined the immersion for me. I’m getting bored of sequels/prequels that rely heavily on lazy “memory berries” to amuse the casual audience while making Alien fans feel embarrassed, almost angry. To be honest, it’s just a lazy script and disrespectful to the other Alien movies that did it first. Unnecessary. 20th Century Studios should have called it Alien: Remember because of the over-reliance on oh, remember this bit from…?
Alien: Romulus, an above-average Alien greatest hits movie, the fourth best film in the franchise
Lastly, trying to inject all the controversial and damaging nonsense from the Prometheus franchise into the movie was frustrating – I hated all that Space Jockey origin and Xenomorph creation crap. And don’t get me started on the villain, I don’t want to spoil anything, but it was just ridiculously lazy. I think slotting the movie in between the first two movies was a mistake because you have to make your movie fit into the established continuity of the franchise with all the necessary tie-ins and plot beats to make it fit. They should have just made a sequel set years after Alien: Resurrection, and set up the start of a new Alien saga long after Weaver’s adventures (and with better writers on board). This had the potential to be on par with Aliens, but due to underwhelming characters, a mediocre “flashback” story, and a poor script, it was a disappointment. The final season of “What We Do in the Shadows” is one of the biggest TV and streaming premieres this month.