Alien: Romulus Review: Great Moments Weighed Down by Nostalgia.

Despite being the most renowned sci-fi horror franchise of all time, the Alien sequels have yet to live up to the excellence of its first two installments.
This was something I hoped would change with Alien: Romulus.
Directed by Fede Álvarez, one of the best horror directors working today, the first teaser for the film truly gripped me, getting me more excited for an Alien movie than I have been in years.
So, the first chance I got, I made my way down to the theater and sat down to watch it.
Unfortunately, I left that theater disappointed.
That is not to say Alien: Romulus is a bad movie, don’t get me wrong.
But the film is simply no better than the many average sequels which came after Aliens.
There are times when the movie is great, but those moments are undermined by a lot of bad.

*Romulus* starts off well, but its issues become more apparent as the film goes on.

Set between Alien and Aliens, Romulus follows a group of young adults who board a deserted research station.
Consisting of Rain (Cailee Spaney), her android brother Andy (David Jonsson), Tyler (Archie Renaux), Kay (Isabela Merced), Bjorn (Spike Bearn) and Navaro (Aileen Wu), this group attempts to find a way to make a better life for themselves, only to be met with a brutal fight for survival as they encounter the most dangerous creature in the universe.
Out of every character in the cast, the best are definitely Rain and Andy.
Their bond is the highlight of the film, with David Jonsson being particularly great as Andy.

Jonsson makes Andy endearing, awesome, and off-putting at different points throughout the film.

As for the rest of the characters, they are fine.
A lot of them are just there to die horribly when things go bad.
Speaking of which, these deaths are really gruesome, with a lot of horrifying practical effects.
The effects for the Aliens are also top notch.
They have been mostly CG for the past few movies, so it was great to see Fede Álvarez return the franchise to its practical roots.

Turns out the Alien is much more threatening when it is actually on stage with the actors. Who would have thought?… okay, everybody already knew that.

Along with the practical effects, the set design is also phenomenal, as is the sound design.
The soundtrack is nothing special, but it gets the job done.
All of these settings combine to create some truly great scenes, most notably with the Facehuggers.
Romulus presents the Facehuggers at their most terrifying, while also adding to the lore of how they operate in fascinating ways.

The Facehuggers have not been this scary since *Aliens.*

All of this is great but, as I said earlier, the movie is weighed down by many problems, chief among them being nostalgia.
Whenever a franchise gets rebooted nowadays, the writers will often have characters repeat famous lines from earlier movies, even when those lines make no sense in the context they are repeated.
Romulus is unfortunately no different.
There is an action scene near the third act which is tense, inventive and one of the best scenes in the film… but then they have to weaken it by having a character awkwardly repeat a line from Aliens.

This scene would have been perfect without the unnecessary callback at the end.

The issues do not end there because, without giving anything away, the movie baits nostalgia using CGI for one specific plot point, and it was just awful.
It looked so bad to the point of distraction, especially compared to the many great practical effects throughout the movie.
And then we have the ending.
Oh, boy, that ending.
Going into Romulus, I had heard that the ending was nuts and yep, it definitely is, but not in a good way.
It starts off well enough, being sufficiently creepy.
However, as the scene goes on, the threat just becomes goofy.
It felt like I was looking at something from a cheesy Resident Evil game rather than something from Alien.

The third act will be divisive, I think. Some people will enjoy it, while others, like me, will not.

I can appreciate Fede Álvarez taking a big swing with his idea for the ending, but it definitely missed for me.
Not to mention this final threat feels extremely similar to an idea from a prior Alien sequel which already failed.
It is a shame that Romulus has all of these issues because, like I said, there are a lot of great things about this movie.
Rain and Andy’s bond is a highlight, the practical effects are amazing, and a lot of the horror and action scenes are intense.
It is all just weighed down by eye rolling nostalgia bait, extremely poor CGI at times, and a third act which just feels goofy and honestly too far removed from Alien.
Overall, Alien: Romulus is still a good movie, but best to temper your expectations before going to see it.

Civil War Review: A Warning Which Should be Heeded.

With the political climate in America being so tumultuous, Alex Garland’s Civil War was destined to be a controversial film.
Like many other people, I was curious to see what side, if any, the film would take in its depiction of a new American civil war.
Quite wisely, in my opinion, Garland chooses not to take a side, but instead focuses on the horrors of such a war if one were to occur.

Certain states allying may not quite make sense politically, but this film is not focused on the politics.

The film follows four journalists played by Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeney, and Stephen McKinley Henderson, who are travelling to Washington DC in the hope of interviewing the US President (Nick Offerman) before he is killed by the rebel Western Forces.
What follows is essentially a road trip movie, with each stopping point delivering a different kind of horrifying war crime committed by both sides and general lunatics.
One such lunatic is Jesse Plemons’ character, a sadistic yet nonchalant militant who holds our main characters at gunpoint in one of the movie’s most tense scenes.

Plemons has a knack for playing creepy psychos. First there was Todd in *Breaking Bad,* now this guy.

All of these actors do great jobs in their respective roles, really selling the trauma developed from the events they encounter.
This is the main focus of the film instead of the political climate.
While reasons for the conflict are alluded to, mostly coming down to the fascist POTUS, Garland spends most of the film pointing out to the audience just how horrible a civil war would be.
This is best encapsulated with a line from Dunst’s character, “Every time I survived a war zone, I thought I was sending a warning home: ‘Don’t do this.’ Yet here we are.’

It felt like Garland was speaking directly to the audience during this scene.

Such warnings are going unheeded right now by some, as I have seen some crazy people calling for a civil war long before this movie came out.
The choice to focus on the horrors of war, rather than the politics, helps sell this message extremely well, especially with how some of the journalist characters become desensitized to the deaths of their fellow countrymen and even friends.
Along with the characters and themes working well together, what also helps Civil War land is the great cinematography and sound design.
The sound of bullets and gunfire feel terrifyingly impactful, and there were many shots which would be beautiful if they were not so disturbing.

The shots, in terms of both the camera and the guns, are visually and audibly haunting.

I do have a few criticisms with the film, though.
For one thing, sometimes the choice in music felt a little wrong for the scene.
And then there is the ending, which was a little too predictable and also a little overly dramatic at one point.
Other than that, one particular point, however, the ending to Civil War lands mostly perfect, with its final image being very striking.

The ending to the film really sells the message Garland is going for.

Civil War is a terrifying look at the chaos which would unfold in America if things truly came to that.
Time will tell if this film will be looked back upon as a chilling what could have been, or an even more chilling representation of what was to come.
We had all better hope it’s the former.

Bad Times at the El Royale Review: A Priest, a Singer and a Cult Leader Walk into a Hotel.

Drew Goddard is a fantastic writer, having many film credits to his name but only one directorial credit, this being The Cabin in the Woods.
Well, now he has two to his name as his latest film Bad Times at the El Royale has been released.
Upon seeing the trailer for this film I was very intrigued by it, although I will admit it showed too much.
Even coming in knowing a few things that were going to happen, however, I still had a blast with this movie.
The basic plot is that a bunch of wacky characters consisting of a priest, a singer, a salesman, a hippie, a psychopathic girl, a guilt ridden hotel employee and a sadistic cult leader all stay for the night in the dying out El Royale Hotel.
Each of them have their own secrets, some not being who they claim they are.
What follows is a series of choices between California and Nevada, good and evil and red and black that results in numerous intense twists and turns.
The acting across the board for this film is stellar with many of the actors including Jeff Bridges, Lewis Pullman and Chris Hemsworth (for the brief time he is in the film) giving knockout performances.
The real standout of the film though is Cynthia Erivo in her film debut as Darlene Sweet, the singer who gets roped in on Bridges’ Father Flynn’s secret plans.
Ervio not only provides great acting but a great voice as well with her singing being of importance to the film, even going on to provide a very tense scene.

Cynthia Erivo does a fantastic job as Darlene Sweet, owning every scene she is in.

Along with the acting, the cinematography is amazing and created tension between characters and added new meaning to scenes.
About half-way through Bad Times at the El Royale I remembered the odd way the first shot of the film was composed and the meaning behind it, which was brilliant.
Seamus McGarvey did an amazing job with the film’s cinematography.
A lot of people are comparing this film to Quentin Tarantino’s work, which I can definitely see because this film reminded me a lot of The Hateful Eight.
However, even though it is reminiscent of Tarantino’s films, it is not dependent on them and stands alone as its own individual film.
The one issue I had was the flashbacks, which were sometimes very jarring.
This is especially apparent in the final act when one of these flashbacks interrupts an action sequence and it took a few minutes for me to adjust as things were explained.

Chris Hemsworth.jpg — The final act, initiated by the arrival of Chris Hemsworth’s charismatic cult leader Billy Lee, is interrupted by a flashback that briefly kills the momentum.

Still, this did not completely put me off as I was still enthralled with the arcs these flashbacks presented for the characters.
Overall, Bad Times at the El Royale was a fantastic film from Goddard that I had a ball with.
That being said the film will not be everyone’s taste with its slow pace, which I think it earns but others may not.
Either way, I still recommend you check it out to see if you like it or not.