Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Image From IMDB
Finally, an Alien movie that showed me a little more of the universe it’s set in (One of the things I love about the Alien 3 alternative book). I’ve waited for ages to see how people live in this scummy shitty universe, and the first act of Alien Romulus gave me that. Sure, they then went to a ship to battle a Xenomorph, but I was glad to get a little more before the inevitable clash.
Alien Romulus follows the story of six kids (well five, and an android) who are so desperate to leave the mining planet they’re all stuck on that they travel to an abandoned space station in order to steal some Cryo-Chambers so they can make their escape to a hopefully better distant planet. While onboard the station, they unwittingly unleash the face huggers, and shit goes downhill for them from there.
Outside of the first act there probably isn’t too much new about this story, and some may see it as a soft reboot, but honestly, that’s pretty much every Alien movie. None of them outside of Prometheus have ever tried to be to complex, and that’s served the franchise well. Here, we are once again treated to a haunted house slasher in space, and Fede Alvarez is the right man for the job to give as that.
The action and set pieces are slick, and the pace pretty none stop once they board the station. The Aliens are fast and violent, and you wonder how the fuck these teens have lasted five seconds, let alone the duration it’s taken for the stations decaying orbit to hit the ice rings around the planet.
David Jonsson’s Android Andy is the standout performance as he balances the innocence of his broken android, with the more sinister aspects given to him throughout the film. Cailee Spaeny does her best to kick alien ass, while it’s Aileen Wu’s turn to recreate the franchise’s most famous scene, and as always, it’s awesome. The rest of the cast make good Alien fodder as everyone gives a decent performance.
For me, the cast look slightly too young for an Alien movie, but I feel that about every single movie that comes out these days so that’s definitely a me problem. I liked it when twenty year olds looked forty lol.
I think overall it’s a very solid entry in the series. Maybe even my third favourite after the first two, although I do always have a soft spot for Alien Resurrection, so maybe it ties with that. I’m a big fan of Fede and would love to see more from him in this world, but as of writing this review that doesn’t seem like happening, which is a shame. But, if this is the only Alien movie we get from him, it’s a damn good effort, and a film i’m sure i’ll watch plenty more down the years as I always have time for a good Alien movie.
