Film Reviews by BW

Watching this film, I was looking for something that enhances the story arc of the Alien narrative. Instead I got a storyline that was crow barred into the space between Alien and Aliens, so clumsily, and at times quite ridiculously, that it seemed that the director really didn't watch the Alien films in the same way that I did. The focus of Romulus is on the gore and the grotesque. There is absolutely no finesse in any of this film. The events beg belief in terms of rational human behaviour, and the acting is pretty rubbish. Lots of aliens and their attempts to impregnate people, but they move more like hunting dogs than a highly intelligent and evolved species. It really doesn’t belong in the story line originally set up by Ridley-Scott and extended through the prequels. Why he put his name to this has to be about the dollars rather than his reputational credibility. Not really a film worth watching.

One of the best foreign films I have watched, ever. It helps to do a bit of reading about the civil war that raged through Lebanon during the 70s and 80s, and to recognise how the shifting demographics created divisions between Lebanese citizens and displaced refugees. Given what is now unfolding in Lebanon, this film perhaps indicates how Lebanon has for too long been a theatre for other people's wars. The acting and the storyline in this film are tremendous. The twins search for their father and their brother leads them deep into conflict-ridden Lebanon. The dangers are not hidden from the viewer, but the bloodshed and murder are, which makes this film far less difficult to watch than it could have been. Highly recommended.