This summer brought many great movies and many awful ones. From box office successes and practical effects to box office bombs and excessive CGI, this summer had it all. Among these movies are two standouts on the opposite side of the spectrum, “Alien: Romulus” and “The Crow.”
“Alien: Romulus” for all intents and purposes is a fantastic science fiction movie and brings the franchise back to its survival horror roots after the more action heavy “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant.” The movie follows Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny), Andy (David Jonsson), Tyler (Archie Renaux), Kay (Isabela Merced), Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Navarro (Aileen Wu) as they illegally board the abandoned ship Romulus to retrieve cryostasis chambers and gain a chance at escaping their forced servitude. Things go awry as they travel deeper into the ship and then must try to escape with their lives.
The performances are really great and honestly some of the best of the year. David Jonsson stole the show because he was essentially playing two separate characters perfectly. His voice, tone, and body language were each so different between characters that they sometimes felt like different actors. Cailee Spaeny acts as the Ripley of this movie; her performance is absolutely gripping all the way through and is a close second behind Jonsson. The rest of the cast gives great performances as well. Their desperation throughout the movies is expertly acted to a tee, especially Archie Renaux and Isabela Merced.
A majority of the effects in “Romulus” were practical, which really helped the horror feel real. There was a palpable fear when seeing a xenomorph on screen because it was really there. The kills were also gruesome as ever and there weren’t really any points where the gore effects faltered. There is a lot of body horror throughout the runtime and one particular scene towards the end felt genuinely horrific to watch play out on screen. The practical effect allows for what I would say is one of the best executed jumpscares I’ve seen in a while because of the simple realism it adds.
“Romulus,” somewhat questionably, sees the return of the deceased Ian Holm as Rook from the first movie. It is definitely the most morally ambiguous part of the movie because of the use of AI to deepfake and create his voice, but the director Fede Álvarez and the studio got express permission from Holm’s wife and estate to do it. The deepfake is really the only effect in this that looks a little jarring, and it can take away from the movie depending on how much you are paying attention to it.
There is a lot of fanservice and easter eggs from prior movies in the franchise, but none of them are shoehorned in like they are in something like a Marvel movie. They each feel naturally placed and are really only there if you know what to look for. It is definitely a movie made by fans for fans.
Minus the somewhat questionably done deep fake, “Romulus” is truly a pinnacle for the “Alien” franchise. It’s a great mix of the original “Alien” and James Cameron’s “Aliens”. For these reasons I would consider it the best movie of the summer.
On the opposite side of the spectrum of quality is “The Crow,” an adaptation of the 1989 comic of the same name by James O’Barr. Sadly, this movie fails in every way and surpasses what a terrible adaptation can be to the point that it is truly unwatchable.
The movie follows Eric (Bill Skarsgård) after he is revived by Kronos as The Crow and gets revenge on Vincent Roeg (Danny Huston), a demonic crime lord, and his accomplices after the murder of his girlfriend Shelly (FKA Twigs).
“The Crow” is just awful in every way. There are zero redeeming qualities and it’s honestly a waste of time to even think about watching it. It’s no surprise from Rupert Sanders, who made the critically panned and culturally inept 2017 adaptation of “The Ghost in the Shell.” There seems to be a disconnect with what made the original comic good and every bit of nuance is thrown out the window.
It feels as if Sanders walked into a middle school classroom and asked them to write the edgiest things they could think of. It is by no means politically incorrect – it is just the incoherent ramblings of an out of his depth writer and an incapable director. For example, throughout the runtime are multiple scenes of Eric walking around brooding to a song that doesn’t fit the tone of the movie at all. The dialogue is clunky and doesn’t flow together in the slightest; an actual line in the movie goes something like, “Do you think edgy teenagers will make shrines to us.” The story clashes with itself and can’t keep a steady tone to save its life. It is the most half baked attempt at an adaptation I have ever had the displeasure of seeing.
Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs are both awful in this movie, and to no fault of their own. They are both fantastic performers and were simply working with what they had. The characters act in almost cartoonishly edgy or evil ways that obliterate any possibility of a steady tone. This is definitely a career low for both of them, and will most likely stay like that for the rest of their careers.
Some of the set pieces are cool towards the end, but are ruined by shoddy visual effects and bad music choices. All the action is concentrated towards the end, which isn’t typically a problem for me, but the build up is such a slog to get through that it feels like centuries before anything slightly substantive happens.
All of these problems compound on top of each other to create a terrible viewing experience and one of the few movies I would consider genuinely unwatchable. “The Crow” is not only the worst movie of the summer, but also the worst movie of the year.
This summer has had some insane highs and some even more insane lows with two movies that are both horrific in completely unique ways. From the worthwhile “Alien: Romulus” to the waste of time adaptation of “The Crow,” this summer had every kind of movie across the spectrum of quality.
“Alien: Romulus”
Directed by Fede Álvarez
Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu, Daniel Betts, Trevor Newlin, Robert Bobroczkyi
Rated R
Runtime: 119 minutes
My Rating: ★★★★½
“The Crow”
Directed by Rupert Sanders
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs, Danny Huston, Josette Simons, Laura Birn, Sami Bouajilla, Isabella Wei, Jordan Bolger
Rated R
Runtime: 111 minutes
My Rating: ½
