Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 27, 2024 13:35:50 GMT -5
To the credit of director Fede Alvarez, Alien: Romulus DOES have atmosphere to spare, as well as feeling like a film in a franchise that's able to occupy its own little corner of it without feeling too beholden to what came before...for the most part. But more on that in a bit. Alvarez is able to effectively return this series firmly to its horror roots while also putting his own stamp on it stylistically. As already mentioned, the atmosphere in this thing is really strong and much like Ridley Scott did in the very first film back in 1979, Alvarez is able to make the space station itself here as much its own character as the actual characters. It's shot and brought to life in a way that inspires some pretty palpable dread as you're watching the film, and keeping your eyes darting to the edges of the frame to see what may be looking there. Also, the movie does a good job of establishing characters and a central conflict/situation that don't feel like rehashes of the franchise's greatest hits (though, for the latter, it does sort of feel like he borrowed a bit from one of his past films, Don't Breathe). Which is what makes the fact that the film DOES still go for nostalgia and past connections as it goes along kind of disappointing. In terms of the former, it's mainly dialogue callbacks and, yeah, those are expected to a degree. But for the latter, this movie does a certain something that as a friend of mine has pointed out, a lot of Disney productions especially have done recently, and it's something that really wasn't necessary for this. Especially when it was already doing so well. Now, if this certain something had been confined to a small part of the film, maybe it would've been okay. But, no, it's an aspect that's present in pretty much the rest of the film once it's introduced, and it just proves to be a distraction more than anything else.
However, then the movie does something more wholly original and unique in its Third Act that's pretty bonkers, but still works, if nothing else for the sheer boldness and inventiveness, and it ends the movie on something of a high note. Enough to pull it back from the needless decision to connect it to the Ghosts of Movies Past? Mostly. Basically, when Alien: Romulus is allowed to be a Fede Alvarez Alien movie, this thing cooks quite well. When it tries to sort of tie itself back to earlier movies in the series, it feels weighed down. Which makes the end result sort of mixed, leaning towards positive, but, man...this still turned out better than it had any right to be.
**1/2 /****
