Alien: Romulus

ALIEN: ROMULUS

Directed by Fede Álvarez

"In space no one can hear you scream" 

The legendary tagline for 1979's sci-fi horror masterpiece ALIEN directed by a then 40 year old Ridley Scott and thus launched an iconic franchise. A new auteur would be brought in for each sequel but after Jean-Pierre Jeunet's (criminally underrated) ALIEN: RESURRECTION bombed in 1997, the franchise was put on ice and instead floundered in various spin-offs. Ridley Scott came back in 2012 and 2017 respectfully to give us 2/3rds of an Alien prequel trilogy (PROMETHEUS and ALIEN: COVENANT both very good).

The studio decided to go in a different direction (we never get the prequel conclusion), giving us the highly derivative but no less extremely entertaining ALIEN: ROMULUS. Franchise newcomer Fede Álvarez (2013s EVIL DEAD remake) does try to sneak in some newish ideas here and there but this is very much a remix of all the previous movies. Some of it doesn't work but I was entertained for 2 hours. 

Álvarez did not hold back on the visuals and overall aesthetic. This is one of the most gorgeous to look at movies in the franchise, with very special attention on real sets as well as practical effects. I was completely arrested by the look the entire time. The plot is it's an ALIEN movie. There's facehuggers and xenomorphs and a crew of dumb people you don't care about. It's thrilling and chilling and way more James Cameron influenced than I had thought, which is never a bad thing. Some of the kills are gnarly as hell and my audience gasped and screamed several times throughout.

I can't finish this review without mentioning, in the broadest of terms, that a previous movie character is brought back using AI deep fakery. It looked terrible, sounded like trash and took me out of the scenes. Not to mention it's insulting to the deceased actor. This is not something that should be normalized! 👽

⭐⭐⭐/4