Alien: Romulus (2024) - The Re(make)birth of the Alien Universe

 Alien: Romulus (2024)

I had pretty high expectations for this Alien chapter, even though I didn't know exactly what to expect. From the first reviews on Metacritic I had begun to suspect that it could be a classic Disney scam film and so to understand exactly, I went to the theater to see it. The film starts off exceptionally well, with this retrofuturistic setting and these lights and sets that are very reminiscent of Blade Runner 2049: the warm and orange cinematography immediately made me fall in love with the slightly dirty and gloomy vibe, which would then continue for the entire experience. The first act is therefore excellent, full of identity and innovative elements, as well as references to other science fiction films.

The characters are introduced (who are almost too beautiful to be boys forced into forced labor) and from their departure (where I won't say) the adventure begins. The timing in this part is divinely managed, and during the viewing I never had the impression that I was getting bored or anything. From a certain point on, we enter the second act which in my opinion is quite good. The level is similar to the first and everything is really of a quality that I haven't seen in a long time, especially in a blockbuster of "only" 75 million dollars. In short, everything is perfect... if it weren't for that terrible, really terrible choice of adding a certain character. The presence of this character greatly lowers the visual and narrative experience of the second act, both because the actor in question is made with terrible (really horrible) CGI and because he is useless for the purposes of the story, given that he is the copy of another character present in the film; to make sure nothing is missing, the presence of the "actor" in question is ethically questionable within the film (who can understand well), and undoubtedly creates a significant defect in the overall vision. I sometimes wonder if Ridley Scott does it on purpose, or simply does not realize the bullshit he is doing (yes, because the presence of this character was his idea).

Then, with some imperfections, we get to the third act, which in my opinion is simply wonderful: the last 20 minutes of the film are pure tension and terror, with a sensational staging, a photonic editing and really well-made special and prosthetic effects. It's been a long time since I saw a finale and a spannung so full of tension that it would (literally) make everyone's jaw drop in the theater. Despite this level of meticulousness, the final part is not free of defects: in fact, the biggest flaw, as with the rest of the film, is the excessive use of elements, sequences and situations already seen and revisited in the Alien films. It is clear that Fede Álvarez wanted to relaunch the world of Alien by re-proposing already familiar scenes, but on certain occasions it is really too much.
If you manage to get past this big flaw, however (as in my case), what remains when you get to the end is the memory of an excellent film, with some small and simple defects, nothing more. I'm looking forward to seeing the lore around the Alien world being explored further and not just recycled because I feel like it has out-of-this-world potential.



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