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Romulus tied a lot of the previous concepts together.

We get a non-crap looking weirdo hybrid. We get a genuinely convincing reason why The Company is so hellbent on obtaining the Xenomorph - the black goo, so they can forcibly evolve humans to survive on worlds other than Earth with ease.

We learn that Facehuggers hunt by temperature and sound - and see an interesting solution to that.

We learn The Company has a form of indentured servitude, and can just shift the rules whenever it wants.

Our heroes actually have a pretty solid plan to get to a new world. And all was going well until the Facehuggers got released.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, does anything inexplicably dumb. OK, Mr Smoking Weed Is My Entire Personality really shouldn’t have cattleprodded the cocoon, but he’s angry and clearly a dumbass anyway. So yes it’s stupid, but not inexplicably “my what fascinating black goo, I’m gonna lick it for science!” stupid.

 creeping-deth87 wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
And coming after the utter drivel that was Covenant and Prometheus, Romulus gains so much more from the comparison.

Honestly, I don't agree, but I'll concede I'm in the minority of alien fans here. For all that's wrong with Prometheus and Covenant, they at least tried to do something new with the franchise.

I think the long standing fans of these clapped out old franchises (aliens, Star Wars, etc) don’t really want anything new. They want something very familiar with a very, very slight change to the window dressing.

Watched the trailer and it’s more aliens. There is nothing new and interesting that can be done with this stuff it’s been absolutely milked dry over the years. The monster just isn’t scary anymore due to familiarity and no amount of ‘lore’ can fix that.

Maybe the xenomorph will be taken out by something new... and different... and....

Yeah, I don't believe it will happen either.

Ooh... Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem is available to watch for free... wonder if it's the director's cut with the kid enjoying the chestburster (Buddy's buddy )?

Pistols at Dawn wrote:

 creeping-deth87 wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
And coming after the utter drivel that was Covenant and Prometheus, Romulus gains so much more from the comparison.

Honestly, I don't agree, but I'll concede I'm in the minority of alien fans here. For all that's wrong with Prometheus and Covenant, they at least tried to do something new with the franchise.

I think the long standing fans of these clapped out old franchises (aliens, Star Wars, etc) don’t really want anything new. They want something very familiar with a very, very slight change to the window dressing.

Watched the trailer and it’s more aliens. There is nothing new and interesting that can be done with this stuff it’s been absolutely milked dry over the years. The monster just isn’t scary anymore due to familiarity and no amount of ‘lore’ can fix that.

The fix is to have interesting characters do interesting things in the known setting. Romulus did that to a degree Covenant and Prometheus did not, and earned itself some goodwill for it.

Also I'm pretty sure the moral of most movies is that the real monster is man, usually in the form of company men. Yeah, we are by now entirely familiar with that dreadful species and it'd be best to bin the whole concept, but I don't know. Stories about humans just keep coming back. I don't know why that is.

Also also Alien hasn't yet gone the Star Wars route of exploring the larger political situation of the setting. That's an easy way to expand it. I'm hoping for stunning sessions of megacorp trade council meetings myself.

 Geifer wrote:
that the real monster is man

Evey one ripping off The Scary Door.

 Geifer wrote:




Also I'm pretty sure the moral of most movies is that the real monster is man

Always thought this was a trite idea.

Maybe I’m wrong, but based on that trailer it’ll just be more of the same heated up slop we’ve seen for the past 30 years.

At least Ridley tried some Chariot of the Gods nonsense with Prometheus. It was also pretty ropey but at least it attempted something new.

Pistols at Dawn wrote:

 Geifer wrote:




Also I'm pretty sure the moral of most movies is that the real monster is man

Always thought this was a trite idea.

Maybe I’m wrong, but based on that trailer it’ll just be more of the same heated up slop we’ve seen for the past 30 years.

At least Ridley tried some Chariot of the Gods nonsense with Prometheus. It was also pretty ropey but at least it attempted something new.

It wouldn't have been bad if they didn't humanize the engineers.

Here is the thing. We KNOW the engineers were not human-like AT ALL in Alien. The Space Jockey that was fossilized to his chair is both larger then the engineers are presented in Promethius AND that wasn't a space suit it was it's skull. You could SEE it.

The thing about Alien is these monsters are meant to BE Alien. Not in the it's from outer space sense. In the not at all like mankind almost unknowable sense. The Xenomorphs are horrid monsters whose only knowable motivation appeared to be an absolute malice. The Space Jockey's could have engineered mankind. But the why and what for and their own nature should have remained absolutely inhuman and unknown.

Ridley's new concept was flawed from inception. And it wasn't particularly new either. Star Gate did like 15 seasons across 3 shows and 4 movies on that gak.

I'm not confident doing anything interesting with the Engineers would have saved Prometheus and Covenant. Even with that element improved both movies are still Aliens vs Idiots vs Robot with Daddy Issues, and in the case of Prometheus the Aliens part is marginal at best. As long as the exploration of the Engineers happens in that narrative context, I doubt it matters what exactly is done with the the Engineers.

Pistols at Dawn wrote:
Maybe I’m wrong, but based on that trailer it’ll just be more of the same heated up slop we’ve seen for the past 30 years.

Out of curiosity, what would have been an interesting way to take the franchise to you?

I have an idea that involves Kajiu Xenomorphs and 200m tall power loaders...

 Geifer wrote:


Out of curiosity, what would have been an interesting way to take the franchise to you?

End it. Admit that it’s a totally exhausted concept and the monster just isn’t scary anymore.

Whilst I’m wielding the axe I’d do the same to all the other fanboy fave franchises that are hanging around decade after decade long past their prime.

Be careful not to accidentally cut yourself there, Mr Edgy.

 Dysartes wrote:
Be careful not to accidentally cut yourself there, Mr Edgy.

I’ll try, but it’s hard to keep concentration when I’m so busy watching all these really, really, really amazing sequels and prequels and spin offs.

Pistols at Dawn wrote:

 Dysartes wrote:
Be careful not to accidentally cut yourself there, Mr Edgy.

I’ll try, but it’s hard to keep concentration when I’m so busy watching all these really, really, really amazing sequels and prequels and spin offs.

You're not wrong, nothing after Aliens has really proven that the franchise should have continued after that. Even Romulus (which has massive props for going back to practical effects) is really nothing more than rehashed ideas and "look at all these moments were referencing". Things need to know when to bow out gracefully, rather than be dragged through the mud. Half a dozen of the comics are pretty good though.

The alien is no longer the scariest part of the franchise. After Aliens, it’s hard not to see them as merely dangerous animals, essentially wolves with acid blood. But the soulless, corporation run future, that still hits. The sequel to aliens I would want to see would barely have any xenomorph a in it, except maybe as a mcguffin for the main conflict, something that typifies the companies’ exploitation of all life as commodities.


Or just stop. Either’s good.

What I like about the Black Goo angle is it does make a kind of sense.

We see it in 40K, genetic tailoring used to rapidly adapt colonists to new worlds and environments, giving them the best possible chance to thrive and survive.

Weyland Yutani’s desire there is also understandable. But what we see in Romulus are colonists as indentured servants. Sure, the company will pay for your ticket to the colonies, and the deal is you work it off. Nothing inherently wrong with that. But then….the Company can and does just unilaterally shift the goalposts.

We see our heroine complete her contracted quota. But…. Feth You. We’ve decided your quota just increaswd. From 12,032 hours to 24,000 hours.

For context, earlier in that scene we hear an announcement that Day Shift is beginning. That suggests two shifts, and I’ll assume 12 hours per shift.

12,032 hours is 501 days. So, 1002 days to complete, or around 2.75 years - not allowing for days off, sickness etc. Office Lady actually says it’d be around another 5-6 years, so perhaps it’s less than 12 hours per shift.

And what can you do about it? Nobody much cares if you arse around in space worthy ships. Because the cryosleep stuff is strictly regulated, and none of you bums are allowed any. Until you complete your quota.

That’s….far more evil than “mwahahaha we am has living weapon” stuff. That’s possibly bordering on outright slavery. If Weyland Yutani ever cracked the Black Goo as the tool it wanted? You’re even more stuffed, as there’s little to stop them ensuring you can only survive on whichever colony they put you on. Or do a Jem Hadar and get you genetically addicted to something only it can provide. Which you’ll only get if you’re a good little modified monkey.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, props again for their plan being a good one. They know where they need to go, and adapt on the fly when they need the cryosauce.

If it hadn’t been the same cryosauce keeping Facehuggers on ice? It would’ve worked. And Romulus station would’ve been destroyed in the rings over Jackson’s Hole.

Everything after Alien is an adventure story in an established universe. There is a valuable place for adventure stories, even if they don't bring anything particularly new. Spectacle is a thing, and seeing a competently told tale is satisfying in and of itself. Also, for some, Romulus will be the entry point to the series and a lot of it will be new.

Prometheus and Covenant make such a hash of the central characters and situation that the lovely graphics and set design couldn't do enough to make them enjoyable films.

@MDG, that company f—ery sounds like the kind of horror I was looking for. The black goo…eh. It’s too attached to Prometheus to cause me any reaction other than cringing. And they already have synthetic humans to explore similar themes.

I don’t know. Maybe I’ve just had enough Aliens for a while.

Perhaps. But I feel Romulus still embraced the legacy of the Dark Horse comics.

One of the things that I really liked about Romulus is that I think every single decision that the humans make is believable in their context. They are a bunch of ill-educated teenage delinquents from a mining colony. They have technical knowledge from their work and environment, but limited knowledge about anything outside their planet, certainly no knowledge about alien life of any kind, they’re trying to escape from a desperate situation using illegal methods and they’re full of the arrogance and impetuousness of youth.

So every mistake they make, every impulsive decision is completely understandable. Unlike certain other entries in the franchise…

I wouldn’t say they even do anything objectively stupid.

As noted, it all goes wrong when they grab the cryogas. Something their plan required.

If anything, their mistake was not stopping to think “wait, what is this currently being used for?”.

But then…..as far as they were concerned, the station was a derelict. So I can understand not checking every last thing. And Andy not having clearance to open lockdown doors I can file under unforeseen due to inexperience.

Compare to Prometheus.

“a group of underdogs find themselves in a deserted planet/spaceship/facility and wander around for a bit. Eventually one of them decides to stick their face right next to the weird creepy egg and gets attacked. The monster appears and picks off most of the cast until a big finale where they kill it”

There you go there’s the story of every aliens sequel, prequel and spin off past and present. That’s all it’s ever going to be.

At least Romulus made more money than Covenant.


Prometheus $403 million

Alien: Covenant $240 million

Alien: Romulus $350 million

Ahhh…but!

Prometheus cost $120m-$130m to make.

Covenant cost $97m-$111m to make

Romulus cost $80m.

So even better, Romulus is the most profitable of the three. Especially when you factor in that, reputedly, the filming budget is typically matched by the marketing budget.

Last I checked, doesn't "Hollywood Accounting" need to you to make 2.5x your filming budget to be a success?

Covenant ends up on some real thin ice there, depending on how far north of the minimum it ended up costing.

Pistols at Dawn wrote:
“a group of underdogs find themselves in a deserted planet/spaceship/facility and wander around for a bit. Eventually one of them decides to stick their face right next to the weird creepy egg and gets attacked. The monster appears and picks off most of the cast until a big finale where they kill it”

There you go there’s the story of every aliens sequel, prequel and spin off past and present. That’s all it’s ever going to be.

That doesn’t sound like either Aliens or Alien 3, or even Alien 4.

 AduroT wrote:

Pistols at Dawn wrote:
“a group of underdogs find themselves in a deserted planet/spaceship/facility and wander around for a bit. Eventually one of them decides to stick their face right next to the weird creepy egg and gets attacked. The monster appears and picks off most of the cast until a big finale where they kill it”

There you go there’s the story of every aliens sequel, prequel and spin off past and present. That’s all it’s ever going to be.

That doesn’t sound like either Aliens or Alien 3, or even Alien 4.

Nor, the masterpiece known as Alien vs. Predator: Requiem.

 Dysartes wrote:
Last I checked, doesn't "Hollywood Accounting" need to you to make 2.5x your filming budget to be a success?

Covenant ends up on some real thin ice there, depending on how far north of the minimum it ended up costing.

Something like that.

For a post from yesterday I started watching Romulus again for accurate info. And I come back to finish that watch tonight? I’m struck by another part of its appeal. It’s so well made as a prequel? It could easily be the first Alien movie you see. It doesn’t really spoil much for Alien or Aliens.

Sure, Rook means you know Ash is a synthetic, but not that he’s a dodgy git that’s gonna go loopy. But Alien and Aliens could still serve as prequel and sequel to it, which is nice.

Also, I enjoy rewatching it to spot ever more little details and call backs. Like the set dressing, especially the….lab I guess, they find Rook in? Seamless with the established look of the universe. The overall attention to detail is just superb.

 Dysartes wrote:
Last I checked, doesn't "Hollywood Accounting" need to you to make 2.5x your filming budget to be a success?

The "2.5x your filming budget" is for advertising and other things not covered in the filming budget.

 Dysartes wrote:
Last I checked, doesn't "Hollywood Accounting" need to you to make 2.5x your filming budget to be a success?

"Hollywood Accounting" just means that the studios have creative ways of determine if a movie was a profitable or not; there is no set number or formula. Probably the most famous example is declaring that Forest Gump made no money so they didn't owe the author of the book anything because his contract was based on net and not gross.

The 2x/2.5x usually usually comes up as a simple way to figure the final cost of the film i.e. production + marketing. If they say a movie cost 90 million then double that to 180 million for the studio to cover all the costs.