Alien: Romulus

This weekend, Alien: Romulus, the newest film in the Alien franchise, releases in theaters. Alien: Romulus follows a group of friends as they break into an abandoned space station to escape their oppressive colony. Once at the station, they learn there may be a dangerous reason why it was abandoned. Alien and Aliens are two of the best movies ever made and the rest of the alien franchise were movies so I was at least interested to see how this would turn out.

I was pleased with this movie. This ended up being a great back-to-the-basics alien movie. It recaptures the horror vibe of the original film so well. This movie isn't trying to reinvent the franchise, it just takes what worked and utilizes that. I found the story itself to be very compelling, with characters that are well-written and easy to get invested in. The whole movie is geared around the relationship between Rain and her "brother" and does a very good job of building it out. This relationship also makes for a solid emotional background to the story. I also liked how this movie used the alien as a threat. A lot of the later alien movies show the alien far too prominently. When it does that, the CGI just doesn't look good and the alien loses its scariness. This movie keeps the aliens shrouded in darkness so that you never see them coming and when you do, only see portions of them. This maintains the scariness of the moment. This movie also does a great job of utilizing the face huggers as they are featured more prominently and as more of a threat. The movie does a great job of connecting to the original alien film. There are several references and fan service moments to the original film that fans will enjoy. Finally, I thought the movie was very well-paced. It is pretty much nonstop intensity from beginning to end with no dull moments to catch your breath.

The only somewhat major issue I had with this movie is that it is a bit derivative of the original Alien film. You can definitely feel the similar plot structure. It doesn't do the plot badly but you can feel a pretty heavy influence from the first film.

Overall, this is a great Alien sequel. It isn't trying to reinvent the franchise. It is just trying to deliver what fans want from an Alien film and I feel it succeeds at that.

Score: 8/10 Grade: B+ Recommendation: A must-see for Alien fans.