The Movie: Alien: Romulus
The Director: Fede Alvarez
The Cast: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu
The Story: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
The Rating: 8 / 10
The Review:
Okay, look. The Alien franchise is one of the longest running and most successful movie series in cinema history. Yes, I said that. Even with a few missteps, Alien: Covenant was absolutely awful, the original Alien is one of the greatest horror movies and one of the greatest scienve fiction movies of all time and James Cameron's Aliens is at the top of many all time great lists for action, science fiction, and horror. By the way, I'm one of those people who really loves Prometheus so there's that also. Now Fede Alvarez steps in and takes a big swing at regaining that level of success and I have to say, he did one heck of a job.
Romulus is one of the most fun and most intense movies I have seen in quite some time and I mean from start to finish. I love how Alvarez really understands the look and tone and textures of this universe and it just feels like a science fiction movie should feel. I also enjoyed how the story digs deeper into the world of Weyland-Utani and the relentless corporate greed that has caused most of the issues throughout the series' history. The director must have had conversations with both Ridley Scott and James Cameron about how they brought their movies to life on the big screen as the DNA is thoroughly embedded all the way through from start to finish.
Does the movie have its flaws? Of course, what movie doesn't and if you really want to search for things that go against canon or don't follow certain logic points, then you will definitely find them but you know what. Who cares. Just enjoy the movie and be thankful that we're getting an Alien movie that's as good as it is. Seriously, the movie is legit scary, maybe the scariest since the original. There's also plenty of action and the story fits very well into the overall narrative while also creating a space for more adventures to be explored.
I haven't even mentioned the cast yet for this movie which features Cailee Spaeny, who has already made waves this year in Alex Garland's Civil War, in the lead role, and Isabella (where's that Dora sequel?!) Merced. Both are pretty great and I was also very impressed with David Jonsson who plays Andy, a sort of adopted brother to Spaeny's character. The two share a bond that ends up being essential to their survival as the story plays out, especially as the body count begins to pile up. Yes, there are both xenomorph and chest burster aliens all over the place in this movie and it's really fun to see how the humans come up with new and creative ways to deal with all of them.
I was fortunate enough to watch this movie in the IMAX format at a true IMAX theater and dang, what an impressive experience. The special effects are all top notch, everything looks fantastic, and the big screen format makes the whole experience that much better. Highly recommended to, at minimum see this movie in a theater and, if you are able, upgrade to whatever premium format you have available. Ultimately, I'm just happy to see more from this franchise and it looks like the groundwork has been laid for a lot more to come. Bring it all, I'm here for it.
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