One of cinemas most beloved franchises is back with a chest-bursting of a good time! Directed by Evil Dead’s Fede Alvarez, Alien: Romulus is set between the first Alien movie and, my personal favorite, the sequel, Aliens. So just to refresh you, at the end of the first movie Ripley blasts the Xenomorph into outer space and gets away in the shuttle. Romulus takes place 20 years later while Ripley is still floating in hypersleep somewhere in deep space and it is here that the most logical question comes to mind.
How did Weyland Yu-Tani company get their greedy corporate hands on the Xenomorph if Ripley blasted it into outer space?
Simply put, it lived through their was a cocoon left in the debris of the Nostromo’s explosion and Weyland-Yutani was able to retrieve and run tests on it. Yes, sort of a lame backstory or gap-filler but it works. Okay, now we’re up to date and can proceed with Romulus.
It was great! My wife and I are huge fans of the Alien franchise and rewatch these movies at least once a month. The setting is a bleak existence on a mining colony that really doesn’t make space travel seem like something I want to experience. These people are, essentially, enslaved and have very little control over their own lives. Cailee Spaney is our leading lady and is accompanied by her “brother” Andy, an antiquated glitchy synthetic. Spaney had a significant role in Alex Garland’s recent movie, Civil War, was a really good casting. She doesn’t seem to be the “Ripley” type and it makes for good character growth as she is thrust into the horror the alien bestows. However, her brother Andy stole the show! David Jonsson is the actor who portrays this Alien movie’s AI or synthetic and he steals almost every scene he’s in. Excellent subtlety to his performance that convinces you that he is an outdated glitchy robot and is easily able to make you care about him the same way Rain (Spaney) does. Rain and her friends are tired of this existence on their mining colony and decide to swing for the fences and loot a derelict ship hovering over their colony. But guess what, things do not go as planned.
The team of young people fighting for their future are quickly introduced to the Xenomorph and dispatched quite efficiently. The action scenes throughout the movie are both new and give homage to Alien cannon, even the Alien video game Isolation. There was even an emphatic clap from the audience when a clear nod to the video game made its way into the movie which had me questioning “how much of a fan am I really”, there were clearly some true fans in the audience on opening night. There were also many heartwarming easter eggs that anyone who calls themself a fan would enjoy. I won’t divulge them here, they’re a lot of fun, go see the movie.
At the end of the day, Alien: Romulus is a true entry into the storyline and far exceeds previous efforts like Alien vs Predator, Alien vs Predator Requiem and, in my opinion, even Alien Covenant. It has everything a horror fan could want and if you consider yourself a fan of Alien or science fiction or “space movies” in general I would highly recommend Romulus. My Alien movie rankings is as follows: Aliens, Alien, Romulus, Prometheus, Alien 3, Covenant, Resurrection, AVP, AVP Requiem. Have you seen all these movies, what do you think about my ranking?
