Alien: Romulus (2024 film directed by Fede Álvarez) (previously: So Disney has ordered a direct-to-Hulu Alien movie)

[Mr. Hooper 3,750]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

Unlike most other franchises, all films in the saga are blessed with auteur stamps (they use the very basic premise and create their own art out of it), and this is no exception.

Because the basic premise of the 'Alien' franchise (outside of the 'Prometheus' detour) is simple, I'd say it does benefit from each movie having its own idiosyncratic spin from an auteurist director, to keep it fresh and interesting.

 

But if we were talking about a series like 'Star Wars', I'd want more of a journeyman director who understands s/he's playing in George Lucas' sandbox, and who'll keep the visual language and storytelling technique consistent.

 

Yes, everything comes back to 'Star Wars'. lol

[Thor 8,700]

Too much STAR WARS.

[Mr. Hooper 3,750]

[Not Mr. Big 4,749]

I'd personally rather see a continuation of the David saga than another standard horror film

[Jay 40,304]

7 new posters: https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/1817681-alien-romulus-posters

[Edmilson 9,440]

A relative of mine took her 11 year old daughter to watch Twisters in theaters and now she wants to see Alien: Romulus so much after seeing the trailer . No, she hasn't seen any other Alien movies and as far as I know this was her first contact with the Xenomorphs.

 

Kinda reminds me of myself at her age when I thought the first AvP was going to be the best and most badass movie of the year. The soul crushing disappointment when I saw the movie and it was garbage still makes me angry. 

[A24 4,662]

 The tagline was "Whoever wins, we lose."

 

For once, advertising was honest. -Dailymotion

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 10,795]

AvP is soul-crushingly stupid, but it's still a lot of fun to watch.

[A24 4,662]

17 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

AvP is soul-crushingly stupid, but it's still a lot of fun to watch.

 

I agree but it was a good thing that I no longer cared for these movie franchises before I started watching AvP. I expected a bad Paul W.S. Anderson movie but what I got was an entertaining exploitation B movie flick.

[Naïve Old Fart 10,795]

When did you tune out of the AU, Alex?

[A24 4,662]

Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. 

 

And as I said multiple times before, I still can't stand Alien 3 but I've come to appreciate Resurrection for its overt Métal Hurlant tone and feel, which was of course already present in Scott's movie (the comic book magazine was a huge inspiration for Ridley Scott during Alien and Blade Runner), but with Marc Caro by his side, Jeunet even took it a step further. 

 

 

 

 

 

The cast of Alien: Romulus ... or are these the new MTV VJs?

[Thor 8,700]

6 hours ago, A24 said:

 

I agree but it was a good thing that I no longer cared for these movie franchises before I started watching AvP. I expected a bad Paul W.S. Anderson movie but what I got was an entertaining exploitation B movie flick.

 

That's not so strange, because that IS Anderson's forte -- lifting B movie material to fantastic setpieces and visual ideas. Probably my favourite director of all the 'action auteurs' out there.

[Richard P 4,375]

6 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

AvP is soul-crushingly stupid, but it's still a lot of fun to watch.

 

If we denounced every movie that was mind-numbingly stupid, we wouldn't be left with much.

 

My one hope for this film is that Wallfisch has found the same sort of inspiration that Streitenfeld and Kurzel found for the last two.

[Tallguy 4,740]

5 hours ago, A24 said:

or are these the new MTV VJs?

 

That's not a thing, is it?

[Edmilson 9,440]

I remember what made me so disappointed about AvP was the fact that the Predator later teams up with a human to beat the alien queen. 11 year old me was like "hey, the Predator is not a hero! He shouldn't be teaming up with any humans! I want a movie about two vicious alien creatures battling each other while also going after some puny humans!"

 

I guess if I rewatch it now, as an adult and with a more mature eye I may appreciate it for what it is: B-movie schlock fun. 

 

As for AvP 2: Requiem, I never had any desire to watch it and never will.

[A24 4,662]

42 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

That's not a thing, is it?

 

It's no longer a thing, but it used to be! I guess seeing the cast in this photo brings back a lot of memories.

[Edmilson 9,440]

This will be the first Alien flick with a teenage* cast, isn't it? The other humans that became Xenomorph food in previous movies were all adult IIRC.

 

Guess this is Disney's strategy of making young people interested in Alien again. It worked for my cousin's daughter lol.

 

*As in, 25-30 year olds that Hollywood uses to represent teens.

[Jay 40,304]

54 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

I remember what made me so disappointed about AvP was the fact that the Predator later teams up with a human to beat the alien queen. 11 year old me was like "hey, the Predator is not a hero! He shouldn't be teaming up with any humans! I want a movie about two vicious alien creatures battling each other while also going after some puny humans!"

 

That always made sense to me, though maybe because I read the Dark Horse comics first.  The first Predator movie paints the one predator we simply simply as a hunter of humans, but by the end of the second film they were already starting to be painted as a noble race, not killing unarmed / pregnant people throughout, and then letting Danny Glover live and giving him a prize for defeating one of their own.  The Dark Horse comic is actually really cool, it was about a human colony on a planet where the predators (unknown to them) had basically "stocked" it with facehuggers in order to breed aliens for them to hunt (kind of like stocking a fishing pond).  The main character ends up earning the respect of some predators their and wearing a bunch of their gear. It was a way better story than we got in the terrible movie

[tomsmoviemadness 3,693]

18 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

This will be the first Alien flick with a teenage* cast, isn't it? The other humans that became Xenomorph food in previous movies were all adult IIRC.

 

Guess this is Disney's strategy of making young people interested in Alien again. It worked for my cousin's daughter lol.

 

*As in, 25-30 year olds that Hollywood uses to represent teens.

 

Everybody in this cast is above 23 years old. So yes they're young, but they're not teenagers. They're all in the middle of their 20's.

Sigourney Weaver was 29 while filming, so I don't think the difference is that big. It doesn't bother me.

[Thor 8,700]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

I remember what made me so disappointed about AvP was the fact that the Predator later teams up with a human to beat the alien queen. 11 year old me was like "hey, the Predator is not a hero! He shouldn't be teaming up with any humans! I want a movie about two vicious alien creatures battling each other while also going after some puny humans!"

 

One of my favourite parts of the film! I like the whole idea of having the predators there as a (brutal) confirmation ritual. Even from the first film, they were always humanoid - equipped with advanced technology. So it makes sense that they could potentially team up with a human that showcased some of their virtues. I liked the expanding of the predator's universe in these two films, although - as we see clips from the home planet in AvP 2 - it makes one ponder the existence of everyday predators, like predator carpenters and predator plumbers, taking part in building said civilization. Kinda funny, and probably takes some of the horrific edge out, but it was always there, from the Schwarzenegger film onwards.

 

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

As for AvP 2: Requiem, I never had any desire to watch it and never will.

 

It's not a great film, but it's WILDLY underrated. Has some spectacularly tense scenes, and the whole idea of putting xenomorphs into everyday, contemporary earth situations is horrific. Actually mirrored in many of my own actual nightmares. The film has one of the creepiest scenes in all of the series in this vein, but I'm not going to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it.

[Edmilson 9,440]

1 hour ago, JNHFan2000 said:

 

Everybody in this cast is above 23 years old. So yes they're young, but they're not teenagers. They're all in the middle of their 20's.

Sigourney Weaver was 29 while filming, so I don't think the difference is that big. It doesn't bother me.

The cast might be over 20 but how old will the characters be? Without having seen the film, I imagine they're like 18 or 19. And it's not a new thing: Hollywood has always used people over 25 years old to represent characters in their late teens. That what I was trying to say. So in a way you kinda confirmed what I said.

 

53 minutes ago, Thor said:

It's not a great film, but it's WILDLY underrated. Has some spectacularly tense scenes, and the whole idea of putting xenomorphs into everyday, contemporary earth situations is horrific. Actually mirrored in many of my own actual nightmares. The film has one of the creepiest scenes in all of the series in this vein, but I'm not going to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it.

You know, you actually made me want to see it! Most of my prejudice is because of the horrible reviews it got, but even taking into account it's no masterpiece you description sound very interesting. The idea of xenos walking among a "regular" human setting (a small town, not a spaceship or something) is actually pretty interesting. I'll try to watch it one of these days.

[tomsmoviemadness 3,693]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

The cast might be over 20 but how old will the characters be? Without having seen the film, I imagine they're like 18 or 19. And it's not a new thing: Hollywood has always used people over 25 years old to represent characters in their late teens. That what I was trying to say. So in a way you kinda confirmed what I said.

Mmm, okay.

[Andy 5,419]

My daughter is 21 and has never seen any of the Alien films.  I’ve tried, but she’s always choose something else.  But she loves the Conjuring universe movies.  This looks like something she and I would enjoy together. 
 

Now, do I educate her on the first two films or let Romulus be her first?

[Thor 8,700]

2 minutes ago, Andy said:

Now, do I educate her on the first two films or let Romulus be her first?

 

Oooh, tricky. ROMULUS would play more to her generation, I suppose, but I first saw ALIEN as a 10-year-old (or something like that) - far too young - in the late 80s, a decade after it had come out. And it scared the shit out of me. It has that timeless, universal quality. The slow tempo would probably freak her out, as that's not so common these days. If there's room for it, I'd suggest start with ALIEN first, then ROMULUS (which continues the storyline right after ALIEN anyway), then you have the rest if she's up for more.

[Tallguy 4,740]

39 minutes ago, Andy said:

My daughter is 21 and has never seen any of the Alien films.  I’ve tried, but she’s always choose something else.  But she loves the Conjuring universe movies.  This looks like something she and I would enjoy together. 
 

Now, do I educate her on the first two films or let Romulus be her first?

 

Throw her in with this as her first movie. Let us know how it goes!

[Mr. Hooper 3,750]

3 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Throw her in with this as her first movie.

Agree. Let her first exposure be on the Big Screen—IMAX, if available.

 

Then show her where it began.

[Andy 5,419]

You guys are awesome. You give the best parenting advice. 

[Mr. Hooper 3,750]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

You guys are awesome. You give the best parenting advice. 

These are important decisions. It's good that you came to us.

 

You need good, stern advice that starts with "throw her in". 

[Tallguy 4,740]

My kids liked Alien but didn't really find it very scary. OTOH after he had seen the movie I let my boy play the game Alien: Isolation. He lasted about 10 minutes.

 

Heh. We were at a Veteran's Day parade here in the U.S. and it had been a long day and the kids had had it. They were... Six and seven I think? But we couldn't cross back to our car until the parade was over. At the end of the parade was when everyone was silent as the people carrying pictures of vets killed in action went by. That was when the kids got antsy and vocally whiny. "We're BORED. Can we GO now?" We tried to do the "Not long now. You have to be quiet, this is important" etc. But they were in brat mode.

 

So we took them home and made them watch Saving Private Ryan. They got to where the fellow picks up his own arm and they both said they were sorry and could they go now?

[Meredith McKay 7,071]

2 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

These are important decisions. It's good that you came to us.

 

You need good, stern advice that starts with "throw her in". 

[Andy 5,419]

58 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

So we took them home and made them watch Saving Private Ryan. They got to where the fellow picks up his own arm and they both said they were sorry and could they go now?

I saw Deadpool and Wolverine today and there was a boy and girl in there about the age yours were.  I wonder what they did to deserve that punishment.  

[Tallguy 4,740]

7 hours ago, Andy said:

You guys are awesome. You give the best parenting advice. 

 

I knew this would come back to bite me but I didn't expect it so soon. Do I show my kids the mini series of Time Bandits before they see the classic film?

[Thor 8,700]

8 hours ago, Tallguy said:

My kids liked Alien but didn't really find it very scary. OTOH after he had seen the movie I let my boy play the game Alien: Isolation. He lasted about 10 minutes.

 

Heh. We were at a Veteran's Day parade here in the U.S. and it had been a long day and the kids had had it. They were... Six and seven I think? But we couldn't cross back to our car until the parade was over. At the end of the parade was when everyone was silent as the people carrying pictures of vets killed in action went by. That was when the kids got antsy and vocally whiny. "We're BORED. Can we GO now?" We tried to do the "Not long now. You have to be quiet, this is important" etc. But they were in brat mode.

 

So we took them home and made them watch Saving Private Ryan. They got to where the fellow picks up his own arm and they both said they were sorry and could they go now?

 

Excellent parenting, if you ask me.

[Jurassic Shark 13,740]

He should have put on Stepmom.

[A24 4,662]

12 hours ago, Tallguy said:

My kids liked Alien but didn't really find it very scary.

 

If kids never watched a movie before or played a computer game, Alien would have made them sh!t in their pants. Alien worked, because when it was released in 1979, people never saw anything like this before. It's why Romulus will not work either. It looks too familiar and it's the 'unknown' that is scary. 

 

Today, I love Alien, not for the scares, but because it's such a beautiful atmospheric movie, wonderfully designed and directed, just like 2001: ASO.

[Mr. Hooper 3,750]

If a scare film is well done and gets me invested, even if it goes over familiar ground, it'll work on me. It'll be no different for 'Romulus'.

 

And that holds true even for something I've seen umpteen times, like the original 'Alien'...

 

I know where all the jump scares are, but even seeing them coming, they get me (e.g., the xenomorph reaching out for Dallas), because Ridley Scott and his crew did their jobs very well.

[Andy 5,419]

The facehugger out of the egg still gets me.  It’s just horrible. 
 

Not a jump scare, but I still have trouble with the first victim in Jaws. I’ve seen all the behind the scenes. I’ve met Susan Backeline.  But still, there are times when I want to skip the scene because it’s so upsetting. 

[Mr. Hooper 3,750]

13 minutes ago, Andy said:

The facehugger out of the egg still gets me.  It’s just horrible.

Right, that's the best example, actually. Not sure why it didn't come to mind first!

[Tallguy 4,740]

The chestbuster. It's not JUST a jump scare. And the performances are amazing. They're actually scared and freaked out!

[Naïve Old Fart 10,795]

On 01/08/2024 at 2:38 AM, Tallguy said:

Do I show my kids the mini series of Time Bandits before they see the classic film?

 

Absolutely not!

What in the name of Wide World of Sports are you thinking, boy?! 

[Edmilson 9,440]

Since it's Taika Waititi, I'd say this new Time Bandits is closer in quality to the 2016 Ben-Hur remake than the 1959 Ben-Hur remake 

[Tallguy 4,740]

25 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

Absolutely not!

What in the name of Wide World of Sports are you thinking, boy?! 

 

I wasn't hating the Apple Time Bandits until God showed up. So I'm probably not going to go that route now.

[Thor 8,700]

TIME BANDITS was directed by Terry Gilliam, who doesn't like ALIEN, so still on-topic!

[Tallguy 4,740]

Gilliam doesn't like Alien? Why not? Other than being Terry Gilliam, I mean.

[Mr. Hooper 3,750]

6 minutes ago, Thor said:

TIME BANDITS was directed by Terry Gilliam, who doesn't like ALIEN, so still on-topic!

 

Unacceptable. Only Star Wars can hijack a thread.

 

So unless someone can say what Gilliam's thoughts were on SW, let's move on. 

[Meredith McKay 7,071]

3 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

 

Unacceptable. Only Star Wars can hijack a thread.

 

So unless someone can say what Gilliam's thoughts were on SW, let's move on. 

Well, he isn't a fan of Williams, namely E.T. or CE3K, who scored SW

[Mr. Hooper 3,750]

1 minute ago, The Great Gonzales said:

Well, he isn't a fan of Williams, namely E.T. or CE3K, who scored SW

Too many degrees of separation. lol

[Edmilson 9,440]

41 minutes ago, The Great Gonzales said:

Well, he isn't a fan of Williams, namely E.T. or CE3K, who scored SW

Me if I ever see Terry Gilliam walking down the street:

 

[Tallguy 4,740]

You know Star Trek has been doing a pretty good Alien pastiche the last couple of seasons...

[A24 4,662]

7 hours ago, Thor said:

TIME BANDITS was directed by Terry Gilliam, who doesn't like ALIEN.

 

???

 

What does he have against it? Perhaps to him Alien is not absurd enough?