Image (Credit): A scene from the movie Alien: Romulus. (20th Century Studios)
“The production design harkens back to both Scott and Cameron’s ALIEN movies. It’s a world we recognize so there’s not much new world-building except for the brief glance at an active mining colony. What’s different is the cinematography by Galo Olivares…ALIEN: ROMULUS works as a stand-alone movie, and is probably a better experience if you come in cold, without any knowledge of the franchise. ALIEN fans bring in too much baggage and rarely can we be satisfied.”
-Statement by movie critic Lupe R Haas in her recent review of the film Alien: Romulus.
When you consider the weak showing of films this summer, particularly space-related films, its enough to make you give up and go online to revisit the classics. If you do so, you will probably bump into a number of great films that all appeared over eight weeks in the summer of 1982, including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, and Blade Runner.
In the summer of 1982, eight science fiction films were released within six weeks of one another. E.T., Tron, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, and Mad Max: The Road Warrior changed the careers of some of Hollywood’s now biggest names—altering the art of movie-making to this day.
In The Future Was Now, Chris Nashawaty recounts the riotous genesis of these films, featuring an all-star cast of Hollywood luminaries and gadflies alike: Steven Spielberg, at the height of his powers, conceives E.T. as an unlikely family tale, and quietly takes over the troubled production of Poltergeist, a horror film he had been nurturing for years. Ridley Scott, fresh off the success of Alien, tries his hand at an odd Philip K. Dick story that becomes Blade Runner—a box office failure turned cult classic. Similar stories arise for films like Tron, Conan the Barbarian, and The Thing. Taken as a whole, these films show a precarious turning-point in Hollywood history, when baffled film executives finally began to understand the potential of high-concept films with a rabid fanbase, merchandising potential, and endless possible sequels.
Expertly researched, energetically told, and written with an unabashed love for the cinema, The Future Was Now is a chronicle of how the revolution sparked in a galaxy far, far away finally took root and changed Hollywood forever.
Of course, the book may simply depress you when you think of the current state of cinema more than 40 years later. Yes, we have Dune and the nth release of Aliens, but for the most part Hollywood is not offering today’s generation films that make them dream about a different future (and I don’t mean a future with men in spandex).
I just hope we have more up and coming Spielbergs, Scotts, and Dicks out there who read this book and take it as a challenge to make American cinema exciting again.
This weekend you can see a space-related movie, but it is light fare that probably should have been released on Apple TV+.
Fly Me to the Moon is a romantic comedy centered on an Apollo 11 Moon mission starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum. All you need to know is shown in this trailer.
Dramatizing the Apollo 11 mission is fine, but the part of the story about trying to fake the Moon landing does not seem necessary, particularly nowadays when conspiracy kooks are around every corner.
The movie Capricorn One about a fake landing on Mars had a time and a place in a troubled America, but the use of a fake landing here is just a cheap stunt adding little value to the film.
Luckily, real life drama can be so much better than Hollywood drama. I think I will skip this movie and watch Apollo 13again.
So far it has been a pretty boring summer in terms of space-related movies, but that will change in August with the release of next Alien film. That’s right, the Alien franchise is still alive and kicking.
Alien: Romulus will be released on August 16th. It will be the seventh film in this series, and set between the events of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). Yes, more backstory, but we know what to expect going forwards or backwards with this series. Plenty of stomach-popping surprises for all.
The sci-fi/horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful “Alien” franchise back to its roots: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
Check out the trailer, which hits on all the fun bits we expect with any Alien movie.
While we are now 45 years into this series, it is still nice to have something interesting playing this summer. It is always a spectacular view of space travel until everything goes to hell.
Image (Credit): Poster for Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver. (Netflix)
If you enjoyed part one of Netflix’s Rebel Moon, then you will be happy to hear that part two will premiere this Friday (April 19). If you are not a fan, then you can simply ignore this announcement.
The full name, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, follows last year’s Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, which I previously noted was not completely terrible. From the trailers, it appears to be about as crazy and violent as the first one, but this time with light sabers, of course.
Given that Part One scored only 21 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the second film has a lot of room to improve, as noted in the comments below:
—While watching this first Rebel Moon, you can’t help but wonder if Snyder’s specific idea was to do “Star Wars” but without any of the fun. – Mark Meszoros, The News-Herald (Willoughby, OH)
—With enormous scope to innovate, Snyder has instead gathered together a painfully obvious collection of- I hesitate to write ‘influences’, as that seems to give Snyder too much credit. ‘Things to photocopy and then mash together’ feels more appropriate. – Grant Watson, Fiction Machine
—Rebel Moon is an entertaining but flawed space opera with some great action and cinematography that would have been better as the first part of an R-rated trilogy. Hopefully Part 2 builds on the opening film’s strengths. – Erik Kain, Forbes
If you have a free night this weekend, you might want to take a look. And don’t worry, if you still don’t care for this one, there may be a part three coming soon (even though that was not the original plan).
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