Alien: Romulus
Director: Fede Alvarez
Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux
Genre: Unfinal frontier
The challenging thing about a film set as a sequel between two classics is just watching and enjoying it as opposed to constantly comparing it to the classics.
Alien: Romulus (2142) is set between Alien (1979-2122) and Aliens (1986-2179). From a standalone perspective it’s a great horror sci-fi film featuring freakish monsters and scary moments. Ignore the science and the logic, detach yourself from reality and just go with the ridiculous flow of back-to-back action sequences featuring spectacular special effects, jump-scares and intense moments of humans being destroyed.
Add that to the awesome space sets, computer systems, aliens and cyber bodies that reflect 1970s and 80s Alien-style models combined with modern CGI and you have a fascinating film that grabs your attention and keeps you engaged.
However, this is not a five-star legendary film like its original predecessors. Maybe it’s because of the short attention spans of today’s audiences or the nature of modern horror films, but Alien: Romulus lacks the subtlety, innovation and cleverness of the other films. The back-to-back action sequences may be great, but the fact they are so continuous means that opportunities to build characters or detail storylines are very secondary.
I also have to admit I didn’t realise how many Alien films there have been. It’s now nine in total and they’re not all good. For example, the Alien vs. Predator films are crap. So, while this may be just another example of a film company trying to cash in on a famous series of films, Alien: Romulus is definitely worth watching in isolation or in line with your favoured memories.
Rating: Four odysseys
