I went along to Alien Romulus with just a few vague memories of the first film that I watched probably once, and way too young.

I know the franchise’s significance, but I somehow have made my way through life, and a SciFi film paper, without watching any more of the films.

And from a completely naive standpoint, I had a lot of fun.

At a very surface level, the movie did exactly what I expected it to. It was tense and gritty, with a solid budget, great acting and really cool effects.

But now that I’ve had time to digest it, I feel it was a mixed bag.

The majority of the film is a love letter to the original Alien series. It follows the same tried-and-true formula to deliver a story we’ve seen with fresher faces.

It spends ample time paying homage to its predecessors. Even without knowing all the references, they were made so obvious that I knew when I was supposed to say ‘Oh that’s a callback!’

Some references were tasteful, some not so much.

A misguided deepfake of an Alien OG with the sole purpose of an exposition dump felt rather disappointing. Furthermore, it felt so uncanny it took me out of the movie. When sitting alongside spectacular practical effects, you can really see the flaws in the CGI.

There was a lot going on in this movie.

It was evident that the film was toeing the line between trying to stay true to the franchise while also bringing in new ideas. And some of these new ideas got lost amongst the chaos and never quite landed.

Knowing this movie sits between Alien and Aliens, it was clear that anything introduced would have to cease to exist by the end of the film.

But still, it felt authentic to the Aliens universe. And this was largely due to the set design, special effects, cinematography and sound design. There was such a high level of craft put into making this film look, sound and feel true to the originals.

To be completely transparent, a huge reason I was keen for this film was because I really enjoyed Archie Renaux in Shadow and Bone.

I thought the entire cast was refreshing and I applaud the movie for creating space for up-and-coming talent.

The stand-out stars were definitely Spaeny and Jonsson. As the heart of the whole film, they really sold me on this movie. Their scenes together were poignant and powerful, and I was rooting for them the entire film. They truly delivered.

So then we get to the end of the movie.

In the last twenty minutes of the film, it’s like someone flipped a switch. No longer were we in a Scott / Cameron love fest.

With Fede truly showing off his style in the final act, the film starts to find its own identity.

While I don’t know if the actual final plot of the film fully gave me what I wanted, it definitely was nice to see the director take a new direction.

So where do I stand with all of this? I think the movie may have tilted a bit too far into fan-service and not everything landed.

But apart from that, it was a beautifully made thrill ride. It leant heavily into the horror and had an intensity that left me speechless. It’s definitely a film you want to watch on the big screen.

As I have been racing to catch up by watching Alien movies back to back, I can say this is a solid addition to the franchise.

The post Alien: Romulus (20th Century – 2024) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Alien: Romulus returns the sci-fi franchise to its roots with an entry that draws on the horror premise of the original film rather than the high-brow aspirations of the most recent entries.

Set sometime between the events of the first and second movie, Alien: Romulus is a more grounded effort as opposed to having the philosophical undertones of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. The result is a more approachable movie but sometimes feels more like a video game.

The original Alien movie, at its heart, was a slasher movie set in space. Following that first movie, subsequent filmmakers, and Ridley Scott, himself, seemed to overlook what makes the Alien universe so appealing. In a nutshell, it’s essentially a load of blue-collar workers in space working for a shit company. Something very relatable for most of us. In the case of Weyland-Yutani quite possibly the shittiest company ever.

Aliens shifted the series more towards that of an action movie. The third movie, which could have ended novice director David Fincher’s career, didn’t know quite what it was. The fourth movie, well, we’ll leave it at that. Even Ridley Scott’s return to the franchise struggled to revitalise the series.

Alien: Romulus seeks to right the ship.

After a brief dialogue-free scene-setting sequence that suggests that “the company”, Weyland-Yutani, is up to its old tricks, Alien: Romulus takes us back to the 1970s retro-future of Alien. Rain and her “brother”, Andy (a salvaged synthetic programmed by her late parents to look after her) live on Jackson’s Star, a Weyland-Yutani mining colony. The grim place is also in perpetual darkness.

The movie gives us a better idea of the conditions the people of Hadley’s Hope lived under that was only alluded to in James Cameron’s Aliens. The colonists, effectively indentured slaves, are forced to work for years to buy their way to a better life on a terraformed world. Most, though, end up dying of one of the novel illnesses that seem to afflict space-faring humans.

A group of Rain’s acquaintances have had enough of being exploited by the company and have found a derelict space station in the ringed planet’s orbit. The station has the cryo-pods that they need to make the nine-year space voyage to freedom. The only catch is that they need Andy’s help, as a Wayland-Yutani synthetic, to access the station. Of course, the salvage mission doesn’t go to plan.

I wasn’t sure of the distinctively youthful cast, at first. But Cailee Spaeny, fresh from Alex Garland’s Civil War, steps into the archetype made famous by Sigourney Weaver, with ease. David Jonsson, as Andy, also does an impressive job as both the malfunctioning synthetic and an upgraded version later in the film. Hats off to the rest of the cast who also do a great job of selling the idea of a rebellious, if fated, crew of misfits.

The movie features all your favourite stages of the xenomorphic lifecycle. Lots of facehuggers, a chestburster and, of course, the aliens, themselves. The movie introduces a new stage in the lifecycle, a cocoon, both for the transition between the chestburster and the adult alien, as well as a dormant stage. We also get to see something similar to the hybrid aliens in Alien 3 and the engineers from Prometheus.

The movie manages to include callbacks to all the previous Alien movies, including the two most recent entries. For instance, the USCM pulse rifles as well as a surprise appearance harking back to the original Alien movie.

The gore is unrestrained, reminding me of the disturbing scenes that were the stock and trade of the direct-to-video sci-fi horror movies of the early ‘80s. The director exploits the opportunities for body horror presented by the alien xenomorphs to the max. The addition of a refined version of the alien liquid from Prometheus results in a gross-out sequence that could scar you for life. The movie more than doubles down on the facehuggers as the crew are chased through the station by a horde of the things, their gross finger-like appendages feeling their way through that gap in a door that absolute nightmare fuel.

The movie does rely on a few too many set pieces. Having the cast tasked with challenges like traversing through floating alien acid-blood in zero-G, quietly sneaking past facehuggers and having to hit all the levers makes it feel like a video game at times.

Overall, though, it is a proper Alien movie.

It may stick too close to the formula for some, but to be honest, that’s what makes it an Alien movie. You are not going to walk away with a greater understanding of the origins of humanity, but you will have a great time having jumped out of your skin a few times and been grossed out by some proper old-school body horror.

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The trailer for a truly terrifying cinematic experience from producer Ridley Scott and director / writer Fede Alvarez, 20th Century Studios’ Alien: Romulus, is now.

The sci-fi / horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful ‘Alien’ franchise back to its roots.

While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. The film stars Cailee Spaeny (“Priscilla”), David Jonsson (“Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy”), Archie Renaux (“Shadow and Bone”), Isabela Merced (“The Last of Us”), Spike Fearn (“Aftersun”), Aileen Wu. Fede Alvarez (“Evil Dead,” “Don’t Breathe”) directs from a screenplay he wrote with frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues (“Don’t Breathe 2”) based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett. “Alien: Romulus” is produced by Ridley Scott (“Napoleon”), who directed the original “Alien” and produced and directed the series’ entries “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant,” Michael Pruss (“Boston Strangler”), and Walter Hill (“Alien”), with Fede Alvarez, Elizabeth Cantillon (“Charlie’s Angels”), Brent O’Connor (“Bullet Train”), and Tom Moran (“Unstoppable”) serving as executive producers.

Alien: Romulus will be in cinemas from 15th August, 2024.

The post ‘ALIEN: ROMULUS’ TRAILER RELEASED appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Today global hit-makers Sabrina Carpenter and multi-platinum selling UK DJ / producer / songwriter Jonas Blue released their new single Alien on Hollywood Records. 

The track, co-written by Carpenter, Blue and Janee “Jin Jin” Bennett, and produced, arranged, recorded and mixed by Blue, is now available via all digital platforms.

Sabrina Carpenter

Alien marks the first collaboration between the two rising pop powerhouse talents. “Over a year ago I tweeted Jonas about how much I loved a song of his and he dm’ed me .. and now here we are,” Carpenter says of the song’s origin. “We wrote it about how alienating it can feel to be trapped in your own emotions. Lyrically, it’s really inspired by the words we keep in our heads when a relationship is unclear.”

“It was such a pleasure to work with the amazingly talented Sabrina on this song, what a pro! We went in the studio with a completely blank canvas along with a songwriter from London named Jin Jin, and came up with this cool concept of Alien,” Jonas adds. “It’s a love song but it goes deep and takes you on a metaphorical journey. The music flowed really easily and I managed to fuse some different vibes in there along with the trademark JB sounds.”

Jonas Blue

The track’s official music video, recently shot in London, will have its worldwide premiere later this month.

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Scottish independent developer Team Junkfish today announced the release date of eclectic turn-based alien adventure Attack of the Earthlings to be February 8th 2018.

In Attack of the Earthlings, the humans behind Galactoil – a comically dysfunctional interstellar energy corporation – have traveled light years to Planet X13 and parked a gigantic space-drill to mine for fossil fuel reserves, sip the odd margarita in the sun and hunt big bugs. However, their latest foray into energy exploration has landed them in a bit of a pickle; they’ve unwittingly flattened a native species home and now the surviving “Swarmers” are out for blood.

Combining turn-based combat and stealth in a dark comedic single player campaign influenced by the comic stylings of “The IT Crowd” and “Father Ted”, players take control of the “Swarmers”, a highly aggressive insectoid species, who must convert human flesh into alien muscle, evolve their units and even find the time to gatecrash a birthday party as they put a stop to the Earthlings’ interplanetary assault.

To put a stop to the invasion, your Swarmers must plan attacks carefully, emerging from vents and lockers to take the human prey by surprise, and ambush multiple enemies at once to remain undetected. The more earthlings killed, the more corpses can be consumed and transformed into new units with specialized roles and unique abilities. The flesh of their own workers is the key ingredient to developing a successful alien insurgency against Galactoil.

You must fight your way up Galactoil’s interplanetary drill, through absurd environments and passing quirky characters, with the goal of defeating the ultimate enemy: upper management!

Team Junkfish described this game as “a breath of fresh air”, for the studio – a rather prolific gust that blew in talent such as voice actor SungWon Cho, who brings to life X13 mining operation Regional Manager Dennis Dickinham; a man both massively unqualified and massively overpaid. A gregarious fellow who finds joy in everything, be it catching a few rounds of golf with the boys or rerouting power from sickbay to the massage chairs in the boardroom, Dickinham’s a delight to be around! Just never, NEVER utter the phrase “bad idea” in his presence.

The game also features an original soundtrack by composer Mikolai Stroinski (Vanishing of Ethan Carter, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Blood & Wine).

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Get ready to run. Ridley Scott, Director, creator of the Alien set of films that have defined generations of Scifi buffs and created a cinematic character legend returns to the series with Alien: Covenant.

The sequel to Prometheus (2012) and the second installment within the Alien timeline. The prologue starts out with Alien fans being introduced to a newly activated synthetic called David conversing with his creator Weyland, musing over the creation of mankind.

It’s not too long before we move on from that and into the action as the crew of a colony ship, which is bound for planet Origae-6 with around two thousand colonists on board, overseen by another synthetic that resembles David; Walter, find themselves making an unscheduled pit stop.

While en route, their ship, the Covenant, is hit by a fatally damaging neutrino burst. While Walter determines the damage to the ship’s computer, called Mother, there is a human radio transmission detected from an unknown nearby planet.

Here lies the premise of the film as the crew descend to the alien territory, finding that it has been somewhat colonised already by humans and cultivated, yet there is not one person insight.

The planet, infact appears to be isolated with no life… but not all is what it seems.

As things go a bit awry on this mystery planet, the crew retreat back to the covenant, unknowingly with a Neomorph in tow.

Alien: Covenant is the sequel that fans of the franchise have been waiting for. And for those that are heavily invested in the series and know their Alien films, they will notice (as I did) similarities to the original Alien (1979) movie.

Filmed in New Zealand, taking in the breathtaking scenery, Alien Covenant is a dark and moody film with its signature Scifi premise.

Covenant does reference back to the 2012’s Prometheus, so for those that have not seen that film, or any Alien film before, may not get the full gist of the entire story – but in saying that Covenant is an easy stand alone that newcomers will not get lost within and can enjoy it for what it is.

Alien: Covenant is gritty, graphic and raw, something that the first Alien film was for it’s time and will have you on the edge of your seat. One of the best and must see films in the saga.

The post Alien: Covenant (20th Century Fox – 2017) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The 5th Wave follows protagonist Cassie as the world around her literally begins to fall apart. In a present day setting, Cassie’s world is bombarded by an alien race as they devastate the earth with various waves of destruction. Four waves have already ravaged the earth, the fifth wave is coming.

The film’s narrative is fairly structured and easy to follow. The story chooses to begin with a defining moment for Cassie and then proceeds with flashbacks to explain what has happened. In spite of a few predictable plot lines, I was still surprised by plot revelations which made for a thrilling and exciting story.

Chloe Moretz slips into the role of Cassie with ease and always manages to bring each character she plays to life.

Her relationship with little brother Sammy, played by Zackary Arthur, was very sweet and the actor will certainly be one to watch as he grows into the acting world. I also credit the kids that made up Squad 53. Their storyline was certainly as interesting perhaps even more than Cassie’s thanks to the abundance of different characters as they ultimately bonded together as a family. I only wish we got to know these characters more but I suppose that’s the problem with film time limitations.

The overall setting and mise en scene fitted into the typical apocalyptic, lets dress up in our beanies and boots carrying guns vibe but of course it works because that’s the story. Though I try to remain unbiased, I do love beanies and boots, especially when it helps the film’s aesthetic.

It makes sense as to why some viewers would be put off by The 5th Wave because it’s a book adaption but I do believe that if you go in with an open mind you may be pleasantly surprised. Cut ties and associations to the book (if you have read it) and experience an action, adventure and science fiction film.

*Check out my personal Blog for more Movie and TV goodness HERE.