Episode #780: Alien: Romulus
Added 2025-01-21 05:00:06 +0000 UTC“One fella is just hollowed out!” - Chris on xeno aftermath gore
On this week’s episode, we’re taking the show back to Franchise Town as we chat about the solid-ish sci-fi sequel/prequel/in-between-quel, Alien: Romulus! How incredible are all the ship and planetary designs in this film? Should they have kept the entire story on the mining colony and had the xenos just chasing them down there? How great is David Jonsson in this film, portraying both Andy and Upgraded Andy? Is Bjorn the most annoying character in the entire franchise? And yeah, this Ian Holm decision is truly repugnant! PLUS: Lotta Alien: Resurrection in here, folks!
Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu, and Robert Bobroczkyi as Offspring; directed by Fede Álvarez.
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Original cover art by Felipe Sobreiro.
Comments
Why does Tyler have an English accent while his sister Kay has an American accent?
profondo robbo
2025-02-01 03:11:14 +0000 UTCThe Holm thing didn’t really bother me as I knew about it going in, but THAT line and all the relentless callbacks did. When she started putting on the spacesuit in her underwear it really was too much. That said I still mostly enjoyed it and agree with the guys that Andy and the actor are great.
Craig
2025-01-31 11:33:52 +0000 UTCApparently it was originally going to be a female android. Maybe Holm was a studio idea.
Craig
2025-01-31 11:23:50 +0000 UTCI got the impression he was the father. I had no idea they were related. Maybe she was only a stepsister and got stuck under a coffee table?
Craig
2025-01-31 11:22:37 +0000 UTCI thought that was a weird take from Cabin. I don’t know if that means he prefers the special edition of Aliens because you get to see the colony’s everyday life before the aliens take it over.
Craig
2025-01-31 11:21:03 +0000 UTCProps to Andrew for immediately remembering the actual melody (if one can call it that) of one of his songs too!
Craig
2025-01-31 11:13:20 +0000 UTCDisappointed that although you mentioned that the adult xenomorph cocoon looks like an angry vagina you didnt mentione that when its head emerges its looks like a massive curved erect dick.
Matthew Lloyd
2025-01-27 19:37:56 +0000 UTCYoutube just made me aware of a show called Just Foolin About with Michael Biehn. This sounds like a bit from WHM but its real. Guest include Eddie Furlong, Eric Roberts and Cary Elwes
Andrew Dean
2025-01-27 05:09:51 +0000 UTCCrygasming while he's flicking his nipples over how hard he just read about Humanism in that Philosophy textbook. "Oh the sincere existentialist crisis, someone pour some butter on me!" Stupid City.
Smaug
2025-01-24 15:52:48 +0000 UTCThat's a great idea. Since this movie is littered with callbacks already, have one Andy play the flute while the other offers to do the fingering.
Dennis Stack
2025-01-24 02:25:38 +0000 UTCI wanted to like this movie more. The AI stuff sure sucks ass but all the callbacks to Alien just makes me wish I were watching Alien. I really did not care for the alien in this one being the same as in the first one because it undermine. There are some good scares and impressive visuals, the facehuggers in the wa'ah sequence is probably the scariest it gets and the production design does a decent job of marrying the first movie and Prometheus movies aesthetics, but other than that... I'm of the opinion that like Jurassic Park, games are probably the final frontier for Alien as an IP. Now begins the long wait for Alien: Isolation 2 (play the first one if you haven't yet guys, it's a must for Alien fans). Still better than Covenant though. PS. The Streets is a great deep cut lol
Trevor Herron
2025-01-23 20:54:46 +0000 UTCCounterpoint: Covenant has Robot Oppenheimer dropping xenomorph nukes on a planet of engineers while listening to opera and crygasming.
Isaac Coleman
2025-01-23 15:26:59 +0000 UTCThis movie can reference Aliens, because Aliens has memorable original ideas. A future movie in this franchise cannot reference Romulus, because all of its ideas come from previous movies. That's the ball game as far as I'm concerned.
Isaac Coleman
2025-01-23 15:23:39 +0000 UTCSo how many of you refunded your UK show tickets after those accents in this ep? (jk jk)
Rose Esposito
2025-01-23 15:20:48 +0000 UTCOh hey, if you want definitions of non-normative sexual perversions but don’t want smoke coming out of your cell phone John Waters’ Dirty Shame, especially the director’s commentary, is the way to go. That’s how I first learned about Roman showers, sploshing, upper deckers and dirt fiends. It’s enlightening! Not his best work but fun.
James Richie
2025-01-23 00:57:53 +0000 UTCYou know what would have been better than Tarkin Town Ash and make way more narrative sense? If the other robot was the same model as Andy. Reinforces the Romulus and Remus theme, plus maybe explains why he was found in the trash.
Adam Rosenlund
2025-01-23 00:10:59 +0000 UTCMan, The Streets reference took me back. High school me enjoyed many glasses of tall water while listening to “let’s push things forward.”
Amber Schumacher
2025-01-22 22:20:04 +0000 UTCStill no free healthcare, but A.I. necromancy out the ass, huh?
Eren Keskin
2025-01-22 17:34:32 +0000 UTCWow I had mercifully forgotten about The Streets altogether until this episode, 2004 was terrible
JK
2025-01-22 17:31:10 +0000 UTCIn space no one can hear you inbreed.
Eren Keskin
2025-01-22 17:26:00 +0000 UTCThis episode really locked in for me that the Alien franchise is perfect for the "Stephen Sajdak Playbook for Super Duper Bad Times" because, in an Alien movie, you're almost better off a) punching your own ticket immediately and b) never ever helping out your friends when they're in a jam.
Jason
2025-01-22 16:17:19 +0000 UTCWhat if instead of Ian Holm they used the robot Teddy Bear from A.I.? 5 stars.
AlsoNamedB0rt
2025-01-22 13:52:50 +0000 UTCCabin better love that Minecraft movie.
AlsoNamedB0rt
2025-01-22 13:49:11 +0000 UTCI think the Ian Holm deepfake stuff looks bad, is unnecessary, unethical, and should probably be illegal. However, I had a good time watching this movie in the theater. I’ve liked all the main Alien movies. People seem preoccupied with their own expectations with this franchise. Also knock it off with that “why do they have British accents?” garbage. Why would they have American accents? Why would they speak English? It’s never an interesting topic. Can’t wait for the We Love Movies episode on this one in 10 years as the guys complain that “they don’t make movies like this anymore?!?!?):)&2”
AlsoNamedB0rt
2025-01-22 13:44:37 +0000 UTCIf there's one thing this movie has for me over Covenant is a return to dudes in the Xenomorph costume. I do like Covenant but the CGI Xenos just don't do it for me like when we have someone there in costume, it's awesome. As Cabin says, real light hitting real things.
Busiris
2025-01-22 04:37:48 +0000 UTCI know right? They're selling that overpriced shit based on nostalgia, why not give the full nostalgic experience?
Mark Ibarra
2025-01-22 02:06:19 +0000 UTCWE LIKE ROY!
Mark Ibarra
2025-01-22 01:46:24 +0000 UTCRain the supposed half god.
Mark D Myers
2025-01-22 01:14:06 +0000 UTCI grew up in Toledo…can I get a live show there for the Alien: Toledo jab??
Adam Tharpe
2025-01-22 00:21:35 +0000 UTCThe member berries were definitely on the menu for this movie no denying that. Was it on par with or worse than Ghostbusters Afterlife though?
DMAC
2025-01-22 00:15:31 +0000 UTCI was only taken out of the movie at the Tarkin-town part. Upon a rewatch, eh whatever it's in there. I still enjoyed it.
DMAC
2025-01-22 00:11:58 +0000 UTCI misread that as "Bjork-type characters" at first.
DMAC
2025-01-22 00:10:22 +0000 UTCthank you
Hard To Gwil
2025-01-21 23:10:10 +0000 UTCThe movie needed more Bjorn-type characters... but then I guess that'd just make it 'Attack the Block.'
Joe Gunch
2025-01-21 21:58:42 +0000 UTCNo 4:3 pan-and-scan? Unacceptable.
Joe Gunch
2025-01-21 21:57:57 +0000 UTCLaughing out loud at work at the Paul Walker shoutout
Trista Barker
2025-01-21 21:08:37 +0000 UTCWhat was the question again?
DMAC
2025-01-21 21:03:21 +0000 UTCIt definitely sounds like he's kissing himself in the crotch the whole movie.
Smaug
2025-01-21 20:54:32 +0000 UTCOr like the guys said, Elijah Wood. He’d make a great cold, emotionless robot. He’s got those big blue eyes and a sad face.
Lar
2025-01-21 20:51:49 +0000 UTCIf we’re in store for rote, safe-playing Alien sequels, this first one in the line is at least a good one of those. I also hated the deep fake and the one really terrible line of dialogue, but what I liked about it stuck with me more than what didn’t. Of course, I wasn’t a fan of the clumsy lore-dumps that were the Ridley Scott prequels.
Gone
2025-01-21 20:51:48 +0000 UTCI guess if you’re gonna die young from a mining accident or whatever you may as well live life with no consequences, no matter how uhhhh cringe it is.
Lar
2025-01-21 20:50:11 +0000 UTCSort of agree with you here, also agree with the dudes saying it feels like a video game. Because the more I think about it the more I wish it WAS a theme park ride or video game.
Lar
2025-01-21 20:49:04 +0000 UTCBut have you considered Fassbender kisses himself in Covenant? (I kid, I kid)
Lar
2025-01-21 20:47:33 +0000 UTCI think you’re on to something here. Part of why Walt Disney invented animatronics was because they could go on and on and on with no breaks and would make minimal mistakes, unlike humans. So doing a digital actor (remember when they tried to do that with that weird final fantasy movie?) is another way for the studio to micromanage every tiny little thing.
Lar
2025-01-21 20:46:51 +0000 UTCThat's fair. It's OK to like a movie. It's hard to assess a like or a dislike of a movie in a less than holistic manner. I might complain that prequels mostly have X,Y, and Z problems, but still recommend a specific prequel because I like it holistically, which maybe is the case with the show and Prometheus/Covenant
Smaug
2025-01-21 20:32:24 +0000 UTCI really wish the Ian Holm bot was another David Johnsson bot. That way maybe we could understand why she would leave her injured pregnant friend for her iPhone.
Tala Hobballah
2025-01-21 19:57:14 +0000 UTC"Both AvP movies are better" Speak your truth Cabin there are dozens of us! Also Martin Freeman was created in a lab specifically for young Ian Holm characters.
Tala Hobballah
2025-01-21 19:56:37 +0000 UTCPrayer circle we get Alien Covenant for the Spooktacular this year!
Lar
2025-01-21 19:51:30 +0000 UTCI completely understand where you’re coming from. I don’t dislike Prometheus. I kinda just don’t enjoy backstory movies as much when I didn’t need to know how something came to be. I think if the Ian Holm recall was removed and just a random synthetic this would have been better received
Josh Wurtz
2025-01-21 19:51:19 +0000 UTCSadly that’s where we are now. Ghostbusters, marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, even “original” shows like stranger things are just “let’s mash all the stuff we liked growing up together”
Lar
2025-01-21 19:50:27 +0000 UTCI cannot stress how deeply I want “Beekeeper 2: AI boogaloo” now. My friends and I loved this movie but absolutely hated the digital corpse of Ian Holm being trotted out. I agree, just get Fassbender, who cares? I liked how gory this one was (the only thing I liked about Covenant as well). We spent the entire last part of the movie just cringing soooo hard at how creepy it was (not necessarily in a good way)
Lar
2025-01-21 19:49:41 +0000 UTCThe real reason they would not make Cabin captain of the ship is due to being unable to give a cogent answer to the question, “wait, your favorite movie involves a horse doing what to a man?”
RJ Cunningham
2025-01-21 19:36:24 +0000 UTCDunno if I've ever said this, but Cabin is 100% correct. The world building got me so excited, and as soon as I got a good glimpse, the entire movie hopped into a ship and flew to Planet Forced Nostalgia.
Jamie
2025-01-21 19:16:51 +0000 UTCSo boring that I almost left the theater before all the deaths.
Adam Lewis
2025-01-21 18:25:39 +0000 UTCTake out all references to previous movies and this become a really great 22 minute short film!
Paul DeCoursey-Clark
2025-01-21 18:21:04 +0000 UTCJesus this movie. I guess I'm with Eric. This movie is almost good ... but isn't. For me it might as well have been "Callback! The movie." Everything in it was in previous movies, but better in those. I'm not a Prometheus fan exactly, but at least that movie was a swing.
Paul DeCoursey-Clark
2025-01-21 18:17:41 +0000 UTCKeep in mind, we explained at the top of the month that this isn't really a Worst of 2024 month, it's just a month filled with movies from last year we wanted to talk about. - Andrew
We Hate Movies
2025-01-21 18:17:39 +0000 UTCI dunno, maybe we just like Covenant for what we perceive are enough positive merits, and not just because it has Ridley Scott's name on it? You clearly don't like Fassbender in the movie. We do. Maybe that's the sticking point? Who knows. Either way, it's pretty reductive and unfair to say we like it solely because Rid's name is on it, if only because we dislike plenty of Rid's movies, so I don't really agree with your police work there, Lou. - Andrew
We Hate Movies
2025-01-21 18:16:19 +0000 UTCGood episode. I personally liked this one for the most part with the major issues being the Ian Holm recreation and that one particular, completely out of place one liner (seriously why wasn't it a dad joke to fit with Andy's whole thing?!) Still it is probably lower on my list. I do think all the production design is great and wish the actual story was a bit better to match it. If anything this makes me want an episode from you guys on Covenant because I admit it's weird to hear so much praise for that one when I put it around the same level as this one if maybe a bit higher since it at least doesn't do any of that nonsense with resurrecting the dead.
Voror
2025-01-21 18:16:01 +0000 UTCGreat question on age limits for DSBs! We'll have to debate internally and see where we land! - Andrew
We Hate Movies
2025-01-21 18:11:47 +0000 UTCI can’t remember who said it about the final alien but it was called “the undrafted center from Serbia that’s totally gonna turn things around for the Pistons next season”. Otherwise, enjoyable movie.
Stewart Moncure
2025-01-21 17:33:30 +0000 UTCIs there an upper age limit on being a disgusting shit boy? Because Bjorn at least was one once if he isn’t still. He does sound like The Streets (Mike Skinner). I think it’s because they’re both guys from the midlands of the UK desperately trying to sound like they’re from London for some reason.
Happy Birthtime!
2025-01-21 17:29:52 +0000 UTCI really want to see this proposed "Weyland-Yutani uses aliems as strike breakers" movie.
Matthew Mariner
2025-01-21 16:51:15 +0000 UTCI have a theory about Ian Holm deep fake in this movie: this is another test to see how tolerant audiences are of fully digital human characters. They keep tinkering and tring different ways to do it. Like with BOBF and the digital Luke. It's all leading to something expensive and borderline unwatchable. I'm bracing myself for the SW movie in 2030 that has a fully digital younger Luke & Han.
allegedlycool
2025-01-21 16:38:52 +0000 UTCI liked Prometheus more. I thought Prometheus was unique and pushed in interesting directions. But I also liked this movie, albeit I’m a bit numb to all the callbacks to past movies. So many movies nowadays are callbacks. Even if it’s good, it’s hard for me to enjoy it. At least Prometheus was different.
DRKITTENPHD
2025-01-21 16:29:00 +0000 UTCMan, whomever uploaded that video showing how deepfake technology "improved" the de-aging in The Irishman really opened up a can of worms...now you get wretched stuff like this. And that Irishman deepfake isn't even good when you give it another glance! Short version: flawed CGI will always be better than AI because you can always tell the former was done by humans.
Z
2025-01-21 16:12:05 +0000 UTCI had a good time with Romulus, and I agree with all of the flaws pointed out here, minus most of Cabin's gripes about seeing the inside of a mine for...reasons. I just can't agree with the love for Covenant that gets tossed around every time an Alien movie is discussed on the show though . Romulus has a debilitating case of CGI Holm, Covenant has a crippling case of Fassbender pretentiously jerking off over a Philosophy 102 textbook for 2 hours. It's OK to like a movie, Covenant just has every single problem the show complains about with prequel movies. Feels a bit like yall give it a pass because it;s a Ridley entry in the franchise
Smaug
2025-01-21 15:10:14 +0000 UTCAccording to the one review I saw, it went straight to the movie, and was letterboxed.
Mark Ibarra
2025-01-21 13:53:10 +0000 UTCThis movie has a few issues, but as a worst of 2024 I cannot disagree more. I enjoyed this movie. Better than Prometheus and Covenant IMO.
Josh Wurtz
2025-01-21 13:34:59 +0000 UTCAgree with all the guys points (except Cabin feeling the colony intro doesn't do enough) but in spite of the many problems it really works for me, feels part of the world of the trilogy rather than everything else that followed. (Not a Prometheus/ Covenant fan but I like how it linked them in)
Paul Deehan
2025-01-21 13:26:48 +0000 UTCHuh?!?
Mark Ibarra
2025-01-21 13:17:11 +0000 UTCAlien: Romulus almost exactly follows the formula of a Disney theme park experience. You have the world building queue areas where generic audience surrogates are rocketed into a fast-paced recreation of the franchise's greatest hits. A Facehugger set piece!! Multiple Xenomorph set pieces! The guns from Aliens! The stuff from Prometheus! A Big Chap puppet on display! An animatronic of an actor from the first movie! It's a fun enough ride, with lots of TLC put into the effects by people who love the franchise, but it's very much a ride. Get in, get out, maybe come back, maybe forget it entirely.
Mark Ibarra
2025-01-21 13:16:24 +0000 UTCIf not Andy, Martin Freeman.
Mark Ibarra
2025-01-21 13:07:09 +0000 UTCReplacing Ian Holm with one or more Andy models would've been a better story choice. At least there's a connection to the protagonists there
Boston Roberts
2025-01-21 12:13:28 +0000 UTCThere's sumfin in da fackin' wo'ah
Felipe Sobreiro
2025-01-21 12:11:26 +0000 UTCI could be a CGI Ian Holm, MARK!!!
DMAC
2025-01-21 12:05:34 +0000 UTCYou take out the marionette corpse and ALL references to previous Alien films and this becomes a really great movie
Comrade Trash Panda
2025-01-21 11:33:40 +0000 UTCThat alien's face haunts my dreams
Frank Grimes
2025-01-21 11:06:52 +0000 UTCFeels a bit cheap to just recycle the logo gag from Alien 3, though.
profondo robbo
2025-01-21 11:01:43 +0000 UTCA weird detail that didn't get explicitly mentioned in the movie but which Alvarez confirmed in an interview is that Bjorn is the father of Kay's baby despite the fact that they are cousins. Feels like the kind of thing a bong-ripping EXTREME screenwriter would concoct.
profondo robbo
2025-01-21 11:00:50 +0000 UTCI agree with a lot of what the guys are saying. Lots of this movie is really great. Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson are both fantastic. A lot of the production design and the general look of the film are really engaging. The way Alvarez stages and paces a lot of it is super effective too. Guy has the stuff. But that fucking Ian Holm cartoon just kills it stone dead for me. Leaving aside the morbidity of puppeteering a corpse, the question is why? It being Ash serves NO story function and is never even remarked upon. It serves no purpose beyond people in the cinema going "oh it's Ian Holm isn't he dead?". It's a bad decision made for seemingly no reason. The use of the character is terrible too. He's just spouting video game esque dialogue like "have you collected the formula yet? I can't open the door until you collect the formula". It's just such a nothing vacuum of a character made insufferable by the way they chose to execute it. So much of other parts of the film feeling like a fan film esque mash up of all the other Alien films really dragged it down for me as well. It's a really weird movie where I really, really liked large parts of it but the negatives just drag it down so much that I never want to see it again.
Scmods
2025-01-21 11:00:26 +0000 UTCMe screaming Aaliyah! For the 5 bonus points
Kennieth Miles
2025-01-21 10:47:53 +0000 UTCA glorious return of "The Schiffening"!
Josh
2025-01-21 07:51:51 +0000 UTCFunny enough there was an actual VHS made for the movie though I’m not sure if ads were included
Daimon
2025-01-21 07:33:21 +0000 UTCI was literally 20 seconds in and I was still amazed 20th Century Studios still do the spooky alternate logos lol
Exambolor
2025-01-21 06:01:42 +0000 UTC
