I think on balance it's...ok. Good suspense sequences, but sabotages itself with pointless fanservice.
The most egregious is recreating Ian Holm digitally, for a science officer android. What the actual f*ck is the point of that? Even if the tech was good enough - which it's not - it'd still be annoying and distracting. Just cast some middle-aged character actor that can bring the same vibe.
I feel ashamed because Romulus was apparently littered with fan service but I only detected a few: the "you have my sympathies" line, Andy counting down the ammo % as Rain played light gun shooter in zero-G and the most egregious one of all - the "get away from her" line. Sigh.
Fully agree about Iam Holm. I had forgotten the original android was Ash, not Rook, so I had a brain fart and thought the remnants of Ash somehow ended up on this research station... Well, that's one opportunity for a working actor gone to star in a big-budget horror movie franchise!
The premise that W-T researchers found the corpse of the Xenomorph from Alien floating around in space was...what? The guy was blown to smithereens by the plasma engines of Ripley's escape vessel. If an alien can succumb to pulse rifle fire and flamethrowers then surely...
I was supremely confused when Rain was tenderly caught by a Xenomorph while plunging to certain death in the elevator shaft. Why didn't it just let her go, or bisect her with its tail on the way down or use its mandibles for a cheap shot? (I didn't notice at the time but this was the xeno that birthed out of the pilot and was later stun batoned by The Jerk while it was coccooning). If the film wanted to highlight a "main" xeno as an antagonist, it didn't do a very good job about it.
The "shocking" Act 4 reveal: the self-C-section in Prometheus was 1000x more bracing. And I thought the baby-man-xeno from Resurrection was much more terrifying.
I complain but it was a fine way to pass the time on a Sunday afternoon. Great excuse to head out to the cineplex for once because something like this does warrant the big screen/big sound experience.
The "shocking" Act 4 reveal: the self-C-section in Prometheus was 1000x more bracing. And I thought the baby-man-xeno from Resurrection was much more terrifying.
Agreed on the first point, but that's a a function of whose POV the scene is from. Disagree on the second though, I thought the newborn in resurrection was terminally goofy.
I'm less down on the last act than most - I find the evolved man-thing creepy, there's kind of a thematic point to it if you squint, the final sequence where they're hanging outside the cargo door is visually striking - I just wish it wasn't preceded by all the other clunky overt fanservice, so my first reaction wasn't: "Oh, you even ticked the Alien: Resurrection and Prometheus boxes. I did not have that on my reference bingo card. *golfclap*".
I think on balance it's...ok. Good suspense sequences, but sabotages itself with pointless fanservice.
The most egregious is recreating Ian Holm digitally, for a science officer android. What the actual f*ck is the point of that? Even if the tech was good enough - which it's not - it'd still be annoying and distracting. Just cast some middle-aged character actor that can bring the same vibe.
Do you read Sutter Cane?
I feel ashamed because Romulus was apparently littered with fan service but I only detected a few: the "you have my sympathies" line, Andy counting down the ammo % as Rain played light gun shooter in zero-G and the most egregious one of all - the "get away from her" line. Sigh.
Fully agree about Iam Holm. I had forgotten the original android was Ash, not Rook, so I had a brain fart and thought the remnants of Ash somehow ended up on this research station... Well, that's one opportunity for a working actor gone to star in a big-budget horror movie franchise!
The premise that W-T researchers found the corpse of the Xenomorph from Alien floating around in space was...what? The guy was blown to smithereens by the plasma engines of Ripley's escape vessel. If an alien can succumb to pulse rifle fire and flamethrowers then surely...
I was supremely confused when Rain was tenderly caught by a Xenomorph while plunging to certain death in the elevator shaft. Why didn't it just let her go, or bisect her with its tail on the way down or use its mandibles for a cheap shot? (I didn't notice at the time but this was the xeno that birthed out of the pilot and was later stun batoned by The Jerk while it was coccooning). If the film wanted to highlight a "main" xeno as an antagonist, it didn't do a very good job about it.
The "shocking" Act 4 reveal: the self-C-section in Prometheus was 1000x more bracing. And I thought the baby-man-xeno from Resurrection was much more terrifying.
I complain but it was a fine way to pass the time on a Sunday afternoon. Great excuse to head out to the cineplex for once because something like this does warrant the big screen/big sound experience.
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I still need to get to the theater to watch. So busy.
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Agreed on the first point, but that's a a function of whose POV the scene is from. Disagree on the second though, I thought the newborn in resurrection was terminally goofy.
I'm less down on the last act than most - I find the evolved man-thing creepy, there's kind of a thematic point to it if you squint, the final sequence where they're hanging outside the cargo door is visually striking - I just wish it wasn't preceded by all the other clunky overt fanservice, so my first reaction wasn't: "Oh, you even ticked the Alien: Resurrection and Prometheus boxes. I did not have that on my reference bingo card. *golfclap*".
Do you read Sutter Cane?