Errr….. I haven’t done a movie review in quite a while. I saw ALIEN: ROMULUS earlier, and I guess I should probably write something (Spoiler Free) about it. Yet, I’m struggling to find the words. Not because it’s bad. Or because it’s because it’s staggeringly good. But just because it’s such a so-so film. A real mix of good and bad. Worth seeing for ALIEN/ALIENS fans, but don’t go in with high expectations.
The good? It’s pretty damn competently directed by Fede Alvarez. It’s moderately tense in places and there’s a lovely sense of style to how it looks. It absolutely nails the “Cassette Futurism” of the original film. The use of CRT displays and analog video feeds might stretch credulity as a vision of the future, but I don’t care – it feels absolutely right for this movie. And the use of excellent practical creature FX does give it a nicely grounded feel (though whatever their publicity claims – there’s huge amounts of CG work in there!)The cast are mostly very decent, especially Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson as the leads. They’re sympathetic and likeable.
The bad? Well, the script is serviceable at best. It retreads many of the previous films – especially the first two, but probably jams in too many ideas from the dismal prequels too – without adding much more to the mix. There’s some moderately interesting world-building in the first ten minutes of the films, showing life in the corporate future (very ANDOR), but after that it’s all a bit more predictable. It’s clear the ALIEN franchise is very much under the control of Ridley Scott. And James Cameron’s ALIENS is now clearly a secondary consideration (though there’s some howlingly clumsy callbacks to it in this movie). Speaking of clumsy callbacks, I wish they’d not crowbarred in some of the direct references to both the first films. It felt pandering and lame. Honestly, it didn’t need it either – the rest of the film was decent enough. Not amazing, but very competent compared to most.
But ultimately – would I recommend it? Errr…. yeah, actually. I don’t regret seeing in the cinema. Though it wasn’t exactly a masterpiece and kind of reminded me of THE FORCE AWAKENS in its shallow predictable soft-reboot vibes, it was still pretty entertaining. But I wouldn’t go TOO far out of your way to see it.
