Alien: Romulus(2024)(Review) - Gruesome Gazette

Seven years after the most previous release in the ‘Alien’ franchise with ‘Covenant’, the executives over at Disney & FX have finally graced fans with a new film. This time, director Fede Alvarez is once again retconning the meta and making particular choices. In the timeline, this film takes place between the original 1979 film and the 1986 sequel.

Space colonizers living on a dystopian planet live their lives working in the mines. Rain (Cailee Spaeny) has worked her ass off to get a ticket to finally get off the planet with her android brother Andy (David Jonsson), but naturally, the powers that be prevent her from leaving after she’s paid her dues. She’s approached by her ex-boyfriend Tyler and a small posse of his friends who propose a tempting idea: steal a vessel and board a derelict space station that is temporarily floating in the planet’s vicinity. Once they get aboard though, they come across the perfect organism in its many forms, in all its glory.

Altogether, this film works really well. It feels familiar and exciting without pulling a ‘Prometheus’ on us with a dramatic change in story direction. All of the props, costumes, sets, and animatronics are easily the most impressive aspects – the dedication to authentic practicality is worthy of applause. We have some cool set pieces, a multitude of different threats, and even a final act that goes into bonkers territory. All the characters are well played and the world itself is highly immersive through sound design, lighting, and impressive set dressing.

However, there definitely are some warts that the audience will have to overcome. Ultimately, this film isn’t really doing anything game changing – it feels like a typical requel that definitely works better than other films in the discography, but besides potentially introducing a new audience to the franchise, it in itself doesn’t have a lot to say. It plays more like a greatest hits compilation rather than a progressive story. The Xenomorph design is great and it looks beautiful to see on the screen, but it awkwardly doesn’t seem to do a whole lot. It’s almost like it’s stuck and limited in the way that an 80s style puppet would be, which just makes it feel claustrophobic in a way that it certainly shouldn’t be. While not the biggest sin, it did take away a bit of the momentum we had built up by the halfway point. The biggest sin however, is definitely the awkward fan-serviced quote of one character telling another to “stay away from her…” ..you already know the rest. It’s only really a single line, and it’s not til the end of the film, but it is so grating and obvious that the film literally seems to stop as we all wait for him to finish it, sincerely wishing that he doesn’t. This highlights the overall problem people are contesting over with how much of this film is just catering to old fans instead of giving us something creative.

But in its defense, when Ridley Scott did give us 2 films of pure innovation, the fans didn’t really appreciate it either. So this was probably the smartest way to approach this series.

Again though, this film as a whole is definitely a great time! It’s fun, exciting, has some moments of genuine terror, and very proudly puts practical effects front and center – which is a victory for horror fans all over. There’s even a cameo appearance that fits the part and isn’t entirely distracting (although the CGI surrounding the character is debatably distracting). I had a great time seeing it, and although the internet is tearing itself apart right now while “fans” fight over this film, there’s still a general consensus that this is still either the 3rd or 4th best one in the franchise.

You should definitely go see this film while it’s on the big screen (after all, Hulu almost sent this directly to streaming like they did with ‘Prey’…) because it’s a good film, just understand that this most likely isn’t going to blow your mind like we thought it would.

4/5
“Alien: Romulus” is currently playing only in theaters.

‘Til Next Time,
Mike Cleopatra