2024 Cinema trips - all the 'quels

It was a case of all the "quels" in 2024. I saw sequels, a prequel and an interquel. In fact, five of the seven films I saw in the cinema were "quels", and the other two were adaptations of books. Here's what I watched on the big screen:

Dune Part 2 - sequel (although they split the source material in two for the movies so this was a continuation sequel rather than a second story in a franchise). Full review here. 

Inside Out 2 - sequel. I really liked the first Inside Out film, which took a complex concept and explored it in a very accessible way. The sequel continued the story of Riley and her emotions, which have multiplied as Riley grows up. This is probably one of the best depictions and explanations of how anxiety is a protection mechanism that can go into overdrive and become harmful. 

Besides Anxiety, the other new emotions include, Embarrassment, Envy, Ennui and, my favourite, Nostalgia, who pops in and is promptly dismissed for being too soon. Although I think I felt nostalgia as a teenager - certainly I found myself looking back to things I had done a few years previously and having a new appreciation for them. Nowadays I agree strongly with Douglas Coupland's comment that "nostalgia is a weapon" and I know it gets weaponised against me. That's why I end up with things like an A Team van made by Playmobil...

The film has a happy ending for Riley and her friends as they navigate the emotions around changing schools, establishing new friendship groups and playing ice hockey. I like the mix of joy and anger that fuels Riley's in-game activity. There's a good explanation about how our beliefs about the world and about ourselves shape our lives - another deep topic that I felt the film-makers summarised well. 

Harold and the Purple Crayon - the film version of a popular kid's book. So, not totally original but technically not a 'quel. Full review here. 

Alien Romulus - an 'interquel' that was apparently set between Alien and Aliens, the first two films in the franchise. Not the greatest movie in the Alien franchise but I enjoyed it. Full review here. 

Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! - a "legacy sequel" released decades after the first film. Full review here. 

Transformers One - a prequel of sorts. I'm not sure where in the Transformers franchise this animated film fits, but it was expanding on the in-universe lore and would act as a prequel to just about any other Transformers movie. 

It's the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, and why they became bitter enemies. I thought it was very well done despite leaning hard on some over-used tropes - the people in charge don't have our best interests at heart; best friends become implacable enemies; there is a quest for a lost artifact that can save civilisation. 

However, within those well known story arcs, the script was lean, the film was fast-paced with several action sequences that all served the purposes of the plot, and there was plenty of humour in the dialogue and situations but it never got silly. It felt like a grown up kid-friendly cartoon. It also added some depth to other long-established characters, even those with limited screentime like Starscream, who in this was more than just a whining minion of Megatron. 

The Wild Robot - another film based on a book. I watched this with Cathy on her birthday in a cinema that was experiencing temperature issues. It was freezing. At one point in the story an ice storm hits - at that point it felt like we were in a 4D film experience. 

The basic plot was of a robot booting up on a remote island and looking for tasks to carry out. Being a robot it works out how to communicate with animals and gradually develops its self-awareness to become the protector of the wild creatures. This includes teaching an orphaned gosling to fly - which I found was a surprisingly moving storyline. 

The third act of the movie dragged a bit. The most intriguing part was seeing the wider world, with humans living in large hi-tech habitats, with hydroponic farms, hovering over the drowned ruins of cities (San Francisco to be precise). It's a world after the climate apocalypse and the survivors seem to be doing OK with an army of robot servants undertaking menial tasks. Somehow, that felt like the most unrealistic part of the film compared to a robot learning how to talk to a gosling and teach it to fly before its fellow geese migrated and left it behind. 

Looking ahead to 2025, I'm sure there are more 'quels to come. I have set myself a challenge to try and watch more original films next year. 

Alien: Romulus - kicking a franchise in a new direction

This was my second trip to the cinema this month. I went with Ian, who informed me this film is what's known as an 'interquel' as it's set between other movies in the Alien franchise. As we chatted before the film we worked out that this could well be the first film we had been to together since Alien: Covenant back in 2017.

I reviewed Alien: Covenant in my round up of films I saw in 2017. I hated it. I felt an intense anger at how much it insulted my intelligence and the intelligence of everyone in the theatre around me. Even now, seven years later, I can feel the rage at the sheer stupidity of the script bubbling as I type this. Movies shouldn't do that to people!

Anyway, very briefly, before I get into the review, here is a non-spoilery summary. This follows the now traditional formula for an Alien movie. There are a group of people. A xenomorph gets loose. Then it's just a case of trying to guess who dies next. There are jump scares and some gore - how else can you have a juvenile alien burst out of someone's chest? 

I think a person could watch this if they hadn't watched any other films in the franchise, although I don't really know why they would want to. However. it will be easier to follow if they have at least seen Alien, Aliens and Prometheus - although there isn't very much related to the latter movie. There are a lot of callbacks to the first two movies - to the point where they feel overdone. And there is one recurring character who I will discuss below the spoiler barrier of the film poster. But you wouldn't need to know they were a recurring character, and maybe it would be better not to know. 

There are two other aspects of the film that I don't think are spoilers. One is the grimness of the colony world at the start of the film. This is where our doomed gang hail from. Theoretically the colonists can work their way off the planet and book passage to another world. But the rules keep changing to keep people there. Then an opportunity arises to leave. The escape plan means going into a space station where bad things happened. And those bad things are waiting for them. 

The franchise's vision of the future is one where people are expendable on worlds run by corporations. This is true if humans are toiling down mines or encountering xenomorphs. The people don't matter. It does feel like a realistic possible future - not a pleasant idea, but a believable one. 

And if humans are expendable, 'artificial humans' are even more so. This is the second interesting aspect of the film, the relationship between Rain, played by Cailee Spaeny, and her 'brother', an android called Andy played by David Jonsson. I'm very interested in films that look at how humans interact socially with machine intelligence and this is explored in the film cleverly and sympathetically. 

Spoilers follow below the film poster! (You have been warned.)

Let's talk about those callbacks, and the big one - the very unexpected appearance of a CGI version of Ian Holm as an artificial person Science Officer. This one is known as Rook, not Ash, but to all intents and purposes, it is Ash. The CGI is a bit awkward at first, but when the action switches to Rook appearing only on TV screens it looked much more believable. 

But it gave me the ick. Ian Holm is dead. Unless they secured his permission to do this, then using his likeness in a film just feels wrong. I've felt the same way about the way Christopher Lee was regenerated for Star Wars: Rogue One. This feels like a violation because it's using a person's voice and likeness without their consent. 

The acting was OK, not that most of the xenomorph fodder had much to do except scream and die. But David Jonsson stood out among the rest of the cast. His initial damaged goods persona was full of pathos and his switch to an upgraded AI operating under a different prime directive was eerie and scary. 

But I did catch one interesting thing, when Rook identifies Andy's android model, Rook refers to that model as key to the early colonising efforts but now obsolete. I'm not sure if it was meant that way, but it felt a bit awkward that the colonising efforts used a large number of black synthetic humans effectively as slaves, while the white synthetic humans had roles as Science Officers (for example). Maybe the film-makers were trying to make a comment about race or maybe I'm just being sensitive. Either way, I felt uncomfortable. 

There are some plot holes. We see one xenomorph gestate and emerge, and then suddenly there are loads of them infesting the space station. Rook explains that one original xenomorph - picked up from the wreckage of the Nostromo destroyed in Alien no less - ran rampant through the ship but that didn't explain where the room full of cryogenically stored face-huggers came from. 

But there are some great sequences as well. The lift off from the colony world and Rain seeing sunlight for the very first time. The space station's collision with the icy rings around the planet. The idea of using zero-g to fight the xenomorphs so that their spilled acidic blood didn't melt through the hull, and the ensuing balletic float around the clouds of acid droplets to escape. 

I'm not sure we really needed the final scenes and their jeopardy once Rain and Andy made it back onto the ship. Although, that is traditional for Alien films too - Ripley in the escape pod in Alien, the queen xenomorph appearing on the USS Sulaco. But I think they could have left it with one extra survivor in a pod bound for a new planet, carrying something awful. 

I did like the touch of Rain leaving a message before getting into cryo-stasis. Her target world is nine years away and so she is going to sleep. Very much like Ripley at the end of the first two movies. Cailee Spaeny could easily go on to become the face of the franchise for further films so I hope she gets to wake up in a future movie. Even though, there will be fresh horrors waiting for her.