Alien: Romulus Catch-All Thread

[hamilton_milo]

I really can't rank Romulus yet because it was very incomplete. But visually I was enjoying what I saw. There is a TON I still have yet to see though, so I can't speak on the full thing at all. What I hope is that it does what PREY did and makes a solid movie. This one feels like it's doing its own thing, with elements of the first two films, but it's not a copy and pasted vibe. It's really got its own voice, which is Fede's. Each movie really has its own unique style and voice, which is very true for Romulus. Except for maybe Prometheus and Covenant, those two are very close.

It is a hallmark of the IP without a doubt, but I think that when it comes to the creature, it is somewhat sacrilege to take away its biomechanical aesthetics. I mean, tell whatever story you want...but the design should have untouchable status, and if you're going to make changes...make them smart, like with Stompy in Alien Isolation.


Alien³ is great, but I couldn't be more relieved because they took the two original films as a reference and still created a project with its own voice, as you say.😃🙏

I'm pretty nervous regarding what the Alien design/creature effects will look like in Romulus knowing that Alec Gillis is on the project. I'll be the first to sing Studio Gillis' praises if the creature effects are phenomenal, but truth be told, I haven't liked any of ADI's work on the films since Alien 3.

I know a lot of what Odd did was replaced with CGI in Alien: Covenant, but I definitely liked what I saw of their work BTS. Literally the only thing missing from the suit was the bio-mechanical aesthetic. Otherwise, the creature was looking tall, spindly, other-worldly again for the first time since Alien 79 imo. Every other attempt has looked like a short guy in a rubber stunt suit greased to the nines in slime.

I don't think ADI are responsible for the design, they only bring the director's intent to life with their practical effects.

But even then, apparently, Legacy Effects, Weta and ADI (Alec Gillis) are all working together, so who knows what will come out of it.

Dane Hallett seems to be the one who designed the Xenomorph for Romulus, but he probably only tried to replicate Fede's vision.

Yeah, I know. We'll just have to wait and see right! Obviously the drip feedings Mike's Monsters is giving us are encouraging, but aye, until we see the thing ourselves who knows what they've cooked up. All part of the hype I guess, for better or worse.

[PortugueseXeno]

I really can't rank Romulus yet because it was very incomplete. But visually I was enjoying what I saw. There is a TON I still have yet to see though, so I can't speak on the full thing at all. What I hope is that it does what PREY did and makes a solid movie. This one feels like it's doing its own thing, with elements of the first two films, but it's not a copy and pasted vibe. It's really got its own voice, which is Fede's. Each movie really has its own unique style and voice, which is very true for Romulus. Except for maybe Prometheus and Covenant, those two are very close.

It is a hallmark of the IP without a doubt, but I think that when it comes to the creature, it is somewhat sacrilege to take away its biomechanical aesthetics. I mean, tell whatever story you want...but the design should have untouchable status, and if you're going to make changes...make them smart, like with Stompy in Alien Isolation.


Alien³ is great, but I couldn't be more relieved because they took the two original films as a reference and still created a project with its own voice, as you say.😃🙏

I'm pretty nervous regarding what the Alien design/creature effects will look like in Romulus knowing that Alec Gillis is on the project. I'll be the first to sing Studio Gillis' praises if the creature effects are phenomenal, but truth be told, I haven't liked any of ADI's work on the films since Alien 3.

I know a lot of what Odd did was replaced with CGI in Alien: Covenant, but I definitely liked what I saw of their work BTS. Literally the only thing missing from the suit was the bio-mechanical aesthetic. Otherwise, the creature was looking tall, spindly, other-worldly again for the first time since Alien 79 imo. Every other attempt has looked like a short guy in a rubber stunt suit greased to the nines in slime.

I don't think ADI are responsible for the design, they only bring the director's intent to life with their practical effects.

But even then, apparently, Legacy Effects, Weta and ADI (Alec Gillis) are all working together, so who knows what will come out of it.

Dane Hallett seems to be the one who designed the Xenomorph for Romulus, but he probably only tried to replicate Fede's vision.

Yeah, I know. We'll just have to wait and see right! Obviously the drip feedings Mike's Monsters is giving us are encouraging, but aye, until we see the thing ourselves who knows what they've cooked up. All part of the hype I guess, for better or worse.

Yeah, Mike is being pretty cool when it comes to his "hints".

It helps the community/fanbase feel sort of alive, instead of simply getting out of the cryosleep once the trailer is released and then going back to sleep again until a new trailer is released, rinse and repeat, till the movie comes.

I really can't wait for the first tease to be released and finally take a peek at the new movie.

[Mike’s Monsters]

Dane isn't the sole designer of the Xenomorph on Romulus or anything. He's part of a team. He probably designed a section or two, like the hands or chest or something, but not the whole creature. It doesn't really work that way, especially when there are multiple teams on this one.
I can't go into details but Alec isn't running the show like it would be if it were just ADI doing the effects. There are a lot of special effect houses combined to bring this one and the crazy practical effects to life.

[ralfy]

It's a blessing and a curse. I still haven't seen the whole thing yet, but I saw pre-CGI stuff and part of me wishes I'd just been able to see the final product for that to be my first experience. But it's also interesting seeing it come together bit by bit.

Ok, without giving away anything, based on what you saw, where would you rank Romulus against the other Alien movies? 😃

Damn, you are going right for the jugular.

I don't want to speak over Mike or something, but in case he doesn't respond quickly or is busy, i'll just tell you what he wrote in some previous comments.

He isn't the biggest fan of the prequels and Romulus seems to capture the feel of Alien, Aliens (and Alien Isolation), so unless he is an Alien 3 fan, he will probably put Romulus as his 3rd... unless, it's crazy good and is somehow a better movie than Aliens.

He probably won't give you any spoilers though.

That's good enough for me 😁👍

I mean I know opinions are subjective (for example I rank Alien 3 very highly and I'm aware I'm in the (awesome 😎) minority here; but hearing from someone who has seen parts of it who is passionate about the first two movies, and feels it could potentially sit alongside the first two movies is a win in my view!

What say you Mike? In your opinion, potential to beat Alien or Aliens when finished? Or a comfortable 3rd place in your book? 😃

I also love Alien 3 (Assembly Cut, although i would have prefer the dog instead of the ox, since seeing the dog get chestbursted is way more impactful), and i do think that Alien 3 seems to be making some sort of a comeback.

I wasn't born when Alien 3 came out, but when i did see it, i loved it.

Now, Aliens, which i think is the perfect scifi-action movie, is an incredible piece of filmmaking.

Cameron and his crew put in the work in order to expand upon what we saw in the first movie, by introducing Weyland-Yutani, the colonies, the marines and all of the future-tech, not to mention what they did for the future of animatronics and practical effects.

Also, he gave an incredible arc for Ripley.

But part of me feels like he stole some of the more alien parts of the alien and made it more relatable as some sort of space ant/bee.

I don't mind the existence of Queens, but i simply don't want it to be the end of all and be all of the Xeno cycle, but merely one of the manhy ways that it adapts to the universe and its environments, so hopefully, Romulus puts the alien back in the alien akin to what we saw in the first movie and the eggmorphing deleted scene.

I think Cameron was only following through from what happened in the first movie. That is, continue making W-Y the antagonist. But because audiences already saw the alien, then it was pointless to repeat that. Hence, "aliens" (plural), which would have made it an action movie.

He said in his commentary that he grew up during the Vietnam War, read about colonialism in school, and only a few years before he wrote Aliens read about companies exploiting the poor in other countries. That's why he decided to use the military in the movie, to reflect what was happening in reality, with the military/government colluding with powerful corporations.

Also, I think Cameron isn't so much interested in making action movies but in telling stories, which is why his favorite movies depict that:

https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/james-cameron-favorite-movies-director-good-reviews-recommendations/inception-from-left-leonardo-dicaprio-ellen-page-2010-ph-melissa-moseley-warner-bros-courtes/

and the only way to make this action movie what he wanted was to bring back Ripley's character. There are some interesting points about that here:

http://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1986/11/aliens-signing-up-weaver.html

which I think revealed that Weaver laughed off a sequel for the first movie, and signed on only because Cameron pretended that without her character he would make a lead played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. In addition, it turns out that Weaver is liberal such that she prefers storytelling and dislikes guns. Later, Cameron would say similar things by cutting away scenes from his second Avatar movie because he doesn't want gun violence "fetishized":

https://ew.com/movies/james-cameron-cut-10-minutes-of-gun-violence-avatar-2/

This might explain why the main action in Aliens takes place after something like half of the movie is shown. That means much of the movie is actually character development, exposition, etc.

About the hive, it looks like it made sense that if there are things like eggs and multiple aliens, then the creature was like a bee, which would mean some queen laying eggs. Also, the queen alien would serve as another counter to Ripley's character, which is also a mother trying to protect Newt.

From there, one can also see what happened in the third and fourth movies, with the third that was supposed to end Ripley's story and the fourth which I think started expanding the franchise in various directions but didn't succeed storywise.

I think that plus the prequels is what hemmed producers in, which is why the new movie and TV show are set within or before the four movies, with the new movie looking like a spinoff involving thieves and aliens (it's like that recent movie about thieves and zombies) and the TV show about not just the alien but also AI, technology, etc. (because with TV shows one has to move in various directions in order to show more episodes).

[PortugueseXeno]

Dane isn't the sole designer of the Xenomorph on Romulus or anything. He's part of a team. He probably designed a section or two, like the hands or chest or something, but not the whole creature. It doesn't really work that way, especially when there are multiple teams on this one.

Interesting.

Given his comments on facebook, where he wrote that he would "unleash biomechanical hell" after the theatrical release of the movie, to me that implied that he would release all of the concept art related to the creatures of Romulus.

But apparently, it's more complex than that.

[SiL]

Him not designing the whole thing doesn't mean he didn't do a shitload of designs, mind.

[PortugueseXeno]

crazy practical effects to life

Crazy practical effects?

Liked the way you phrased it.

Intriguing.

[Mike’s Monsters]

Very rarely is it one sole person designing a creature or effect these days. Things like the Xenomorph are a huge collaborative project. I know people who've designed specific parts of the beast and know for a fact it wasn't Dane who designed the whole thing. He got a lot of deserved praise from Covenant, but Dane definitely works as part of a team. He may pitch a design as final, but he might only have chunks of the design used and the rest of the team or another effects house does the other stuff.

That's not to say Dane wasn't hand picked for his great work from previous movies, but I think Perfect Organism hypes him up a bit more than others because he's kind of buddies with them. They have painted a picture that he's running the show a bit, but that's certainly not the case. He's likely involved just as much as the rest of the team he's a part of, they're just not as publicly vocal about it.

And crazy practical effects to me just means well done. I think the Newborn is a crazy practical effect in my way of describing things. The face on it is so well executed.

[PortugueseXeno]

And crazy practical effects to me just means well done. I think the Newborn is a crazy practical effect in my way of describing things. The face on it is so well executed.

For all of the bad stuff that plagues Alien Ressurection, the production of the movie is beautiful.

The sets are incredible and the Newborn animatronic is probably the best animatronic that i have ever seen.

The Newborn looked so real and expressive. Truly remarkable.

I guess, it kind of helps that it had a face with human traits, but it's still pretty impressive, so i can't wait to see what this new Xeno looks like.

My prediction is that the Xeno in Romulus will also be a similar animatronic, a tall and imposing creature like Stompy in Isolation.

That's not to say Dane wasn't hand picked for his great work from previous movies, but I think Perfect Organism hypes him up a bit more than others because he's kind of buddies with them. They have painted a picture that he's running the show a bit, but that's certainly not the case. He's likely involved just as much as the rest of the team he's a part of, they're just not as publicly vocal about it

Yeah, i remember you saying that once, but i merely refer to Dane, since it's easier to mention that when it comes to who is working behind the Xeno.

The other concept artista are currently unknown, so there isn't much that i can say about them, but given your comments, i am sure that they did a damn good job.

[razeak]

The alien design has gotten more generic with each iteration since A3. that was the last excellent design. It's all downhill from there. Incorporating more elements from creatures on earth just waters it down. Like the iguana tails and fleshiness.  I'm still not a big fan of digitigrade legs either or those terrible hands. If I recall, the hands started going off the rails with Aliens though.

Just improve the articulation on the original big chap fingers with modern tech.

[The Cruentus]

In fairness the Alien rez design does fit for the creatures of that particular movie since they are mutants, not true Aliens. The usages of that design after that though didn't have such excuse.

[skhellter]

they're mutants but why did they look more cockroach-like rather than.. more human like.

the design language was off in those designs...

by a thousand light years.

When jimbo called it "the one with the shit creature design" he was right.

[razeak]

Correct. The mutant aspect is fine to play some. They just didn't play well.

[PortugueseXeno]

I also can't wait to see more of the sets, the actors and how they look, their clothes, etc.

We already had a tease on Alien Day, with a pic that made us all think of Alien Isolation.

The leaks from PerfectOrganism already mentioned the main setting of the story being a space station, so besides the vents, it probably won't feel as claustrophobic as a spaceship setting, but either way, can't wait to see more from it.

The behind the scenes videos from this movie will probably be really cool.

[Immortan Jonesy]

The behind the scenes videos from this movie will probably be really cool.

Oh I love that kind of stuff as well

I miss the Charles de Lauzirika's making-off docus, but it is always a pleasure to see Alien behind the scenes material.