Alien: Romulus Review

 

Alien: Romulus is a sci-fi horror movie, serving as the seventh installment of the Alien franchise, and as serving as a standalone interquel set between Alien and Aliens. It's produced by Scott Free Productions and Brandywine and distributed by 20th Century Studios. Alien: Romulus is written by Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues and directed by Fede Álvarez.

The story is, a group of young space colonists go aboard an abandoned spacecraft plan to salvage the cryonic stasis chambers and then head off to a planet with greater living conditions in the hopes of better lives. But when one of them is attacked by a facehugger, a new xenomorph is born. Now the remaining colonists must find a way to survive.

Initial Reaction

Now I was already excited for this movie simply because it's Alien, then I heard Fede Álvarez was directing and I got really excited, because I really liked what he did with Evil Dead (2013).

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

One of two mix bags was the characters. Now we do have some good ones, such as Rain and Andy. I really liked their dynamic and was rooting for them to survive. But then you do have characters who are just there for a body count. Then there's the pacing. It wasn't too much of problem, but it was kind of dragging near the end.

Pros

One praise to give goes to the special effects. Now I do imagine there was a few times CGI was used, but I didn't noticed a lot of it. Because that was some nice flawless CGI. But of course we also have some stunning practical effects as well. Especially with the Facehuggers, they looked great. I also want to praise Álvarez's directing. This guy is just a truly amazing talent. He had some really great space shots, and of course he nails it with the horror aspects as well. The last thing I'll give credit to is the tension. Yes we know there's gonna be Xenomorphs, but the challenge is always how to use them. And thankfully Romulus doesn't use them too much. It was very reminiscent of the first movie. Where you're always guessing where they are, and because of that you get very anxious while watching this. Then there was that...thing during the last act. I'm not giving out spoilers, but that thing was straight up body horror.

While Alien: Romulus does have its fair share of flaws, I found myself really enjoying this. I actually wouldn't mind having this in my collection.

My final rating is, Good.

That's going to do it for me. Come back on Monday, Aug 19th, for my A Look Back at review of the 1994 version of The Crow. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.