Rom The Space Knight

Rom the Space Knight is an American superhero movie directed, written and produced by Jon Watts. The film is a joint production between Paramount, Hasbro and Marvel. The film is based on

the titular superhero. The film combines both Marvel and Hasbro stories. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Angelina Jolie and Willem DaFoe. The film was released in 5th June 2018 to positive reviews praising the performances, visual effects and action scenes. The film was a box office success grossing 598 million dollars on a budget of 120 million dollars. It was followed by a sequel Rom 2.

Plot
On the planet of Galador lives Rom K'atsema. The planet has been attacked by Dire Wraiths shapeshifting creatures. The planet's council announces the creation of the Solstar Order and Rom joins. The council plans to convert a soldier into a Space Knight. The Space Knights were protectors of Galador when it was founded. The Prime Director's son is revealed to allied with the Dire Wraiths and attacks the council. Rom arrives and uses a sword to kill the traitor. The Prime Director who is dying declares Rom the Space Knight before dying. Rom dons the Space Knight armour and destroys the Dire Wraith's home planet of Wraithworld. 2 years later, Rom destroys a spaceship of Dire Wraiths heading to Galador. While arriving he mmets his brother who tries to attack him and is revealed as a Dire Wraith. Rom defeats him and prepares to kill him only to be stopped by the new Prime Director. The director reveals that he secretly made a truce with the Wraiths after Wraithworld was destroyed. The Wraiths were to impersonate deceased people. The director reveals this information to the planet tomorrow where after Rom's mother angrily calls him out he pushes her down snapping her neck which the crowd takes it good calling her a traitor to the safety of Galador.

Enraged Rom destroys the balcony the director was standing on (leaving him in a position similar to his predecessor). Just as Rom leaves the Wraiths arrive. While on an asteroid Rom learns of a planet having life. He arrives at Earth at the town of Clairton in West Virginia. Rom's comatose body is found by Brandy Clark. Clark reawakens Rom who while distrustful bonds with Brandy who builds him an Analyzer to detect Wraiths. The commander of the Wraiths tracks Rom's location and arrives on Earth taking the appearance of Archie Stryker an entrepreuner. He order his assistant Clair to build him a suit made out of Galadorian technology. The suit is made and Stryker dubs it Firefall. Rom sensing a Wraith arrives at Stryker Entepreunership and battles Stryker where he uses his neutralizer to send a Wraith to Limbo. The media dubs Rom as a menace and the army hunts him.

Rom tracks down Stryker and he learns that Galador had supplies of Ore-12 a liquid metal used to make the Space Knight armour. The creation of the Space Knight armour alerted the Wraiths who were planning to leave for a new planet. Feeling guilty that he caused his planet's death Rom surrenders himself to the army and he is interrogated by Agent Rick Mason. Brandy bails him out and the two talk. Rom declares that he will not find peace until he kills all the Wraiths. Stryker dons the Firefall suit and attacks Rom who uses his weapons to reveal him as a Wraith. The two fight where Clair tries to kill Stryker only to be killed by a Wraith ship. The military destroy it and Rom sends Stryker to limbo. On Galador the Wraith Voorr meets with the Presence the queen of the Wraiths of the news with the queen stating they have more plans.

Crew

 * Directed by Jon Watts
 * Written by Jon Watts
 * Produced by Adele Romanski and Jon Watts
 * Music by Michael Giacchino
 * Edited by Billy Sneddon
 * Production companies: Paramount, Marvel Studios and Entertainment One
 * Distributed by Paramount

Cast

 * Mark Wahlberg as Rom K'atsema/ The Space Knight
 * Angelina Jolie as Brandy Clark
 * Willem DaFoe as Commander of Dire Wraiths/ Archie Stryker/ Firefall and Voorr
 * Alfred Enoch as Rick Mason
 * Andy Serkis provides the motion capture of the Dire Wraiths
 * Tilda Swinton as The Presence

Development
Following the box office bomb of Transformers: The Last Knight in 2017, Hasbro looked to make a film based on another of their properties. Hasbro announced that plans for a Rom the Space Knight movie. The film was a joint production between Paramount, Hasbro and Marvel. Jon Watts who directed Spider-Man: Homecoming was approached for the director's chair which he accepted.

Filming
Principal photography began in 2017 in West Virginia and ended in January 2018. The town of Clairton was made using scenes from locations from West Virginia and green screens.

Reception
The film received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes the film gained a score of 70% based on 298 reviews. On Metacritic the film has a score of 61 out of 100 indicating generally positive reviews. CinemaScore gave the average score of 'A' on an A+ to F scale.

Sequel
The film's box office success inspired a sequel. Watts decided not to return so he could focus on Spider-Man: Far from Home. David Ayer was chosen to direct and write Rom 2. The film was a box office bomb and gained negative reviews and a third film was cancelled. A reboot is in the making.

Trivia

 * Several references to Transformers are made. Hasbro made Rom and Transformers. Wahlberg also stars in Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) and Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
 * Alfred Enoch plays Rick Mason. He wanted to reprise his role in the sequel until he read the script and Black Widow (2021)