Month: August 2024

Alien: Romulus Is More Than We Deserve

Ever since I watched Aliens and collected the Kenner action figures as a kid, the Alien series has stood firmly as the bedrock upon which my love for science fiction, movies and games is built upon. While the franchise is fully fleshed out by now with novels, comics, games (especially the magnificent Alien: Isolation), tabletop games, short films, crossovers, and even an audio play, the film series has seen uneven output since 1986. ALIEN3 and Resurrection were generally disliked because of studio meddling with the former and an ill-suited director with the latter. Then came Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, which were much better received but got plenty of flak over a number of questionable narrative choices, such as the flat-out imbecilic decision making of characters who should have known better (ie the biologist who tries to pet the hammerpede). After Covenant underperformed financially and the Great Satan, sometimes known as Disney, purchased 20th Century Fox, Alienites such as myself were worried that the film franchise would be no more. Thankfully, Alien: Romulus shows us that its sometimes great to be proven wrong.

Considering the gap between Aliens and Romulus was literally my entire life so far, my expectations were measured. When I read the early press description, it seemed like it would be a standalone story with a small scope and small cast; essentially the equivalent of the most recent Predator movie, Prey. The writer and director, Fede Álvarez, made the excellent Don’t Breathe, and interviews he gave showed that he wasn’t just a studio-mandated hired gun, but a die-hard Alien fan who read the comics, played Isolation and consulted with both Ridley Scott and James Cameron. In short, I had plenty of reason to believe that this would be a competently made movie that would nevertheless be a side story to the greater Alien film narrative.

It turns out that Romulus is way more than what I expected. Way, way more. Not only is it very well made, with an excellent cast, creative set pieces, loads of suspense and eye-gluing special effects, it narratively bridges the gap between the prequels and the first two movies and expands on the overall story arc in ways that exceeded my expectations. This it not a standalone side story, but a full-blown chapter of the Alien saga that stands shoulder to shoulder with Alien and Aliens.

No movie can succeed without a strong cast, and Romulus easily boasts the most compelling cast of characters since Aliens thanks to the way the script establishes their backstories. I was initially skeptical when I saw that the cast would be entirely young adults barely out of their teens, as it gave the impression of a slasher flick filled with dumb, obnoxious kids who would bumble their way into a facehugger’s embrace. However, after Álvarez explained how he was inspired by a deleted scene from Aliens that showed children playing on Hadley’s Hope, it made total sense to explore a story that would show how the harsh world of Alien had robbed new generations of humanity of everything we take for granted today. The characters of Romulus are easy to sympathize with as a result, having grown up on a Weyland-Yutani mining planet that never sees sunlight and is so harsh that all their parents have died from working in the mines. In particular, Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her artificial brother Andy (David Jonsson), are characters you can root for thanks to their plausible and relatable characterization. Rain, for instance, is a warm and mild-mannered person, which stands in sharp contrast to her cynical shipmates and her brutal living conditions. This is subtly explained to be the result of her father, who was so kindhearted that he adopted the unwanted and discarded Andy and reprogrammed him to be a member of the family. Throughout her ordeal onboard the Romulus, she serves as an anchor point for the audience, reacting to each situation realistically and in line with her characterization. Unlike recent franchise blockbusters like Terminator: Dark Fate or anything by JJ Abrams, she doesn’t start spouting improbably witty one liners, boss the men around, or magically become a xeno-stomping ultimate badass. During the final sequence, I was genuinely rooting for her while being concerned for her safety. The last time I felt that strongly about a protagonist was Top Gun: Maverick. The fact that Rain’s actress, Cailee Spaeny, is a mere five feet tall heightens her physical vulnerability against the overwhelming threat facing her. Thanks to Fede Álvarez’s understanding of the source material, her ability to push forward for the sake of her brother Andy draws inspiration from Ellen Ripley, whose determination to rescue Newt allows her to overcome the odds despite not being a soldier.

And speaking of Andy, Romulus successfully continues the Alien film tradition of the android being the most interesting character. While Ash and David were evil and Bishop, Walter and Call were good, Andy is one or the other, depending on which chip is installed in him. This is such an obvious yet never-before-utilized plot point that highlights how androids, no matter how human they seem, are only a directive change away from being either undyingly loyal or utterly amoral. Actor David Jonsson is exceptional at portraying both the subtle and extreme differences between Andy’s two personalities with machine-like precision. It makes Andy Serkis’s portrayal of Gollum look overblown. He and Rain form an effective dynamic that carries the movie’s emotional weight throughout its two hour runtime, and it made me care for them during their many perilous moments.

By far my favorite thing about Romulus is that it finally gives legitimacy to the prequels. In the years since Prometheus and Alien: Covenant came out, fans have speculated and argued about the new revelations they presented, such as whether or not the xenomorphs really did originate from the black liquid. I myself felt that the huge time gap between Covenant and Alien, along with the many unanswered questions about how the story elements from the prequels factored into the classics, made the two groups feel like very, very distant cousins. Romulus, by virtue of several critical plot points that draw elements from Prometheus and inject them into the Alien time period, makes these movies feel less like distant cousins and more like brothers. Considering that I walked into the theater thinking it would be little more than teens getting murdered by xenos on a ship, I was pleasantly surprised that Romulus went above and beyond by bringing a better sense of cohesion between all the good Alien movies.

Is Alien Romulus as good as Alien and Aliens? It comes very close, although I will say it could have used longer and more gratuitous death scenes. Yes, I know I sound like a sick bastard for saying that, but with a cast of only six characters and more creative room to showcase the magnificence of the iconic titular creature, Romulus had the opportunity to show a fresher and more gruesome perspective to being slaughtered by a xenomorph. Instead, the deaths are depicted with the same economy as the classic movies. I understand the rationale of going back to the style of the originals, but considering how familiar the alien is to filmgoers by now, I think this is one area where Álvarez could have taken it further to unveil a new level of horror with this creature. The movie also takes the fanservice a little too far with the characters quoting a few classic lines from Alien and Aliens word for word. The sentiment is appreciated, but the visual, aural and narrative design in Romulus are so good that they’re all the service the fans need. Instead, that kind of distraction is best left to trash like Aliens vs Predator and its sequel.

Still, Romulus is a hell of a good time and packed with so many things diehard fans like myself have been dying to see for almost forty frickin’ years in a full scale theatrical release: an expansion of the alien story, the classic xenomorph in action, the 70s style clunky junky sci-fi aesthetic, and very importantly, a pulse rifle going full auto. It is very obvious after watching Romulus that Fede Álvarez is one of us: an Alien nerd who obsesses over the first two movies and the surrounding expanded universe and desperately wanted to see a return to that world. Considering how impossibly complex it is to navigate the Hollywood maze of financing, bigwig studio execs and overbearing producers, it’s a miracle that this movie actually got made at all by someone with that kind of passion. Anyone who has so much as a passing interest in Alien should now go see this so that it’ll be successful and warrant a sequel.

On a final note, since Alien: Romulus takes place in between Alien and Aliens, does that mean we can now consider Aliens to be Alien 3 and just forget about ALIEN3 and Resurrection?

The Boys Is Becoming The Family Guy Of Superhero Shows

Like a caped crusader swooping in to save the day at just the right moment, the first season of The Boys arrived on Prime Video right as the saturation of superhero dreck hit critical mass with Avengers: Endgame in 2019. With its biting satire that offered a cynical and lurid take on superheroes, it was the perfect antidote to the PG-friendly blandness infecting not just superhero movies, but many other blockbuster movies seeking to copy Marvel’s highly profitable formula. Instead of flashy heroics, the superheroes of The Boys were corporate-owned sociopaths who spent more time shooting commercials and unintentionally killing innocent people than going after evildoers. The real heroes of the story were a motley crew of ex-soldiers and rogue superheroes who had to rely on their wits to go up against the likes of Homelander, Black Noir and A-Train.

The first two seasons, and to a lesser degree Season 3, brilliantly weaved together satire, emotion, gratuitous violence, and an intriguing plot into one nicely balanced package. Sadly, with Season 4 now complete, it’s become apparent that showrunner Eric Kripke and his writers have lost sight of what made The Boys special. What used to be a well-written story that was punctuated with “Holy shit!” moments is now a series of “Holy shit!” moments punctuated by an underdeveloped story; in other words, The Boys is in danger of becoming the equivalent of Family Guy, a show in which the narrative only exists to string together various gags that don’t actually need context to be appreciated.

At a macro level, the problems are already apparent due to the fact that the overall story simply blends the previous three seasons. Instead of Soldier Boy, the MacGuffin the Boys are after is a supe-killing virus. Instead of Stormfront, Homelander recruits Sister Sage, the world’s smartest woma-I mean person who, just like her white supremacist predecessor, enacts a dastardly plan to further her boss’s quest for world domination. Between these major threads, we see the same recycled scenes and tropes that are either cliched by now or were never that interesting to begin with. The Boys bungle one operation after the other, incapable of accomplishing anything without something going horribly wrong. Billy Butcher see-saws between being exiled from the team for being an asshole and being welcomed back because none of the other members are devious enough to succeed against The Seven. Mother’s Milk can’t make up his mind on whether to keep fighting or commit to his family. Kimiko and Frenchie continue being uninteresting with their circular on and off relationship and unnecessary subplots that are supposed to reveal their past but only distract from the plot. Starlight struggles with her identity as a supe and her relationship with Hughie. There’s even a sequence at a far-right conspiracist convention, much like the gun convention in Season 3 and the Believe expo in Season 1. We’ve seen all this several times before on the show, and it betrays a lack of fresh ideas from the writers.

This is further evidenced by how so many plot elements are conveniently discarded once they have served their purpose, regardless of their profound aftermaths. For example, the Homelander vs Starlight political battle and the surrounding trial are the main plot points throughout the first half of the season, but once the hunt for the virus begins, they are abruptly forgotten and never brought up again. I’m not sure we even found out if Homelander was declared guilty or not. Another example: In episode 5, Hughie’s dying father is briefly revived when his mom gives her husband a shot of V. A frightened Hughie Sr inadvertently murders three people in the hospital with his newfound powers before being euthanized by his son. Hughie goes back to working with The Boys in the following episode, and the writers expect us to believe that neither he nor his mom are under any kind of police investigation concerning the three dead people. Two more examples: At the end of the penultimate episode, Ryan breaks character and publicly denounces the McCarthyist lyrics in Vought’s Christmas jingle live on TV. This would obviously have huge public perception ramifications for both him and Vought, but when the finale rolls in, this plot point amounts to nothing more than Homelander growling at his son before getting back to the business of taking over the world. Finally, there are zero repercussions for Ryan or Vought when the boy accidentally kills a stunt actor in full view of the public.

It all points to one conclusion: the writers cooked up way too many story arcs to fit within eight episodes and wound up half-baking many of them. While it spends much of the season struggling to juggle its many story arcs, the show is much more at ease with its signature action set pieces, such as the Vought On Ice sequence, which is genuinely hilarious from the moment the ridiculous war on Christmas-esque musical number kicks in, and the fiasco at the farmhouse where The Boys are attacked by V’d up sheep. You can tell the writers had the time of their lives sitting around thinking up such delightfully macabre scenes. The season isn’t short on the BDSM/psychosexual weirdness either, with Homelander sucking on Firecracker’s breast like he did with Madelyn Stillwell, Hughie being put through several fetishistic rituals, including one involving a chocolate cake, and the introduction of Webweaver, a Spiderman-esque supe who ejaculates through a blowhole on his back…just like real spiders do. Ever since herogasm in Season 3, these sequences now feel forced, as if the writers have some kind of quota to fulfill. Yes, the original graphic novel has no shortage of this stuff, but as reviewers who have read the source material and watched the show have pointed out, the first two seasons of The Boys surpassed the book because they used those moments to better define the characters. Homelander sucking breastmilk off Stillwell in Season 1 revealed his want of a motherly figure, and makes it all the more surprising when he murders her in the finale. When he does it with Firecracker here, it accomplishes nothing; he continues treating her like an annoyance and his slide into insanity continues unabated. Hell, you could delete those scenes from the show and it wouldn’t take anything away from the plot. What used to be an uncomfortably memorable sight that gave insight into Homelander is now little more than a gag. What a waste.

Finally, it’s worth pointing out that this is the second season in a row in which The Boys accomplish pretty much nothing as far as defeating Homelander and The Seven goes. None of their efforts or the innumerable Vought PR disasters have any effect on their plan to take over the US government. The writers clearly want you to root for these characters, but it’s hard to do so when they can’t get anything done right. With one season to go, Butcher on the warpath with both tentacle superpowers and the anti-supe virus, and Homelander firmly established as the Great Satan, it’s obvious that The Boys’ losing streak will finally end at the series’ conclusion. Whether the showrunners will get there with the clumsiness of Season 4 or the deftness of Season 1 and 2 remains to be seen.