In the Alien films, a xenomorph is a monstrous, all-consuming life form that exists only to make more and more copies of itself. Once the first xenomorph appears, it’s only a matter of time until all those gleaming chrome walls will be covered in creepy black goo and the humans suspended lifeless from the ceiling

Anyway, Alien: Romulus is the seventh film about these particular monsters. According to the producers, the film takes the franchise ‘back to its roots’. So we get a group of grimy crew-mates piloting a big rust-bucket of a spaceship who pick up an extraterrestrial stowaway and end up having to use their wits and courage to survive as it gobbles them up, one by one.

And it’s not a bad film. It’s nicely creepy, the special effects are good, the acting is perfectly serviceable. In fact, I could give you a normal review of Alien: Romulus, but just writing this is making me feel a little crazy. It’s not a bad film, but it’s also a direct copy of a much better film that already exists. That film is called Alien, and it came out in 1979. It had Sigourney Weaver in it. It hasn’t vanished. If you have a Disney+ subscription or a torrent client, you can watch it tonight. Why have we made it again? What’s the point? Why have we spent the past 45 years – which is longer than I’ve been alive – making seven different versions of the same film? What on Earth is going on?

  • UKFilmNerdMEnglish
    121·
    24 days ago

    Romulus would be better without the callbacks to the first two films. One character in particular I wish was someone else entirely. Also, I didn’t like the ending as it tied into Prometheus/Covenant, my least favourite of the Alien franchise.

    I feel Alien has gone the way of Star Wars which keeps linking to the Skywalker’s. Let Alien break free of the Ripley verse (She’s even in Romulus as a well hidden Easter Egg!) and do something different. The comics have had excellent stories over the years, adapt one of those.

    One of my favourites is Aliens: Labyrinth which is about a crazy scientist on a deep space station who has successfully got the alien species under control. His backstory is quite something and you know it will go wrong in the end.

    • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      24 days ago

      Agreed. The star wars stuff that is great is the stuff that isn’t tied down to the original trilogy characters and plot. it’s stuff that expands upon it with new characters and stories in the existing universe’s rules.

      This is why the star wars prequels/sequels were so poorly received, they were totally inconsistent with the universe for the sake of ham-fisting in the original characters and re hashing the original plotline of the first trilogy. There was no respect for the rules that were established in the OG trilogy that people came to know and love.

      • UKFilmNerdMEnglish
        3·
        24 days ago

        Agreed. Apart from Andor, I haven’t really liked anything else. Take Obi Wan for example. It felt to me like shoehorning in a new story that didn’t need to exist at all.