Alien: Romulus is one of the movies in the Alien saga, released on 23rd August 2024. Alien is a whole saga movie that started in the late 1900s and was one of the first movies to take you to space and speak about otherworldly creatures that sparked the imagination of many people all over the world. You would be surprised as to how even the oldest movie looked so realistic when compared with recent advancements in VFX. The saga deals with this mysterious powerful alien species that has close to zero weakness, a crew has to face it amongst the stars and the void that is space itself, which makes the viewers watch at the edge of their seats.
1. Alien (1979)
It's the first movie in the saga, the movie starts with a ship crew getting up from slumber halfway through returning to Earth, woken up by the ship's AI, only to realize that they were woken up because of an SOS call in a nearby planet, upon landing, they encounter multiple problems which leads them to eventually get a baby alien on to the ship accidentally. Things only go wrong from here. Watching this in 2024, one must appreciate the amount of production that has gone into this movie made in 1979. It's not a prolonged movie and is pretty much action-packed, there is no screen time for sulking and buffer time for emotions when something bad happens which is what makes this movie interesting.
It must have been the most gruesome movie at that time, not being much of a horror enthusiast I didn't feel that scared. The movie was horrifying indeed and did keep me on the edge of my seat the whole time. The movie captures the essence of an alien invasion on a flying ship perfectly, the movie makes sure you are engaged until the end of the movie, with a couple of unexpected twists and some of the vilest deaths, not to mention the gooeyness and the unknown nature of the alien, which made me flinch. An invincible alien against a group of 7 humans with limited resources, who do you think will win? Watch to find out.
2. Aliens (1986)
This movie starts where the first movie ended, Ripley the sole survivor rescued by her employer's ship after 57 years, losing her child as well due to old age, upon investigation her employers share that on the same planet where she was stuck now there is a terraforming colony which recently has gone silent, to investigate this, Ripley and a crew of marine go back to the planet. On investigation, they find a sole surviving child named Newt and a whole hive of aliens in the terraforming colony. Now one would wonder that Ripley along with a group of soldiers couldn't be more prepared, but you are wrong, the aliens are found to be more and more persisting than ever.
Ripley and Newt start to bond with each other. "Aliens (1986)." . IMDb,https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090605/mediaindex/
This movie continues to hold that thrill of finding out what happens next, it takes a less load of scary as now you are familiarized with what the aliens can do, and the movie still doesn't stop to surprise you all the way through till the end. There is a touch of wholesomeness in the whole movie which gives a moment of breathing from all the goriness. This movie gives the viewers an idea of how the colonization of this alien invasion can take over an entire colony within seconds. There is struggle literally till the last minute of the movie, which feels like a never-ending trauma for the protagonists and the rest of the survivors, the final standoff was very dandy, and the saga starts to grow on you at this point.
3. Alien 3 (1992)
This movie was a little off track and honestly, this was a little too prolonged, somehow again the shuttle from the previous movie gets destroyed and they land on a planet with a prison, yes you guessed it only Ripley being the sole survivor, the directors must really like her. Well somehow there is a new species of the alien which has now infected a bison from the ship and now has successfully infiltrated the prison as well. The whole prison was made in order to keep the prisoners from using weapons and hence they are now weaponless and against a new unknown species of the alien.
Ripley and the prisoners witnessing cremation "Alien3 (1992)." . IMDb,https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103644/mediaindex/
There are a lot of slurs in this movie, since we are viewing a bunch of thieves, murderers and rapists fighting against an alien, even though weaponless, they do figure out some ideas and methods to trap the alien somehow until a rescue team comes and rescues them. There are a couple of twists in the middle, but at this point, there is no longer horror or scary, its just a bunch of horrifying deaths you wished you'd never seen. Surprisingly (In a sarcastic tone) Ripley is actually special soo much that the company is ready to send a rescue her. To realize what makes her special and how she fits in the whole saga, it makes an important movie.
4. Alien Resurrection (1997)
Man they wouldn't let go of Ripley, this movie is set 200 years after the previous movie, where the scientists have cloned Ripley as a sort of half-human, half-alien, so that she can be the host to the mother alien, clearly all the scientists were out of their minds and were psychotic. Them being so intelligent to call themselves scientists and they thought this was a good idea. Obviously this group of scientists were doing their experiments at the table and had genuinely created some of the vilest creatures one can ever imagine, the only horrifying part of this movie was that they never felt bad about creating it, even in their last moments as they die in the hands of the alien, the alien appeared to them as beautiful.
The scientists also go as far as to smuggle in some expendable humans from a group of thugs in a sort of illegal black market sort of business. Well, I was surprised that they were able to clone Ripley from a single drop of blood, but they had progressed more than that to be able to give birth to 12 of those aliens. You got to give them the credit making one of best space adventure/thriller movies during the 1900s. This movie has got more robots, aliens, and other creatures, and this being the sequel to Alien3 is a must-watch.
5. Prometheus (2012)
This movie is a prequel to the whole alien universe, It starts with a couple finding a set of cave paintings, which depicted a being that people worshiped, they called him the "Engineers", the couple believed they were the makers of humans, them along with a crew on the ship called Prometheus, their inquisitiveness causes them to find the monolith which hosted the Engineers, as they go inside and explore, although they find what they came for they also find some other organisms which they wished they hadn't found.
Dr. Shaw is the protagonist of the movie, she is a scientist her curiousness gets her into all kinds of trouble, she struggles until the end to find the answer, although during her troubles there is an android who helps her always named David. This movie is a little slow and kind of random, felt a little out of place, but the reason to watch this movie is because this explains the birth of the alien species and how it came about, who is the actual reason for this? They show a glimpse of the first alien species that came about.
6. Alien: Covenant (2017)
This movie is the direct sequel to Prometheus, Covenant is another ship hosting about 2000 colonists who were being taken care of by another android called Walter. They end up hearing a human voice on a nearby planet on their way to a habitable planet. As they go reach out to that planet they realize that their little exploration has cost them 3 crewmates by the early alien species, they finally meet David the android in Prometheus, who fills them up with what has happened and how the alien species is that dangerous.
Not long after consecutive attacks from the alien, the mother ship releases a lander vehicle to pick up the leftover crew along with the protagonist of the movie Daniels, which is where there is a twist and the movie teaches us that there is no one to be trusted, the whole movie ends in a cliffhanger, the movie itself feels very repetitive like the Prometheus, and it felt it was more eerie than the previous one, the ending explains how it all connects to the alien evolving as well as shows who is reason the alien species continues to survive and thrive. Which is quite the thriller, it will be cool to know how this connects to Romulus.
Alright, there is the list of everything to watch before the new movie releases, hope you guys have enjoyed the read, if you did make sure to spread the word about this blog to others interested as well, cause I am only going to be bringing you guys more of what you guys just read, hopefully I have at least motivated you to give one of these movies mentioned a watch. Well, I only wish to improve your experience in entertainment.