Review of the film ‘Alien: Romulus’ (2024)
At the beginning of the film, a scene shows a human spaceship finding a piece of the Nostromo in space - and, you guess it, it contains a nasty surprise inside. Later on, in colony LV-410 we find the protagonists. A group of five workers fed up with being exploited by the Weyland-Yutani corporation aspire to reach an inhabitable planet ouf of the Weyland-Yutani grasp. They already have a cargo spaceship and a defective android, so the only thing they need is cryogenic pods and cryogenic fuel - and then they detect a drifting space station in space about to collide with the rings of the planet. A simple plan - board the space station, pick up cryogenic equipment, and leave.
The plot by Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues makes the protagonists encounter all the possible dilemmas and conflicts, making the most of the scenario - an All-Star script that puts together the most intense situations from the saga, with outstanding dialogues. Alvarez’s direction is brilliant, with a particularly magnificent scenography that follows closely the one from the first film. A few small mistakes: I will always consider a plot hole the Alien growing several times its size without feeding. Humans being able to outsmart their enemies works fine for action films but makes horror films less thrilling. At some point a 47-minute countdown starts, and even though it matches the film time it feels much longer because of jumps in the action. Also, the characters don’t seem to hurry up that much.
Even though the pair of creators are uruguayan the British production shows, not only because of the accent of some of the actors, but for the attention to detail - the smallest mistakes have consequences, the smallest objects become critical. The cinematography is good, and the music from Benjamin Wallfisch suits the action excellently .
As for the acting, it is not the best part - acting direction seems to be missing. Isabela Merced makes a weak performance. Cailee Spaeny, Archie Renaux and Spike Fearn are just about. Aileen Wu is fine. The best performances are the ones for the androids - David Johnsson steals the show with his brilliant performance of Andy, and Daniel Betts makes an outstanding performance of Rook, with his face and voice modified digitally to appear as Ian Holm’s (the player of Ash in the first Alien film ).
All in all, an excellent film, 4 out of 5. Why is it not a masterpiece? Well, it would be if it was original. Writers enjoyed the advantage of picking up the most intense moments from the previous films and putting them together. If you haven’t seen the previous Alien films and watch this one, it will certainly appear as a masterpiece to you.
Title: |
Alien: Romulus |
Genre: |
Horror |
Year: |
2024 |
Nationality: |
United Kingdom, United States, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, Canada |
Colour: |
Colour |
Director: |
Fede Alvarez |
Writer: |
Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues, Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett |
Cast: |
Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu, Rosie Ede, Soma Simon, Bence Okeke, Viktor Orizu, Robert Bobroczkyi, Trevor Newlin, Annemarie Griggs, Ian Holm, Daniel Betts |
Producer: |
Walter Hill, Michael Pruss, Ridley Scott, Gergö Balika |
Executive producer: |
Fede Alvarez, Elizabeth Cantillon, Tom Moran, Brent O'Connor |
Production designer: |
Naaman Marshall |
Cinematographer: |
Galo Olivares |
Film editor: |
Jake Roberts |
Casting: |
Sydney Shircliff, Mary Vernieu |
Art Director: |
Monica Alberte, Lili Bartha, Joe Dunckley, Tobias Frank, Greg Hajdu, Jane Harwood, Miklós Hatvani-Deàk, Shira Hockman, Biljana Jovanovic, Hazel Keane, Dave Kellom, Tibor Lázár, Adam O'Neill, Annamária Orosz, Mary Pike, Matt Sims, Róbert Taller, Justin Warburton-Brown |
Set Decorator: |
Zsuzsanna Sipos, Toppler Zoltán |
Costume Designer: |
Carlos Rosario |
Music: |
Benjamin Wallfisch |
Running time: |
119 minutes |
Language: |
English |
Comments
Post a Comment