I'm a day later than I intended with this review, but I just saw the flick yesterday and needed a bit to gather my thoughts, but here we go! Anyway, the latest alien movie is an interesting beast for a variety of reasons. It’s both a sequel and a prequel that slots into a specific part of the, "Alien," timeline. The continuity of it takes place smack-dab between the first, "Alien," movie and, "Aliens" with it incorporating some continuity from the prequels that were made more recently such as, "Prometheus," and, "Alien: Covenant," as well. Yeah, it’s a messy timeline. Another fact of note is that this takes the series back to the scary vibe of the original 1979 movie, especially going all-in on the body horror of the Xenomorphs. There is some extremely disturbing imagery that will make you think of vulvas and phalluses--but in a creepy way. Amping up the scary aspects of the Xenomorphs works pretty well, with, "Alien: Romulus," being quite an entertaining time.
One thing I have noticed in positive and negative reviews would be agreement that this is an absolutely gorgeous flick. The cinematography is impressive! Early scenes set in a space colony have a barren and wide-open feel that gets countered wonderfully when the action shifts to a cramped, tight spaceship. I also must compliment how this World definitely feels lived-in. Everything has the grime and futuristic yet low-tech feel of the original, "Alien," movie that the prequels weirdly lacked with the clean sheen of the professional spaceships piloted by scientists and investors. The focus here is on miners trying to eke out some form of survival on a rock-covered and sunless planet, with visuals to match.
The plot itself is mostly straightforward with these miners noticing an abandoned Spaceship/base in orbit that they can, "Borrow," enough cryostasis fuel from so as to escape their dreary existence with a flight to a much better planet. Of course, What they encounter on the station turns out to be another example of why you never try to contain or study the Xenomorphs. Speaking of strange things on the ship, if I may go into spoiler territory for a minute I will discuss how there has been some controversy. It stems from the appearance of Ash (now called Rook as it is a different character, kinda) from the original, "Alien," movie. Ash was revealed to actually be a synthetic/robot in the original, "Alien," and was left in pretty bad shape by Ripley and friends. In, "Romulus," this model has had a rather nasty encounter with the Xenomorphs and is mostly wrecked. However, even in damaged condition it still is clearly that character which is complicated by the fact that the man who played him died in 2020.
Yes, Sir Ian Holm has been dead in real life for nearly half a decade. Director Fede Alvarez has stated Holm's family was enthusiastic about the idea by all accounts (I read somewhere Ridley Scott possibly even suggested the inclusion) and one would assume the aforementioned family received proper financial compensation for the use of Holm's likeness. Still, it has made reviewers and fans uncomfortable to witness this use of technology to bring someone who is truly dead back to life for a movie. I, personally, don’t have a big issue with this as long as everyone involved signs off on it, But this definitely is a bit of a genie that cannot be put back in the bottle when it comes to technology being used in this manner for everything from bringing back dead actors to potential deepfakes in our everyday life.
Reviews have been mixed for, "Romulus," as I mentioned. While everyone loves the imagery some reviews have complained that Romulus seems more focused on bringing all the various pieces of alien continuity together and engaging in nostalgic throwbacks than it does on telling its own standalone story. I enjoyed it and feel it’s a solid entry to the franchise, but I do see where those more critical are coming from. I would conclude that, "Alien: Romulus," is not as good as the original, "Alien," its sequel, "Aliens," but it is without a doubt better than, "Alien 3," "Alien: Resurrection," and a bit more fun than "Prometheus," or, "Alien: Covenant," thanks to how scary it is--and I'm saying that as someone who really dug, "Covenant," mind you! I had a good time and based on how well it’s done at the box office I’m sure we’ll be getting more even alien movies before too long. Where they will slot into the messy lore will be the big question!
4.5 out of 5 Stars.
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