Rent Alien: Romulus (2024)

A solid & well-made Alien film with great action, but also poor narrative choices & storyline - Alien: Romulus review by TB

When the Alien franchise started in 1979, no-one could have predicted the stratospheric impact & love for these films. What started as effectively a small budget horror in space, jumping on the momentum of Star Wars's huge success, is still a franchise revered decades later. This success is also partly down to not only Alien but Aliens being absolutely perfect, flawless masterpieces in their own ways. However, the Alien franchise has also had more than it's fair share of sometimes catastrophic misfires & duds; (for many people the AVP films started awfully & nosedived.)

When Ridley Scott was given the keys back to the franchise again, he produced Prometheus (average,) and Alien: Covenant (rubbish overall, despite a great opening.) Neither was what the fans wanted, and for ordinary film watchers, there wasn't much for them either. Despite stating that he would keep cranking out sequels until he dropped dead, Scott has now handed over the reins to Fede Alvarez, himself a huge Alien fan, to inject some new ideas into the mix.

Despite my rating, I had a lot of fun watching this film, although never once was I scared or really that on-edge. There is in no way anything like the Space Jockey scene (complete with horrific music,) or the Alien suddenly jumping out of the shadows & really making you jump (like with Andrews in Alien3.) The action is brilliantly handled, and I am so grateful that Alvarez insisted on puppets & full practical effects. Not only do I never fully buy into CGI aliens in these types of films, but they simply don't move or act like they should, which then breaks the illusion.

The main reason for the 3 stars is actually due to the opening 20 minutes. In pretty much every other Alien film, it starts relatively slowly, introducing characters & ensuring that the plot is given time to breathe (even if the story itself is rubbish.) In no way does this happen in Romulus. After a brief opening recovering debris from space, we are then thrown into a frenetic & badly rushed series of scenes, where some backstory & exposition is thrown onto the screen, before we are bundled into a spaceship & shot into space.

Character development is actually quite minimal & sadly the script reduces 1 of the players to effectively a single trait: being an absolutely horrible & abrasive arsehole. Alongside this, at least 2 of the characters were fairly pointless, in the sense that they were only there for later set-ups/payoffs. But one thing I am grateful for was the fact that there wasn't the ridiculously large number of people like in Prometheus or Covenant. The main frustration I have is that, after the brilliant crew in Alien & then the slightly larger number in Aliens, these characters were not really interesting people for us to really buy into.

One of the other big issues I had with this film (no spoilers, don't worry!) was the bringing back of a major character, which I felt was even more tasteless considering the actor is deceased. The CGI recreation of them was passable but not particularly well done, but it was still a weird & slightly exploitative feeling.

However, when this film is good, it's really good. The action is brilliant, the alien puppetry being world class. There are also some extremely nasty & psychosexual moments, which were a welcome return to the old Alien creepiness. A scene set in zero gravity is also highly entertaining as well as brilliantly staged. For some, the ending is a bit too much but this is an action film, so I can buy into that. Plus we have the obligatory set-up for the next film which, judging by the reviews & clamouring of people to see the previous entries, means this is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

This is a solid, entertaining & enjoyable new adventure in the Alien universe, the best since Alien3. Now that Fede Alvarez has found his feet, hopefully he can be allowed the chance to continue his story.

Good, Entertaining SciFi Horror - Alien: Romulus review by GI

If you are a fan then this new film in the 'Alien' franchise is not a disappointment. It can be accused of relying on too many homages to the original films especially the first and second but that can be forgiven because the film is an exciting, tense, gory and at times shocking science fiction/horror that recreates the dirty, exploitative future that made 1979s Alien so impactful. A group of young mineworkers stuck in company contracts on a distant planet see a way to escape their destiny when they discover an abandoned space station has drifted into the orbit around the planet. Taking a small spacecraft they intend to take the equipment from the station in order to be able to travel to a better life. However once board they find that the station is an abandoned laboratory where an alien life form has been unleashed. There's everything you can want from an Alien film here in a narrative that sits chronologically between the first and second films of the series and with references to the prequel Prometheus (2012). The film doesn't have the grandiose plot and structure of Ridley Scott's two prequels as it goes for a fast paced chase story with some good suspense. Cailee Spaeny is the main character with the clear similarities to Sigourney Weaver's iconic Ripley and David Jonsson is rather good as a synthetic android who changes during the story from friend to potential threat. The reprise of the character played by Ian Holm in Alien using effects technology has been much criticised but I thought it worked well. Overall an entertaining new 'Alien' film that hits the spot.

Leave messages for your Grandchildren's Grandchildren - invest in lighting, they'll be billionaires! - Alien: Romulus review by Strovey

Apparently, Alien: Romulus was made to get the Alien franchise fans back onside after the last few, shall we say, ‘dodgy’ films. I have seen it written this was the ‘Andor’ for the Alien series of films. It is not.

I can see why that statement was made, right from the start we are placed on a grubby, soul-destroying, grimy planet. No one here is a clean-cut genius hero. The lowest of the low. So far so good. I have to say the horrible mining planet looks great – populated but the scum of the universe, not sure that if you are stuck doing tough and deadly manual work it turns you into criminally minded scum bags, but hey-ho filmmakers, most of whom you presume never had to do this, always think this way, but nevertheless, it looks atmospheric and great. A dirtier Blade Runner if you will.

The film starts well with a heartbreaking tale that is tense and, in some ways, ‘realisitic’. The young, basically unknown, actors given their up-front roles work with gusto and are believable. Still, we do have a future Basil Exposition in ‘Andy’ whose whole purpose, although outlined by Tyler, is obviously to explain plot points the audience will not ‘get’. Furthermore why anyone would put up with ‘Tyler’ is beyond me. Why do these films always have an annoying a-hole that no one would spend five minutes with in these stories? It feels a bit ‘trope’.

Where the film stumbles with the writing, the common sense, and including some special effects, is when we get onto the ‘station’ Romulus. The director, and credited joint-writer Alvarez, seems desperate to get the Xenomorphs front and centre, and they have to be scary, there has to be more of them than before. My problem has always been the creature is supposedly an alien animal that can live in extreme conditions and prey on anything. Except it really seems like it exists to be as scary as possible and little else. To my mind more than a few films do this, you give the main scare, evil protagonist, whatever you want to call it, serves no purpose at all. It exists to terrify the audience and nothing else. For example, Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster both had motivations, and reasons to do what they did, but this more modern style of scary creature among filmmakers is derivative and makes for poor stories.

What I was waiting for was who was going to get killed, in what way and who might survive, metaphorically tapping my foot and looking at my watch. If that is what want to see then Romulus works, but if you want to see a story that makes you think or challenges you? Add in fairly insulting Ian Holm CGI and already my heart was sinking.

After much screaming, death and mayhem, mainly for no reason, we end up with the most overblown, ridiculously long-winded and impossible denouement that defies any logic and is frankly boring and seemingly plotted by an excitable eight-year-old.

I seriously believe this film could have been a much better, much more interesting film, if it had started off in the same fashion but then not been in any way about Xenomorph monsters but instead the inhuman behaviour to humans by humans and the desperate attempt of downtrodden youngsters to escape their circumstances. Instead it went on a downward trajectory the longer it went on. Ironic because it was clearly supposed to be more exciting and frightening the more minutes it got under the belt.

All in all Alien: Romulus looked good – although in the future it seems lights will be an historical artifact as most of the film was gloomy black which I found irritating - the acting is good, bordering on a bit hammy from time-to-time and the overall structure of the film fine. The story and how it plays out is frankly, tedious.