Alien: Romulus (2024) Dir: Fede Álvarez
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Coming into the year, this was one of my most anticipated releases. I am a huge fan of the 'Alien' franchise, so the prospect of a new film, and one directed by one of the best horror directors of the last few years; Fede Álvarez, and produced by the original director; Ridley Scott, was extremely exciting to me.
First, I have to address the major problem I had with the film. It was disappointing that A.I. was used for a particular appearance, which not only looked pretty disappointing, but also wasn't even that necessary. I get why they wanted to do it, but also, that character's role could easily have been filled by someone else - an original character - without using the face and likeness of a dead man.
Moving onto the positives - for which there were many. I thought the cinematography was stunning. One or two scenes were a little too dark when they didn't really need to be, but the vast majority of the film looked nightmarish and brilliant. Álvarez clearly got what made the original 'Alien' so scary, and injected his own horrifying vision into the mix to make it that much more so.
The soundtrack was excellent. It emphasised every tense moment, it evoked feelings of fear and foreboding, and it felt very much like a combination of the 'Alien' soundtracks of the past and of Álvarez's previous films. It was infused with a much greater sense of horror, which worked really well for the film.
The physical effects; be it the injury detailing or the awesome animatronics, were very effective. I loved how they looked, and, in conjunction with the CGI versions of the aliens, they made for some very creepy visuals. Honestly, the film looked really good, except for the aforementioned A.I. character.
The story was one that clearly took a lot of inspiration from the 1979 original, while sprinkling in references and narrative breadcrumbs of the more modern films along the way. Elements of the story were very strong, particularly the second act, though, the first act was a little too slow for me, and the third act too fast. That said, it was a pretty damn solid survival horror.
Cailee Spaeny had big shoes to fill as the franchise's next final girl, and while sentimentality has my heart with Ripley, I still really enjoyed Spaeny's resilient protagonist. What was a good sign too, is that the character had a lot of room to grow, which Spaeny exhibited nicely.
David Jonsson took a little bit of getting used to, but once I did, I was very much on board with both his character and his performance. He very much felt and acted the part, and the way he shifted in persona when required was actually quite impressive.
Archie Renaux and Isabella Merced provided the best of the other supporting roles, while Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu gave fairly good accounts of themselves too. I do think that their characters lacked a little bit of depth, for the most part, but their acting negated that slightly.
Overall, while this modern throwback to the 'Alien' of old isn't perfect, it still had a lot of great qualities to it, and had me fully invested the whole way. I loved the horror aspects a lot, but man, do I wish they'd thought of something other than the A.I. character. That aside, this was a really solid entry into the franchise, and I really wouldn't mind seeing Fede do another one.
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