Alien: Romulus
review by Bobby Blakey
In 1979 director Ridley Scott took audiences on a terrifying journey into space and horror with Alien. Throughout the years it spawned into a massive franchise with numerous sequels, reimagining’s, comics, novels and so much more. Now Don’t Breathe and Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez is taking on the task of taking the franchise back to its roots with Scott returning to produce. Could this latest chapter of the iconic franchise bring something fresh to space or will it fail to hatch a worthwhile mission?
Alien: Romulus follows a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe while scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station. This latest chapter stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu.
Despite their ups and downs, I love all the Alien films for various reasons. The same goes for the films of Alvarez, so getting these two together had me excited. After hearing some great things, I was even more stoked to head back into the world of the Xenomorph. Now that I have survived this latest terror, I can say that while it isn’t a perfect film, Alvarez has knocked it out of the park.
The story is simple with the tone feeling closer to the original Alien. The initial pacing is really slow and had me worried for a bit, but thinking back that is the same slow burn of the original film. For me they spent a little too much time building the tone and environment than they needed to, but it still works for where it is taking the audience. This still works and could the anticipation to get to the fun and horror of it all, but I just needed a faster pacing or trimmed up a bit.
Once it gets to the meat of it thing step up really great to bring some new sides of this world we haven’t seen this way before. The biggest is the bigger focus
on the face huggers. Typically, we just get a couple and bouncing around and hiding. Here they are a full infestation and creepy to see in action. They had a secondary terror to the fight for survival alongside the always awesome Xenomorphs themselves. They do some fun stuff with all of them and really capture the fun of what these creatures are.
The film has some great nods to various films in the franchise while still being its own thing and ended up kicking some fun ass. The cast are all good with a few of the characters highly annoying, but that is usual in these kinds of films and just makes you more eager to see them slaughtered. My personal favorite is David Jonsson’s Andy who has so many layers and personas. He owns this film and is the glue to it all while still bringing some of the chaos and intrigue.
The visuals are outstanding with a vibe that screams Alien and Aliens in every way and delivers exactly what fans want. I did enjoy the film quite a bit when all was said and done but do wish it was a bit more streamlined early on. I don’t know if there is any plan to expand on this latest group of people but would be a welcome return if they could figure out a good story. It also works as a stand alone being very similar in overall story to the original film.
Decide for yourself and return to space where no one can hear you scream and check out Alien: Romulus in theaters now from 20th Century Studios.