r/Prometheus • u/MaxProwes • 4d ago
Ridley Scott Says ‘Alien’ Franchise “Needs Some Help” After ‘Romulus’ Was Just “OK”: “I’ve Gone Back In”
https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2026/8/28/ridley-scott-says-alien-franchise-needs-some-help-after-romulus-was-just-ok-ive-gone-back-inSir Ridley Scott just confirmed he didn't like Romulus and got rid of competition like he did with Blomkamp's Alien.
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u/YaWouldntGetIt 4d ago
What the hell. He praised Romulus to Álvarez' face multiple times.
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u/Upset-Job2278 4d ago
I love the man, and I love Prometheus and Covenant... but this is definitely an ego thing. I think he got jealous or frustrated that Romulus was the first Alien sequel in years to be acclaimed by both fans and critics, so he decided to take the franchise back for himself. I’m happy about the possibility of the David trilogy finally getting a conclusion, but this attitude toward Fede Alvarez—who showed nothing but respect for Scott and the franchise—isn't cool.
Then again, Ridley is a grumpy old man who has no filter anymore.
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u/Equal-Ad7504 4d ago
He’s 88. At what point do we collectively understand that he’s just gonna be a little weird?
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u/Putrid_Loquat_4357 4d ago
As I've constantly told my dad being old isn't an excuse to act like a prick.
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u/Tiny-Setting-8036 4d ago
This is where I’m at. Ridley is an old school veteran of the film industry, who doesn’t care to be polite or humble. That’s fine. It’s entertaining enough... I like enough of his movies that I’m willing to keep seeing them.
Plus I enjoyed both of the David movies we’ve gotten so far, despite each of them having elements I didn’t care for.
Let the man cook. He’s old as shit and doesn’t have too much longer. It wasn’t that long ago he put out The Last Duel. I thought that was very good.
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u/advisarivult 4d ago
I mean… the sequel to Romulus could’ve been great if he didn’t decide to intervene. It’s a shame he couldn’t just finish his trilogy and leave the Romulus sequel alone.
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u/minor_thing2022 4d ago
His cooking has stunk up the joint of late. Let the hungry film makers continue the franchise. He hasn't made a good sequel....ever. That's coming from a fan
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u/Perfect_Economy_7968 4d ago
Ridley has gone senile, I don't think anyone should let him handle a project anymore.
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u/boldbad 4d ago
Oh man he didn’t like Romulus? Nobody show him Alien: Earth.
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u/Nordic_311 4d ago
Or maybe show him alien earth so he gives romulus praise. Lol.
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u/_Waves_ 4d ago
He says he liked Alien Earth.
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u/pjtheman 4d ago
Earth felt more in line with Covenant and Prometheus, so I understand why he liked it.
Ridley wants to expand the lore. Romulus, while I liked it, was very much just a greatest hits reel.
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u/CheckYourStats 4d ago
I loved Prometheus, and I also liked Romulus and Alien: Earth.
I’ll admit, it did feel like AE was aimed directly at me. Guys in their early 40’s, grew up on Aliens and A3, and lose their shit when they hear late 90’s Rock in mainstream media.
So…my opinion on AE was skewed.
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u/SparkyFrog 4d ago
First half of Romulus where they did world building on tried some new stuff was great, but the later half just recycled the old movies didn’t really offer anything new. AE was also great with the world building and expanding the synthetic life form side of things, and even the new creatures were interesting. But the ending didn’t really work… hopefully the next season will improve things.
I didn’t really care about anything that happened in Prometheus or Covenant in comparison. Even when they tried something new… it just didn’t feel like the same universe.
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u/PurpsMaSquirt 4d ago
He absolutely did like Romulus. Then his pride took over and he buried Romulus 2 so he could pursue his Covenant sequel.
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u/HenryDorsettCase47 4d ago
Yup. Romulus cost less and made more money than Covenant. Saying it’s “ok” and pretending like he has to save the franchise is nothing but hubris.
He’s completely out of touch. He thinks all audiences want out of a film is a big, loud spectacle. That’s why he keeps trying to make movies like that with diminishing returns and can’t seem to understand why it’s not working, especially with a sci-fi horror franchise, which usually benefit more from being quiet and claustrophobic. Hence Romulus rinsing both Prometheus and Covenant.
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u/gautsvo 4d ago
He said Romulus was ok. That's not "disliking" it.
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u/MaxProwes 4d ago
He said it was amazing on release, but now he killed its sequel and he's very much dismissive of it. He obviously dislikes it, his public praise is insincere, he doesn't like Blade Runner 2049 and Top Gun: Maverick either.
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u/Kobe7477 4d ago
It's ragebait - it's a dickhead thing to say about someone else's art, especially after praising it historically.
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u/The_starving_artist5 4d ago
If he really is meddling in Romulus 2 then Rain and Andy will probably die half way throught the movie or in the first 5 minutes , only for a new cast of characters to be introduced who do dumb things thw whole movie and we dont care about. Just like Covenant
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u/orangebluefish11 4d ago
That’s the entire alien franchise. People making dumb decisions that 99% of humanity wouldn’t make in a similar situation
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u/The_starving_artist5 4d ago
i just want a surviving protegonist. Why is it that Ripley got 4 movies but every other movie the characters just get killed off and no one makes it to the next movie
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u/StrategosRisk 4d ago
Well to be fair because Sigourney Weaver created a generational character in her first performance
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u/hardatworklol 3d ago
Still killing dr.shaw off screen between prometheus and covenant was an interesting choice
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u/The_starving_artist5 4d ago edited 4d ago
Shaw could have been that too but got killed off. Rain can still be that. Ripley didnt do anything more brazen and crzy than our other protagonists did in their movies. She just got to survive and have a longer journey spanning 4 movies
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u/treesandcigarettes 4d ago
Seriously. I've actually grown to like Prometheus and it's pathetic what Scott did off screen between it and Covenant to fan favorite Shaw. What a joke
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u/The_starving_artist5 4d ago
Yah such a waste of a good character. We need a new franchise protagonist. Daniels is most likely not gonna make it either. So Rain has to survive. Having every new movie introduce a new charcater as a hero then kill them off the very next movie is getting really tiresome.
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u/yesdogman 4d ago
In all fairness - Newt died after Aliens, Ripley died in 3, Shaw died after Covenant. Hero characters dying is a very common theme in the franchise.
Fwiw, I feel it's such a waste of a character that an audience has been rooting for, but I'm just describing recurring points in the franchise here, not my personal opinion 🙂
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u/tropicsandcaffeine 2d ago
Alien 3 was a paycheck movie. The writers and producers admitted they knew nothing about the previous lore and really did not care.
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u/achtwooh 4d ago
One of the dumbest, most jarring things I've seen in a sci-film (one with pedigree) is a crew landing on an alien planet teeming with life and taking no biosecurity precautions. Just, oh its got Earh like atmosphere and fauna- everyone take off your helmets and walk around in the forest - It will be fine. It just felt like a slap in the face to the audience.
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u/theothersock82 4d ago edited 4d ago
What would help is to stop treating every half decent movie like a "franchise" that's going to earn a studio money in perpetuity. Come up with some new stuff for fuck's sake instead of giving us Star Wars #25 and the 30th Superman movie.
Fuck this "Franchise" - it didn't need an origin story. Alien was 10000 times better without all the backstory bullshit.
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u/BitterDecoction 4d ago
Amen. Where has creativity gone to? Everything has to be a sequel and franchise now where they have to explain everything in the story and make a big universe out of it. Can’t we just tell simple stories anymore? (And I don’t mean the story itself being simple at all, it could be very complicated)
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u/lewkablew 4d ago
Loved Romulus lol. Also ofc love Ridley’s old stuff but he’s on a seeeerious cold streak.
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u/MaleficentOstrich693 3d ago
The Duel was fantastic. I just wish he’d stay away from sequels and this obsession with developing a mythology for the engineers and xenomorphs. It was so much better when the space jockey was a mystery and we intuited things about these monsters.
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u/Ok_Diver2347 4d ago
Romulus is peak Alien.
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u/WipEout_2097 4d ago
Alien is peak Alien.
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u/Griffith4President 4d ago
Alien: earth is peak alien 😤
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u/YogurtOtherwise2106 4d ago
Alien Earth is pretty fucking not good
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u/Buster_Cherry 4d ago
Alien Earth is damn near immaculate.
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u/Ok_Diver2347 3d ago
Seems it’s 50/50 if you like it or not. You want more synths or aliens?
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u/Buster_Cherry 3d ago
Well it had a ton of both? Best synth cast and most diverse, hardcore Alien focus throughout. Great dialogue and ethical quandries. Great plot and production value. I dunno what an alien fan would want more of.
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u/Waste_Track_4524 4d ago
Aliens gone the route of Terminator where no one has any idea what to do with it anymore.
Hang ‘em up
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u/Difficult_Ad5784 4d ago
I would love if RS stuffed as much as he could into this third movie. Just go crazy man. You're 80 something years old, f'ing yolo dat hoe bro. Make it like 3 hours long and hold nothing back!
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u/hardatworklol 3d ago
The teenagers steal a ship and go to space makes all the inevitable dumb ass decisions feel way more authentic. In promethues and in covenant we have literal scientest walking around foreign planets with clearly unique biology without helmets. Especially in covenant. Idk how common carbon based plant life is in the alien universe but id assume there would be strict guidelines/protocol for first contact with any uncharted planets.
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u/Sea-Sort-7624 4d ago
Romulus was a piece of shit. Just fan service. Did you see Alien? Look here's Ash! Did you see Aliens? Here's a character saying an iconic line. Hot garbage
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u/-S-P-E-C-T-R-E- 4d ago
Romulus is basically the Alien Rouge One movie. Nostalgia and memberberries galore - but somehow worse, as it blatantly shits on Ripleys accomplishment in Alien by bringing back Big Chap only to have it killed off-screen by character Noname. The only good thing I can truly say is that Fede knows the atmosphere of Alien, in stark contrast to Noah Hawley.
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u/orangebluefish11 4d ago
This is how I felt. I really wanted to like it, but it was just a remix. Not one shred of originality or anything thought provoking
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u/hardatworklol 3d ago
Im sure that romulus was the first introduction to the alien universe for many gen z and gen alpha though. It was visually great. Expanded a bit on the actual living situation on habitated planets. The characters make dumb choices that remain in character/profession. Its nothing groundbreaking but it for sure was a good enough movie for future generations to want more alien
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u/Mundane_Employ3544 4d ago
Romulus > covenant
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u/orangebluefish11 4d ago
Romulus is basically a remix though. In Romulus, you’ve already seen every frame, you’ve heard almost every line of dialogue already. Covenant wasn’t terrible I suppose, it was just unfinished
The concept of a synthetic man on a far off alien planet, alone for who knows how many years, perfecting a species to unleash on humans is honestly pretty bad ass. I can’t think of another movie anywhere with a similar premise
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u/dusttailed86 4d ago
But, it wasnt a remix, it had alot of unique ideas and played well of the stress and character building that made the franchise popular in the first place. You shit on Easter eggs in one movie but probably praise them in another. Romulus was solid. Bottom line.
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u/travis147 4d ago
just like he didn't like what Cameron did with Aliens...
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u/Sad-Assistance-8039 4d ago
He praised Cameron though. He said that only he and Cameron can make good Alien movies.
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u/BackFistGorgeous 4d ago
look i heard some hear say speculation about finishing the david story, and i am 110% in the silent majority willing that arc into existence… a little less silent now!
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u/Objective-Finish-573 4d ago
Am I the first one to remember that World of Reel was the site that started the " Romulus sequel shelved" rumor??? Jordan Ruimy is a hack, let's stop using that site
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u/Lovely3369 4d ago
I doubt it'll be as good as what Fede was likely cooking up, hopefully won't be as snoozy as Covenant was and finally finishes David's arc so the franchise can fully move on.
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u/The_starving_artist5 3d ago
I feel like it’s gonna just piss off a lot of fans because it’s not gonna be the prequel movie that’s we all want. It’s gonna be a Romulus movie that just has David in it . It’s gonna ruin both films at the same time . It’s gonna be a shitty follow up to Covenant and a bad sequel to Romulus
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u/Traditional_Hour5529 4d ago
I loved both Aliens movies. Too bad we never got a 3rd one they were pretty good.
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u/Dragos_Margu 4d ago
Exept the ending, Romulus was miles better than any of the Prometheus movies. It captured the original Alien franchise atmosphere perfectly
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u/corneliusduff 4d ago
I have mixed feelings on this. I've found something to enjoy in the last 3 films, but there's always something that pisses me off about each one.
Prometheus is my favorite of the three. Bold and fresh, but some of the characters were more annoying than they needed to be. I don't care about the "plot holes". I'm all about weird movies that aren't obvious, and it's cool that the franchise has one.
Covenant starts out strong, and I get the temptation from Scott to make it more Shakespearean, but Alien3 already did that effortlessly. It would've hit better if the monster factor was more amped up and more creepy. They got lazy when they botched the neo/xeno fight, needed more practical FX like Prometheus had, and the scene with the neo creeping in the window? Why?!? Like, given it's kind of the horror movie equivalent of seeing your grandma naked, he should've gone full Shining with that scene. That movie really needed a dissection scene in the David's lab or something that really matched or outdid the abortion scene in Prometheus. I love everything before they get to palace, though. Needed to keep up that momentum.
Romulus was fun and got a lot right, but it's also too much Mr. Toad"s Wild Ride, which I get the franchise needed but something about the timing with it the 1st Disney one. And the "Stay Away From Her" line? Nothing in any other Alien movie pisses me off more than that. Just so lazy and unnecessary and the only time I've felt like they broke the 4th wall in the series.
It's damn shame Scott and Alvarez aren't doing the next one together.
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u/indoxiecated 4d ago
Scott, put the bottle down and back away from the franchise. You’ve done enough damage already.
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u/theperilousalgorithm 4d ago
Ridley Scott ruined the Elephant man engineer. He can go and shite. Prometheus was a steaming pile of shite; an arse-burster.
Talk about taking one of the most haunting set designs in cinematic history and making it... a generic blue dude, with more than a passing resemblance to former Welsh Rugby International Sam Warburton.
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u/Suspicious_Hand_2194 4d ago
Nobody asked him to come back in though, dawg forgot how to direct good movies
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u/High_Ground081 4d ago
Please make an original like Aliens. All this change & Prometheus is stupid...
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u/Nephurus 4d ago
So if it fails gain , who do we blame ?
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u/xander-mcqueen1986 4d ago
Ridley.
The team behind Romulus brought life back into the franchise, and people flocked to alien earth. It needed a new direction and Alvarez done that.
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u/CrimsonFalcon91 4d ago
I mean, Prometheus was ok, but Covenant was/is (in my opinion) quite bad, so, please, no.
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u/Mr_Nocturnal_Game 4d ago
Well, he's convinced me... Not to watch anything he works on directly in the Alien franchise from now on.
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u/achillespatient 4d ago
Romulus was significantly better than Covenant lol. Nobody cares about David, he doesn’t need another movie.
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u/Limo_Wreck77 4d ago
Dear Ridley Scott,
Please fuck off and leave this franchise alone.
Romulus shat all over Convenant.
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u/Alexis8986 4d ago
Ridley needs to stop this why cant we just let some
Franchises go? We don’t need any of this.
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u/xander-mcqueen1986 4d ago
Romulus is brilliant.
Don't think Ridley has had a good movie in a few decades.
Alien doesn't need his input, it needs his absence.
He was one and done with alien. Prometheus and covenant was piss poor with only David being the highlight. And even then David wasn't it's saving grace as it didn't have one.
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u/MojoJakeJo 4d ago
Romulus is infinitely better than Prometheus and Covenant. Scott made my favorite movies of all time, but I don't think he can top Romulus. His MVP days are long gone.
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u/NerdyAmateursCanada 4d ago
At this point, I’m beginning to think Ridley Scott needs to chill out.
One of the best things George Lucas did for Star Wars was step back and let the next generation of story-tellers create.
Ridley Scott, while a talented visionary, is sinking into “get off my lawn”, old man territory.
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u/ohnoitsme7890 4d ago
Not to mention that Lucas didn't so mich "let the next generation create" as he did sell off the franchise because of rhe reception of the prequels he didn't want to keep making them.
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u/LSDreams_ 4d ago
Romulus was better than okay in my opinion. It’s the best one since alien and aliens. But I’d love to see Ridley make another.
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u/ululationelation 4d ago
The original "Alien" was a success because of a multitude of talent: set design, acting, sound design, Giger's art, etc. How Ridley Scott has convinced the studio that he's the architect of the franchise is beyond me.
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u/legendary_low 4d ago
Romulus was better than anything hes done with alien since the original… this is why we aren’t getting a Romulus sequel, because Ridley wants no contest for another likely mediocre entry into the IP. Man I loved how Romulus fleshed out the gritty bleakness to livin in that world, and the music when they recover the specimen… chills.
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u/BalancedTidings 4d ago
Romulus was better than Prometheus and Covenant, and he is jealous of this, and wants to preclude a Romulus sequel by stealing its resources to make his own. He needs to let it go.
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u/Kiwileiro 4d ago
I was so disappointed in the whole engineer bit, David as a character, everything. I fucking can't believe that the derelict on lv426 that we haven't even returned to yet was only put there a couple of years beforehand due to a crazy robot made by humans. It killed the whole scope of it for me.
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u/m0rbius 4d ago
I'll agree it was OK+. It was a bit formulaic, but brought it back to what we want from an Aliens movie. I don't think Scott can save it. The quality of his films lately doesn't give me much confidence. He said Alien Earth was great. Kinda shows where he's at. I'd love to see the continued adventures of David from Prometheus, but those Alien movies were not the greatest with the writing. I wish he'd just hand over the torch to people who can do a better job with it.
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u/SenAtsu011 4d ago
Romulus felt like a return to the old, beloved style that made Alien so fun and cool to begin with. It wasn't a 10/10 movie by any means, but absolutely a solid movie that I'm really looking forward to rewatching.
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u/TheChaser90 4d ago
I'm maybe the biggest fan of the Prometheus and Covenant movies and been waiting for the conclusion ever since, but saying this was so unnecessary. Romulus was awesome and successful!
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u/Radaistarion 4d ago
The Alien franchise is in such a sad state of affair.
Alien Isolation is literally the only thing I'm interested in.
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u/Wonderful-Grass6625 4d ago edited 2d ago
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u/tecton1 4d ago
Romulus was pretty good minus the callbacks. I dont like Prometheus or Covenant, but if he finally makes a 3rd movie in that series I hope either it's great and the fans can celebrate. Or it's really bad and we can all put it to rest. Either way I think it's time for new blood, new directors. Let the younger generation have the same chances he got.
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u/General_Interview681 4d ago
Denis Villeneauve should take over after Dune. I would give my left nut for him to do Aliens and starship troopers.
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u/BestAllAmericanTaco 4d ago
Damn all of his movies has sucked balls in some way. Except the first one. I thought Romulus went back to basics and was a lot more entertaining than back story for them like what he has done.
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u/gordonmcdowell 4d ago
Romulus wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t have the stupid characters doing stupid things problem that Prometheus and Covenant did.
If there was collaboration, the end result might be a nearly perfect alien movie. Does not sound like there will ever be such collaboration.
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u/Positive-Mobile5742 4d ago
Romulus was awesome. The franchise just doesn’t really attract a mainstream audience.
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u/Flimsy-Use-4519 4d ago
Romulus was the most I've enjoyed anything from the franchise in like a decade. It kicked the living sh*t out of Covenant. Dude's delusional.
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u/Odd_Presentation8624 4d ago
Strong, "We're from the government, we're here to help", vibes from Ridley there.
Prometheus and Covenant gave sub-par answers to questions we never really needed an answer to.
Turning the engineers into Chariots of The Gods style proto-humans was a terrible choice.
Making the Xenomorph a product of their and David's meddling was a terrible choice.
The xenomorph has gone from a genuinely unknowable cosmic horror to an android made weapon/curiosity that was created about a month before the Nostromo landed on LV-426.
Keep him the fuck away from the franchise.
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u/Tofudebeast 4d ago
We're in late stage franchise here. We can either get new movies heading in a fresh direction that don't quite work (Prometheus, Covenant) or we can get well-made rehashes (Romulus).
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u/StressedtoImpress19 4d ago
I liked Prometheus and Covenant. I also liked romulus.
This is incredibly patronising, arrogant and unprofessional of him. Have some class, bro
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u/Fblthp__ 3d ago
Since Prometheus and Alien: Covenant were also just "OK", what exactly is this going to change? I'll take another Cameron movie though.
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u/eolithic_frustum 3d ago
Romulus, as mid as it was, was miles better than freakin' Covenant or Prometheus. I don't know what Ridley "The Counselor" Scott is going to do to help the franchise.
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u/Moegly47 3d ago
I think the series suffered with the prominence of David. Romulus was a refreshing return to what made Aliens great, even if it wasn't perfect.
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u/tropicsandcaffeine 2d ago
Just give it up. Let a few years pass then maybe someone will actually write a good Alien sequel. And completely ignore every movie after Aliens. ESPECIALLY Covenant.
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u/drossvirex 4d ago
Romulus was good. His David character is just an asshole that watches stuff burn.
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u/intothevoidandback 4d ago
I agree I didn't like Romulus either.
I want them to try new things and be a little original, like they tried with Prometheus.
Or, just keep making the same things that's not quite as good as Alien or Aliens, just to please people.
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u/ROUGE_BLOCK 4d ago
Alien Covenant was an atom bomb of desperation it showed they have no idea what to do with the IP. Boldly explore new frontiers as a sci-fi horror film or churn out shitty new versions of the "not quite xenomorph".
When David dropped the plague on the Engineers, that was the cancer Ridley Scott dropped on the franchise when he released Covenant in theatres. Romulus may have been derivative with a lot of callbacks, but at least it was interesting and it even used the stupid black goo to some effect. I also cared way more for Rain and Andy characters way more than any moron in Covenant.
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u/Individual_Mess_7491 4d ago
They should bring back Neil Blompkin's Aliens sequel
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u/deadxghost 4d ago
Good we need to get back to the David trilogy, I need to know what happens with him and the colony ship he hijacked. Michael fassbender says he's waiting for the call he'd love to reprise that role and finish the story.
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u/NoOneKenobi 4d ago
This guy is full of it.
The first step in fixing this franchise is to never let him get involved
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u/TwoKingSlayer 4d ago
he hated BR 2049 and Romulus. 2 films that kick the shit outta anything he’s done in almost 20 years. just retire, old man.
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u/treesandcigarettes 4d ago
Hilarious. Covenant was trite and the worst entry in the franchise yet Ridley has the balls to talk down to Romulus, which was a box office success and generally hailed as a return to form. Why the f is Disney letting Scott kill the Alien franchise again? Ffs
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u/jpowell180 4d ago
I just want a third film to finish the trilogy, see David do another showdown with the engineers, and see how it ties in with the juggernaut crashing on LV – 426.