The Aliens franchise finally gets back to its roots… a simple horror movie in space! Let’s forget the two unnecessary prequels to the first Alien movie. I’m not saying they were bad, but it was about time for this franchise to get back to what it does best…scare the shit out of us! At its core, alien movies have always been horror movies in space… An intense thriller that makes us jump with every creaking sound, every time a character turns a corner, or we hear something slither across the floor. It’s not complicated! That’s exactly what Alien: Romulus does with many great nods to the first two movies. It felt like watching the original Alien movie for the first time. Obviously, we are going to make a lot of comparisons to the first two films. They are the standard bearers for the Alien franchise and no other film has come close to the brilliance of those first two accounts until now. I’m not saying that this latest installment is as good, but it’s certainly the best alien movie we’ve gotten since 1986. It feels like the first two movies in every way well giving us a strong female heroine just like Ellen Ripley. Cailee Spaeny does a great job and let’s face it it’s pretty hard to top Sigourney Weaver, but she comes close. This is easily the third best film in the Aliens franchise and my hats off to Fede Alvarez for making an alien movie in the same vein as the first two films.
The story is set about 20 years after the first Alien movie and a few decades before they find Ellen Ripley who will set up the second movie. Rain and her brother Andy who is a “synthetic” and works for the Weyland-Yutani corporation end up going along with some friends on a scavenger mission to make some money to get to a better world. What they encounter on the space station, you can pretty much figure out from the trailer. The Weyland-Yutani corporation after learning about the events of the first Alien film tries their first attempt to capture a xenomorph and as you can imagine, it doesn’t work out. That’s when these young scavengers encounter them and have to fight for survival. The best part of this film is when all hell breaks loose, and they discover the creature while trying to escape. Just like in the first movie, they’re trying to escape the ship or in this case the space station that has been taken over by the creatures. Using the synthetic that they run along to communicate with the space station doesn’t go according to plan and that’s all I’m going to say because I don’t want to ruin any of the fun surprises. We all know that not everybody is going to make it and you’re going to root for the main characters to survive just like in the first movie. The movie is at its best when they are fighting for survival and while the performance from all the actors is great, the two stand-out performances come from David Jonsson Who plays the Synthetic, Andy, and Cailee Spaeny, who plays Rain. This movie is incredibly intense…the deaths are gruesome. The great thing about CGI with a mixture of good practical effects is we get to see more of the xenomorphs. It doesn’t feel fake. I admit my heart was pounding at the scene where they were walking through a corridor hoping that none of the creatures would detect them. That’s the only kind of spoiler I will give you. But your heart will be pounding Just like from the first movie where you are left to wonder if Ellen Ripley will escape. This movie gives us those same kinds of thrills.
Alien: Romulus He’s almost a perfect film, but not quite. In comparing this movie to the original Alien that came out 45 years ago, we barely get to know the characters before their thrown into survival mode. I feel like in a lot of ways with the first alien movie part of the brilliance is the build-up through the characters where they are arguing over what they should do when their friend encounters the organism and the synthetic has its own mission for the Weyland-Yutani corporation. It’s a scary movie, but we get to know everybody, and it makes their deaths a little bit more personal. We barely have any time with these characters to make us care except for the two main characters, Rain and Andy. Let’s face it, they’re the only two characters we really root for whereas in the original Alien, we root for all of them even though we know that most of them are not going to make him. I love this movie, but there could have been a little bit more buildup with the characters. Except for a short span at the beginning of the movie for the characters are hatching their plan, we are immediately dropped into the action. However, this film more than makes up for that through the emotional connection of the two main characters. We’ve gotten to see about three different versions of Synthetics from the first two movies to the two prequels and I honestly say there’s much more of an emotional connection to Andy because he’s considered Rain’s brother that we want to see him live compared to the other Synthetic, but we could care less. As a sci-fi nerd, he’s the equivalent of Data on Star Trek where we are emotionally wrecked if he’s going to die. So, for me, it’s a minor critique and it only comes to the comparison of the original film which I absolutely adore.
But Alien: Romulus does his job in making me connect with the two main characters that I am rooting to survive. And no, I won’t give you any spoilers on whether they do or not, you’ll just have to watch and find out. But despite my minor critique, this is a well-done movie that feels like the first two Alien films in the franchise, with its intensity, the way everything looked, the gruesome deaths, and the fantastic action! Prequels can be nice and I’m not saying exploring the origins of mankind and how they relate to xenomorphs isn’t interesting, but we really didn’t need the movie Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant despite having a great cast just doesn’t feel like the first two films. But I won’t say that about this latest installment. As I said before, Alien Romulus gets back to the roots of what makes a great “Alien” movie. And it definitely should be enjoyed on the big screen! Yes, buy your movie tickets now! See it on the big screen before it’s too late because you won’t be disappointed. If you’re a fan of the Alien’s franchise then you’re going to love this movie and for me despite some minor critiques, I give it a 9 because I enjoyed it that much. Maybe it’s the nerd in me and the nostalgia factor takes over, but if you’re a fan just like me I bet you won’t say I’m wrong!!!
