Alien Romulus Review: A Fun Watch That Is Lacking a Clear Identity

Horror Movie Blog > Horror Movie Reviews > Alien Romulus Review

Alien Romulus 2024 movie review

I think the question on a lot of peoples lips before watching Alien Romulus was can Fede Álvarez bring something fresh to this beloved franchise?

The first 2 movies are iconic, and the rest? Well, a mixed bag, but that's for another day.

Alien: Romulus is set between Alien and Aliens and follows Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her adopted android brother Andy (David Jonsson) on a mining colony run by the ruthless Weyland-Yutani corporation. 

After Rain’s contract is unfairly extended, they, along with a group of friends, plan an escape by recovering cryostasis chambers from an abandoned space station, The Renaissance, but they soon discover the station holds some deadly secrets, including the remains of an alien xenomorph.


Alien: Romulus is a film of two halves. 

The first half focuses on the small group of young characters, blending elements from the original films while trying to introduce a compelling new world.

The second half is where the movie shifts gears once the alien facehuggers appear, turning into a more conventional action film.

I really liked David Jonsson's performance as Andy, whose character evolves into a more complex and antagonistic figure, and while the rest of the cast is decent, a lot of them are under developed, although Cailee Spaeny does a decent job channeling her inner Ripley.

The film does try and introduce some fresh ideas to the franchise such as showing a previously unseen phase of the alien’s life cycle and exploring what happens when a pregnant woman is facehugged, which I liked.

And if you're a hardcore fan of the previous movies, you might appreciate all of the references to the earlier Alien movies, but it did seem a bit much as well, and tried a bit too hard with the homages and repeated lines we have heard before.

Yet, despite some creative moments, Alien: Romulus does lack a clear identity, feeling more like a fun but shallow experience that doesn’t add really much to the franchise as it struggles with deciding what direction it wants to go in.

Alien Romulus is an entertaining watch but lack an identity

The movie is pretty well-made though and has some strong visuals and a fitting score, and offers some exciting moments but it doesn’t break any new ground.

But, it is a good and fun watch and Álvarez manages to create some genuine suspense and atmosphere and I quite enjoyed it for what it was, a fun entertaining watch with some genuinely good moments that makes it worth watching.

It is one of the better entries into the Alien franchise, and I suspect some hardcore fans might be a bit disappointed all the while being relieved it isn't as bad as some previous entries. 

But, I might be wrong. [Alien Romulus on IMDB]

What are your thoughts on the film? Join me on Twitter , Instagram or Facebook or let me know in the comments.

Check out some more 2024 horror movie reviews while you are here!


Comments

Post a Comment