Alien: Romulus

En el espacio, nadie puede oír cómo te retuerces de nervios. La disneyficación de Alien, el octavo pasajero ha sido exitosa. Y al igual que con Predators de la serie cinematográfica paralela de Fox, claramente la mayoría de los espectadores están bien con eso, pero yo no lo estoy. Ya era evidente desde el principio que Fede Alvarez solo presentaría un slasher directo con personajes débiles que solo copian el esquema de los personajes triviales de sus películas anteriores. Sin embargo, nunca quise creer que la película no ofrecería absolutamente nada nuevo, excepto una excelente escenografía y efectos prácticos, que también solo copian hábilmente y a propósito recuerdan al original retro, y simplemente variarán lo que ya se ha visto, carecerán de tensión, inventiva en la dirección y, en resumen, también carecerán de personajes en los que podríamos invertir nuestras preocupaciones. Mis miedos se han hecho realidad, llevando a una repetición sin sentido de elementos y líneas de las películas anteriores, lo cual es la plaga de todas las actuales secuelas de franquicias clásicas y aquí duele especialmente. La introducción aún se mantiene, pero luego, prácticamente en la película, puedes identificar el momento crucial en el que todo va cuesta abajo. El pasado año, Vermin: La plaga fue una mejor continuación de Alien, el octavo pasajero que este producto corporativo de fanservice, y incluso logró hacer de manera más efectiva una de las escenas de acción-horror clave de la película. Busca inspiración creativa en los gigantes independientes y fuera de las series establecidas, no la encontrarás en Disney. (14.08.2024)

Más lleno de trama que Prometheus y Alien: Covenant juntos, pero no mucho más inteligente que Alien vs. Predator. Ridley Scott entendió que si quería atraer a una nueva generación de espectadores y continuar con éxito la campaña alienígena, tenía que confiar el cetro a un artesano más afilado, como el que reinició intensamente la serie Evil Dead para los espectadores jóvenes. Los personajes de Alien: Romulus son adolescentes, lo que en sí mismo es inaceptable para nosotros, amantes de los pilares originales y serios del cine. Y mezcló dinámicamente sus momentos icónicos, que no sorprenderán a los entendidos, pero cautivarán a los jóvenes no conocedores. Podemos apreciar el esfuerzo por actualizarse con innovaciones (la buena apuesta de Ian Holm), pero sin su funcionalidad bien pensada en los eventos circundantes, solo tienen un efecto superficial. Casi perdí el interés en la película cuando los personajes no cerraron la puerta gigante de la habitación de los abrazacaras detrás de ellos, en la que primero subieron la temperatura para poder pasar a través de ella de manera segura. Y hay más tonterías igualmente descuidadas que niegan incluso a los recién llegados las leyes recién mostradas del mundo alienígena. Una pena. (18.08.2024)

A pop horror flick that appeals to Generation Z and won't offend the oldies. On the positive side, I'll take the superb and highly talented Cailee Spaeny and the fantastic last half hour, and on the negative side, the simple fact that the other teens are all interchangeable, I didn't find my way to them at all and didn't care if the monster made a sandwich out of them. Yes, it's nice to look at, it has the hallmark of the 70s technique Ridley Scott established in his masterpiece, the atmosphere is nicely depressing and claustrophobic, but for the first two-thirds the film painfully lacks in any kind of tension, because apart from Cailee I - as I've already written - hadn't built up any rapport with the characters and consequently didn't experience the threat of the facehuggers as such at all. Fortunately, there are enough references and allusions to previous episodes, and as a connoisseur I appreciate how "disjointed" it is in that respect: the first third is slowburn old Alien, the second the warlike Aliens, and the last one is a return to the first one, with Fede Álvarez literally quoting it. So yeah, I actually had a decent time, and since Álvarez unloaded a few scenes I hadn’t seen in this genre before, I give the film four spits of acid. (19.08.2024)

After the excellent trailers, it wasn't hard to become excited for Alien: Romulus, but there was still a little red light in my head. It subtly reminded me that behind the camera was Fede Álvarez, a man who certainly has a lot of talent, but not for the horror genre. I suffered through his Evil Dead, and Don’t Breathe was fine at best. And unfortunately, I should have listened to that red light, because while Romulus has its merits, it disappoints in the most fundamental way, it doesn't work as a genre film. Alien: Romulus looks great, and I enjoyed the analog computers, the grey metals, the industrial atmosphere full of hissing pipes, likewise with unexpectedly good actors and interesting characters who behaved surprisingly smart. But that’s not enough when Álvarez can't build a scary atmosphere and his scares are dull and uninteresting. Part of the problem is that this is more a game of referencing and quoting old films, leaving little room for the new. As a result, it's a nice fanservice from someone who knows how it should look, sound and work, but he just can't quite put it together into a workable horror film. Álvarez may be a good producer with an interesting vision, but unfortunately he's not a good director or executor. (14.08.2024)

Fede Álvarez, director of the best Evil Dead and Don't Breathe, one of the best original modern genre films, delivers for the third time (I’m ignoring the existence of The Girl in the Spider's Web). But flawless perfection it is not this time. He does well what he does best: offering an intense horror ride full of attractions that slowly makes it impossible to breathe. But what I have the biggest problem with regarding the new Alien is time and space. Once it gets going, it feels insanely fast-paced. For one thing, the development of the monsters is absurdly fast, and for another, I would have liked the human characters to have time to pause for a moment and let it sink in how much shit they've got themselves into. And the space, I found the action awkwardly cut at times in terms of orientation. Especially the elevator scene and its ending I didn't get at all, maybe a chunk of the film had to be missing there (?). The much criticised fanservice didn't bother me, or rather I didn't pay much attention to it and it didn't actively distract me – though I have the "advantage" in this that I very rarely watch films repeatedly, so I certainly don't know any of the Alien movies by heart and can't quote from them. I found all but one moment (at the end of the aforementioned elevator scene) unworthy. The criticised digicam is totally fine, I really don’t know what the problem is, it looks completely appropriate given the state "it" is in right now. The final ten minutes are easily the best part of the film; and the main pair of characters realistically have a lot more charisma than anyone who came after Ripley in the franchise. 8/10 (16.08.2024)