Alien: Romulus- In Space, No One Can Hear Fede Alvarez
Quick Take: I’ve seen all the Alien movies except one. I don’t want you to know which one, but in general, I’m informed. A lot has been said about Fede Alvarez’s take on the franchise, as some find it to be nostalgia bait, with him just retreading steps taken before. There’s actually a lot to dislike here, or pick apart. he has literally used generative AI to bring back Ian Holm for an actual performance, despite his death in 2020. I wonder if ian would have agreed to this. Sure, it’s a spoiler, but it is also one of the most talked about elements of this film. Largely, because it is a “performance”, but by who?
He also leans into ideas from better directors, taking from Prometheus, and ripping dialog straight out of James Cameron’s Aliens. So, while Fede is busy trying to pretend he’s a bunch of better directors, what I liked was what he brought to the table. probably more so than any previous director, Alvarez takes the acid to an interesting level. Not only do we see in gory detail as it eats away at one of the doomed few, but there’s an excellent zero gravity sequence that is so memorable it could define the franchise.
This is absolutely a mixed bag, but Fede has been here before. He couldn’t out direct Sam Raimi with Evil dead, so he did his own thing. I wish he had done more of that here, because the few moments that are definitively Fede ALvarez are the best moments. the audio description here is incredible. Those acid scenes are so well described, and lots of the gore, and weird monsters, have so much detail. This also had a pretty decent score, for those who enjoyed music. I think there’s more to like here than not, but it certainly can’t touch the first two in the franchise, and might have to settle being about as good as Prometheus. For more, check out my video.
