Can we talk about? - Fan service getting out of control.
By Martyn Conterio [Total Film magazine, October 2024 issue]
‘Get away from her, you bitch.’ Great line. Actually, it’s iconic. But when it’s uttered towards the end of Alien: Romulus, you won’t believe your ears. Same goes for the other memorable bits cribbed directly from Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens. Because it’s not just dialogue: there are shots replicated, moments revisited from the series (and video game Alien: Isolation) and one familiar actor from the franchise is brought back from the dead with VFX.
In such instances, does fan service start to feel like a snake eating its own tail? Say what you like about the various merits (or lack thereof) of anything after Aliens, but each film had a distinct identity. Alien movies should aspire to be more than fan fiction.
Audiences have always gotten a kick out of movies referencing other movies (they were doing it as far back as the silent era). But fan service is a relatively new phenomenon linked to properties such as the MCU, the DCEU and Star Wars. A savvy, geek-literate audience now demands Easter eggs and callbacks in every film, every show, and acts vocally disappointed when those treats fail to materialise to their satisfaction.
‘A SAVVY, GEEK-LITERATE AUDIENCE NOW DEMANDS CALLBACKS IN EVERY FILM, EVERY SHOW’ f0026-03 Fury Road: fan service done right (ALAMY) Still, fan service can be creative. George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road provided a laundry list of nods to the original Mad Max trilogy: it just didn’t shout about it. And the nostalgia factor worked too - primarily because it was Miller’s own creation, not somebody else’s.
The recent Deadpool & Wolverine is another film stuffed to the gills with scenes designed to cause whooping, hollering, and ‘amagawd’ reactions in the auditorium. Meanwhile, 2023’s The Flash is a comic-book spectacle that delivered fan service up the wazoo. Did we really need Michael Keaton returning as Batman? Or a CGI Nicolas Cage as Superman (in reference to Tim Burton’s abandoned 1990s project)?
How can a blockbuster film stand any chance of becoming a potentially beloved classic on its own terms? A line must be drawn between heartfelt homage and unnecessary (and lazy) nostalgia.
We all love these characters, these franchises, but it’s how they’re served creatively that matters the most.
Oh, well, that’s put me off Alien: Romulus a bit, to be honest. I kind of hate these call-backs, especially when there’s no sophistication to them (I can forgive the “I’ve got a bad feeling …” in Rogue One, but am utterly bored of hearing it in other Star Wars output).
The ominous side to all this, is that when films become entirely about referencing themselves, they stop being about anything else. Sci-fi works best when there’s an analogy for something that exists in our lives, and offers an opinion on that matter. For example, Lucas has argued that the Ewoks in RotJ represented the Viet Cong, which is a bit clumsy, but it’s better than the sequels, that only seek to represent earlier iterations of Star Wars.
What do you mean? The First Order is an allegory for neo-nazis. Canto Bight is an allegory for the military industrial complex. The Knights of Ren are an allegory for a good villain.
Then Romulus isn’t the film for you.