August 21, 2024 • 9 mins
In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert shares his thoughts on the latest film in the “Alien” Franchise. This episode contains spoilers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, my name is Robert Lammin. This is The Monster Fact,
a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. This week,
I'm devoting the episode to a kind of mini review
of the latest film in the alien franchise, Alien Romulus,
(00:32):
directed by Fede Alvarez. First and foremost, I had a
great time in the theater with Alien Romulus. I'd been
pregaming for months, obviously with fresh viewings of my favorite
alien films, several sessions of the Alien RPG and several
alien related episodes of The Monster Fact and Weird House
Cinema here in the Stuff to Blow your Mind podcast feed.
(00:53):
So I was geared up for it. And there's always
a certain amount of sunk cost with these films as well,
an opening weekend tick and a collector's mug will set
you back a pretty penny, so I have no regrets,
but hey, that's how sunk cost works. So I went
into the theater with a great deal of optimism, but
not without some caution. While Ridley Scott's producer credit was
(01:14):
reassuring I mostly know Fede Alvarez for the twenty thirteen
Evil Dead gore Fest, which I enjoyed, and twenty sixteen's
Don't Breathe, which I just have no interest in seeing.
Not perhaps my brand of horror, but I respect those
who dig it. One of my friends expressed hesitation in
seeing the film, giving Alvarez's tendency for, in their words,
(01:36):
a sort of meanness perhaps and maybe a little bit
of suffering beyond the point of their comfort level. So granted,
there's always suffering in an alien film, and perhaps meanness
as well, but it's a careful balancing act. So I
too was kind of unsure about where things were going
to land on that point. My other point of caution
concerned the Alien universe at large. I really enjoyed all
(01:59):
six previous films, you know, some more than others, obviously,
but I felt like each of them contributed nicely to
an ever expanding fictional universe. Alien and the sequel Aliens
set the tone, and I love the way Prometheus and
Covenant expanded the lore and confronted philosophical ramifications of the setting.
So I feared a narrowing of the Alien universe, in
(02:21):
which previous entries would be ignored or minimalized, or some
other move might be taken to unbalance the current state
of things, upsetting the lore of the Alien RPG and
other bits of extended media. Luckily, most of my concerns
proved completely unwarranted. To its great credit, Alien Romulus is
a film that embraces aspects of the entire Alien cinematic universe,
(02:45):
minimizing nothing, while also including nods to the excellent video
game Alien Isolation and proving very faithful to the Alien RPG.
In fact, as I've seen others point out online, the
movie could easily be a cinematic campaign for Free League's
xenomorph infested role playing game. The film does a great
(03:06):
job exploring the harsh life of interplanetary colonists, as well
as the machinations of the whalan Utawni Corporation. It lovingly
brings face huggers, chest bursters, and adult xenomorphs to life,
and also shows us a few things that we hadn't
seen before. It gives us some interesting android drama, and
above all else, delivers a thoroughly satisfying, pulse pounding sci
(03:28):
fi horror ride. I would say it kept me on
the edge of my seat, but the theater chair was
a recliner. The performances were all solid, with Kaylee Spainey's
Rain and David Johnson's Andy as the standouts. Now two
major points of frequent criticism that I should comment on.
First of all, yes, there are a lot of callbacks
in the dialogue to previous Alien films, in addition to
(03:51):
visual and musical cues. Many of these are rather pleasant
examples of mild fan service. I quite enjoyed hearing entry
of the Gods into Valhalla as our characters entered the
gloomy space station, but the instances do build up to
a point that may exceed your personal tolerance. There is
also the film's use of the android character Rook created
(04:12):
in the likeness of the late Ian Holme, who lived
nineteen thirty one through twenty twenty, who of course played
the android Ash in the original Alien. So much work
clearly went into recreating this performance, and I'm to understand
it was done with his family's blessings, But at the
end of the day, I would have much preferred a
live actor in the role, someone who could have truly
(04:33):
brought the part to life in a unique way, while
also honoring the synth performances that came before. I mean,
I can easily think of numerous examples of living actors
who could have really sunk their teeth into this role,
and I'd be talking about it right now. Is one
of the highlights of the film. As it is. The
effects provide us with a synthetic rendering of Ian Home,
(04:56):
which is uncanny, much in the same way that the
digital Peter Cushing from Rogue One was uncanny and missed
the mark. Even allowing that Rook is a synthetic person
and a glitchy, damaged one at that it just never
felt right, and it just also felt largely unnecessary. Now,
if I had more time, I might discuss that there's
at least one character in the film whose sole purpose
(05:18):
seems to be prolonged suffering and death. I'm not sure
how I ultimately feel about her portrayal. I may have
to come back to that later in my own thoughts,
but I do want to touch on the Offspring, a
creature we encounter in the film's climax, a product of
Waylan Newtawni bioengineered black goo and Zeno corrupted human pregnancy.
(05:38):
The spirit of the choice is very much in keeping
with various ideas explored in the Alien RPG, and is
in many ways a new take on the Newborn creature
from Alien Resurrection, and it's certainly nasty and terrifying. However,
much like the Newborn, I had reservations about the design.
I loved its creepiness and the inclusion of engineer genetic notes,
(05:59):
also felt it to be a tad anticlimactic after so
much absolutely on point classic hr gig or xenomorphaction. My
thoughts on this might change that sometimes do, but I
would have personally preferred an alternate design approach. I don't know,
maybe it could have been tweaked one way or another. Finally,
we have to discuss the law of the conservation of mass.
(06:21):
As I discussed in my house stuffworks dot com article
how the Alien xenomorph Works back in twenty twelve. This
has always been a potential problem in xenomorphiology as far
back as the original Alien film. We see the chest
burster grow to enormous size in no time, but cut
script material and extended universe insights always allowed that perhaps
the creature ates something to put on that mass, be
(06:44):
it in Nostromo food stores, or chunks of the ship,
something to allow for the fact that if a creature
is to take on x amount of mass, it needs
to absorb or convert x amount of mass or energy. Now,
I haven't rewatched every alien movie recently, most of them,
but there are a few I haven't gone back to.
I feel like we always had at least a little
(07:05):
more wiggle room on this issue. Fudgeble time in which
a fresh Zeno could conceivably bulk up to its adult form. Romulus, however,
really throws this idea out the air locks. Cenomorphs grow
in size at a crazy pace in virtually no time,
though thankfully we don't observe it in real time. I
want to stress, though, that this is a minor quibbled
that this didn't actually detract from my enjoyment of the film.
(07:28):
It was still a tremendous time. But I couldn't help
but think about it. I can't help but apply that,
you know, the science podcast or brain to it a
little bit. As Joe pointed out to me, we were
talking about this before I came into record. There's at
least some mention made in Romulus of a remarkable cellular
property of Zeno cells that Rook hasn't completely worked out,
and you know, we see some of that in some
(07:50):
footage of an old experiment in the film. So perhaps
this is a nod to their ability to grow at
such a pace, and the film is just you know,
accepting it and wrapping this into the lore. And also
I understand that you know, ultimately you're trying to tell
a thrilling story, so it's also a pacing choice as well.
So fair enough. As I mentioned in the twenty twelve
(08:11):
How Stuff Works article, fast growth spurts are common here
on Earth. It's one of the primary ways to ensure
a creature's offspring will survive by allowing it to reach
maturity as soon as possible. For example, one mind blowing
example of this that I brought up in that article
is that a newborn blue whale grows at a rate
of two hundred pounds or ninety one kilograms every day,
(08:31):
consuming its mother's milk. But again, it's consuming in order
to grow. Other examples of interest here. According to the
American Museum of Natural History, the t rex Tyrhnosaurus rex
is thought to have grown at an estimated rate of
four point six pounds or two point five kilograms per
day for about fourteen years, and on a much smaller scale, E.
(08:52):
Colide bacteria can double its population every twenty minutes, subject
to environmental conditions. Again, all and all, Alien Romulus was
a tremendously fun ride that I thought honored the tradition
and a welcome installment in one of my favorite film franchises.
I look forward to seeing it again. Tune in for
(09:12):
additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, or Animalia
Stupendium each week. I believe Animalius Dupendium is going to
come back, If not next week, then the week after.
But yeah, as always, you can email us with recommendations, feedback,
or in this case, your thoughts on Alien Romulus at
contact at Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, my name is Robert Lammin. This is The Monster Fact,
a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. This week,
I'm devoting the episode to a kind of mini review
of the latest film in the alien franchise, Alien Romulus,
(00:32):
directed by Fede Alvarez. First and foremost, I had a
great time in the theater with Alien Romulus. I'd been
pregaming for months, obviously with fresh viewings of my favorite
alien films, several sessions of the Alien RPG and several
alien related episodes of The Monster Fact and Weird House
Cinema here in the Stuff to Blow your Mind podcast feed.
(00:53):
So I was geared up for it. And there's always
a certain amount of sunk cost with these films as well,
an opening weekend tick and a collector's mug will set
you back a pretty penny, so I have no regrets,
but hey, that's how sunk cost works. So I went
into the theater with a great deal of optimism, but
not without some caution. While Ridley Scott's producer credit was
(01:14):
reassuring I mostly know Fede Alvarez for the twenty thirteen
Evil Dead gore Fest, which I enjoyed, and twenty sixteen's
Don't Breathe, which I just have no interest in seeing.
Not perhaps my brand of horror, but I respect those
who dig it. One of my friends expressed hesitation in
seeing the film, giving Alvarez's tendency for, in their words,
(01:36):
a sort of meanness perhaps and maybe a little bit
of suffering beyond the point of their comfort level. So granted,
there's always suffering in an alien film, and perhaps meanness
as well, but it's a careful balancing act. So I
too was kind of unsure about where things were going
to land on that point. My other point of caution
concerned the Alien universe at large. I really enjoyed all
(01:59):
six previous films, you know, some more than others, obviously,
but I felt like each of them contributed nicely to
an ever expanding fictional universe. Alien and the sequel Aliens
set the tone, and I love the way Prometheus and
Covenant expanded the lore and confronted philosophical ramifications of the setting.
So I feared a narrowing of the Alien universe, in
(02:21):
which previous entries would be ignored or minimalized, or some
other move might be taken to unbalance the current state
of things, upsetting the lore of the Alien RPG and
other bits of extended media. Luckily, most of my concerns
proved completely unwarranted. To its great credit, Alien Romulus is
a film that embraces aspects of the entire Alien cinematic universe,
(02:45):
minimizing nothing, while also including nods to the excellent video
game Alien Isolation and proving very faithful to the Alien RPG.
In fact, as I've seen others point out online, the
movie could easily be a cinematic campaign for Free League's
xenomorph infested role playing game. The film does a great
(03:06):
job exploring the harsh life of interplanetary colonists, as well
as the machinations of the whalan Utawni Corporation. It lovingly
brings face huggers, chest bursters, and adult xenomorphs to life,
and also shows us a few things that we hadn't
seen before. It gives us some interesting android drama, and
above all else, delivers a thoroughly satisfying, pulse pounding sci
(03:28):
fi horror ride. I would say it kept me on
the edge of my seat, but the theater chair was
a recliner. The performances were all solid, with Kaylee Spainey's
Rain and David Johnson's Andy as the standouts. Now two
major points of frequent criticism that I should comment on.
First of all, yes, there are a lot of callbacks
in the dialogue to previous Alien films, in addition to
(03:51):
visual and musical cues. Many of these are rather pleasant
examples of mild fan service. I quite enjoyed hearing entry
of the Gods into Valhalla as our characters entered the
gloomy space station, but the instances do build up to
a point that may exceed your personal tolerance. There is
also the film's use of the android character Rook created
(04:12):
in the likeness of the late Ian Holme, who lived
nineteen thirty one through twenty twenty, who of course played
the android Ash in the original Alien. So much work
clearly went into recreating this performance, and I'm to understand
it was done with his family's blessings, But at the
end of the day, I would have much preferred a
live actor in the role, someone who could have truly
(04:33):
brought the part to life in a unique way, while
also honoring the synth performances that came before. I mean,
I can easily think of numerous examples of living actors
who could have really sunk their teeth into this role,
and I'd be talking about it right now. Is one
of the highlights of the film. As it is. The
effects provide us with a synthetic rendering of Ian Home,
(04:56):
which is uncanny, much in the same way that the
digital Peter Cushing from Rogue One was uncanny and missed
the mark. Even allowing that Rook is a synthetic person
and a glitchy, damaged one at that it just never
felt right, and it just also felt largely unnecessary. Now,
if I had more time, I might discuss that there's
at least one character in the film whose sole purpose
(05:18):
seems to be prolonged suffering and death. I'm not sure
how I ultimately feel about her portrayal. I may have
to come back to that later in my own thoughts,
but I do want to touch on the Offspring, a
creature we encounter in the film's climax, a product of
Waylan Newtawni bioengineered black goo and Zeno corrupted human pregnancy.
(05:38):
The spirit of the choice is very much in keeping
with various ideas explored in the Alien RPG, and is
in many ways a new take on the Newborn creature
from Alien Resurrection, and it's certainly nasty and terrifying. However,
much like the Newborn, I had reservations about the design.
I loved its creepiness and the inclusion of engineer genetic notes,
(05:59):
also felt it to be a tad anticlimactic after so
much absolutely on point classic hr gig or xenomorphaction. My
thoughts on this might change that sometimes do, but I
would have personally preferred an alternate design approach. I don't know,
maybe it could have been tweaked one way or another. Finally,
we have to discuss the law of the conservation of mass.
(06:21):
As I discussed in my house stuffworks dot com article
how the Alien xenomorph Works back in twenty twelve. This
has always been a potential problem in xenomorphiology as far
back as the original Alien film. We see the chest
burster grow to enormous size in no time, but cut
script material and extended universe insights always allowed that perhaps
the creature ates something to put on that mass, be
(06:44):
it in Nostromo food stores, or chunks of the ship,
something to allow for the fact that if a creature
is to take on x amount of mass, it needs
to absorb or convert x amount of mass or energy. Now,
I haven't rewatched every alien movie recently, most of them,
but there are a few I haven't gone back to.
I feel like we always had at least a little
(07:05):
more wiggle room on this issue. Fudgeble time in which
a fresh Zeno could conceivably bulk up to its adult form. Romulus, however,
really throws this idea out the air locks. Cenomorphs grow
in size at a crazy pace in virtually no time,
though thankfully we don't observe it in real time. I
want to stress, though, that this is a minor quibbled
that this didn't actually detract from my enjoyment of the film.
(07:28):
It was still a tremendous time. But I couldn't help
but think about it. I can't help but apply that,
you know, the science podcast or brain to it a
little bit. As Joe pointed out to me, we were
talking about this before I came into record. There's at
least some mention made in Romulus of a remarkable cellular
property of Zeno cells that Rook hasn't completely worked out,
and you know, we see some of that in some
(07:50):
footage of an old experiment in the film. So perhaps
this is a nod to their ability to grow at
such a pace, and the film is just you know,
accepting it and wrapping this into the lore. And also
I understand that you know, ultimately you're trying to tell
a thrilling story, so it's also a pacing choice as well.
So fair enough. As I mentioned in the twenty twelve
(08:11):
How Stuff Works article, fast growth spurts are common here
on Earth. It's one of the primary ways to ensure
a creature's offspring will survive by allowing it to reach
maturity as soon as possible. For example, one mind blowing
example of this that I brought up in that article
is that a newborn blue whale grows at a rate
of two hundred pounds or ninety one kilograms every day,
(08:31):
consuming its mother's milk. But again, it's consuming in order
to grow. Other examples of interest here. According to the
American Museum of Natural History, the t rex Tyrhnosaurus rex
is thought to have grown at an estimated rate of
four point six pounds or two point five kilograms per
day for about fourteen years, and on a much smaller scale, E.
(08:52):
Colide bacteria can double its population every twenty minutes, subject
to environmental conditions. Again, all and all, Alien Romulus was
a tremendously fun ride that I thought honored the tradition
and a welcome installment in one of my favorite film franchises.
I look forward to seeing it again. Tune in for
(09:12):
additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, or Animalia
Stupendium each week. I believe Animalius Dupendium is going to
come back, If not next week, then the week after.
But yeah, as always, you can email us with recommendations, feedback,
or in this case, your thoughts on Alien Romulus at
contact at Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Stuff To Blow Your Mind News
Hosts And Creators
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Joe McCormick
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