Alien Romulus Review: A Disappointment for the Die-Hard Fans

Alien Romulus feels like a movie made by people who enjoy the Alien franchise, but not by those who truly understand its essence. As someone who has spent over three decades immersing themselves in the world of Alien-watching the films, devouring the documentaries, and reading the books-this film left me wanting.

When Prometheus was announced, I was thrilled at the prospect of Ridley Scott returning to the helm. However, the final product left me disappointed with its convoluted narrative and the introduction of the DNA-altering "black goo," which felt completely out of place in the established Alien universe. Alien: Covenant continued this trend, starting strong but ultimately faltering with questionable character decisions and the baffling return of David and his "magic flute."

So, when Alien Romulus was announced, I hoped a fresh perspective might bring the franchise back to its horror roots. The trailers were promising, and I went in with cautious optimism. Unfortunately, I walked out with yet another sense of disappointment.

Let me be clear: Alien Romulus is not a bad film. It's entertaining and checks all the boxes for a modern-day audience and casual Alien fans. There's a strong female lead, plenty of aliens, guns, acid, and robots, along with a few new elements thrown in for good measure. But for those of us who truly understand the franchise, it adds to an already confusing timeline and attempts to answer questions that didn't need answering.

What made the original Alien so effective was its simplicity-like "Jaws in Space," as it was famously described. The film was character-driven, full of suspense, and took its time unraveling the story. It didn't show or explain too much, leaving much to the viewer's imagination, which made it all the more terrifying. In contrast, Alien Romulus (like many modern films) throws everything at the screen, leaving nothing to the imagination. The characters, except for the two leads, are little more than cannon fodder-so forgettable that I can't even recall their names.

On the positive side, the set design, sound, costumes, and some of the effects are impressive, capturing the essence of the original films. However, this is overshadowed by the film's fan service, which often undermines the established lore.

For example, the opening scene involves the recovery of the Alien from the original movie, seemingly floating around the wreckage of the Nostromo, which was destroyed by Ripley. Ets start with the opening, the recovery of the 'Alien' from the original. Seemingly floating round the wreckage of the Nostromo that was destroyed by Ripley. Why was it there? If you cast your minds back to the original movie, Ripley escaped along with the Alien on the Narcissus escape shuttle, where some miles away she blew it out of the airlock and shot it with grappling hook and then blasted the alien into deep space.... So why was the Alien floating round the Nostromo? Did gravity push it there? If you know the film, you will know when Ripley escapes the escape ship flies backwards away from the Nostromo as you can see from windscreen, so when she blasts it out of her ship it should have been pushed even further away from the Nostromo.... not that there should be any wreckage left after three nuclear explosions.... but anyway.... if I can believe that, why do the company then spend 20 years searching for it to retrieve? The company know about the crashed Alien ship now on LV426 as presumably they sent the crew of the Nostromo there in the first place, and Ash must have been sending back data to them through the ships computer. So why waste 20 years looking for an alien that may or may not be floating out in space (and how do they even know its there?) when you can just go to LV426 and retrieve a WHOLE SHIP of eggs and aliens for your testing pleasure. If they dont know about LV426 then there i no way they can know about the floating alien in space.

Then there's the issue of the original Alien's DNA being reverse-engineered to create the black goo. How do they even know its life cycle without a host to create a facehugger? And how do they produce so many facehuggers without a Queen? Perhaps there's some bridge between Alien Covenant and this film that explains this, but it left me unconvinced.

The film also brings back Ian Holm's likeness as Rook, which felt disrespectful. The CGI was terrible, and the audience even laughed when he first appeared. In the original Alien, Ash's identity as a robot was a secret, so having other models that look like him undermines his character's entire point.

Overall, Alien Romulus feels like a disjointed mashup of all the previous Alien films. The alien lifecycle is rushed, with the creature growing from embryo to adult in minutes rather than days. The re-use of iconic lines from earlier films is unnecessary fan service, especially when a particular line, originally delivered by Ripley to the Queen in a powerful moment, is now uttered by an android in a way that feels completely out of place.

The ending is recycled from both Prometheus and Alien: Resurrection, adding to the sense of déjà vu. While some of the effects are good, particularly the zero-G acid scene, others fall flat. It's disappointing that in 2024, we still struggle to match the practical effects of the '70s and '80s.

In conclusion, Alien Romulus has its moments-some good performances and entertaining scenes-but for those of us who have been waiting for a true return to form for the Alien franchise, the wait continues.

Positives first - Good action, great practical special effects, and nice visuals.

Director Fede Alvarez and his production team have captured the gloomy atmosphere of Alien, and the thrilling action of Aliens almost perfectly. The action was thrilling with some scary moments.

The use of practical effects and realistic miniatures was so refreshing to see in this age of CGI overkill. Seeing a fully realised Xenomorph in the flesh blew me away, and the Space scenes were beautiful. This camera work, visual presentation, and use of quality albeit limited CGI when necessary was excellent.

Negatives - Average acting, nostalgia bait story, copy & pasted dialogue from better Alien movies, and the inclusion of lore elements from the inferior prequels which I wish did not exist in official canon. Plus the reveal of the villain was an "oh, get out of here " moment, I will say no more.

Apart from the great lead actress Spaeny playing up her role, the other cast of actors/characters was just okay. I thought the nostalgia bait story was boring, eye-rolling, and almost 4th wall breaking, it ruined the immersion for me. I'm getting bored of sequels/prequels heavily relying on lazy "remember-berries" to get a kick out of the casual audience while making the Alien fans embarrassed almost angry. To be honest it's just lazy script writing, and disrespectful to the other Alien movies that did it first!. Unnecessary.

Also the overuse of copy & pasted dialogue from the better Sigourney Weaver Alien movies was very cringe. 20th Century Studios should've called it Alien: Remember because of the over-reliance on oh you remember this bit from.. Lastly, trying to inject all the controversial and franchise damaging Prometheus nonsense into the film was frustrating, I hated all that origin of the Space Jockey and creation of the Xenomorph rubbish. And don't get me started on the villain, I don't want to spoil anything, but it was laughably lazy.

I think setting the movie between the first 2 films was a mistake because you have to make your movie fit into the established continuity of the franchise with all the tie ins and plot beats required to make it fit. They should've done a sequel set years after Alien: Resurrection, and setup the start of a brand new Alien saga long after Weavers adventures (and with better writers onboard).

This had the potential to be right up there with Aliens, but due to disappointing characters, a lacklustre "remember-berry" story, and poor script, it was a let down. Alien: Romulus, an above average Alien greatest hits movie, 4th best film in the franchise.

A few hours after coming out of the theater and I'm not sure what to make of this. It was... okay, I guess?

It felt like Fedy Alvarez examined the production of each of the previous films, and every left-over idea from them was thrown finally to the screen, along with rehashing the core components of the franchise. You have pieces from Alien, Aliens, Resurrection, and Prometheus/Covenant. For a fan of the series, there are subtle and not-so-subtle easter eggs every few minutes, from sound effects to reused dialogue.

The plot is really simple, as it should be. A group of people exploring a space station. Been there, done that. However, I really liked the use of temperature and gravity in this film, those were something not seen much in this universe. And there were plenty of jump scares. I'm not usually a fan of those, but this time they worked well.

The two lead actors were pretty good, the rest rather forgettable. And not sure what to make of the beyond-the-grave role of one actor...

The world is great. Forget the sleek and clean world of Prometheus, this is back to the ugly 70s retro futuristic stuff. Simply lovely. Aesthetically pleasing, if you like this kind of look.

Finally, however, it does feel like there is really nowhere for this franchise to go in terms of story. I wouldn't call it artistically bankrupt, but it is close. While this film tied neatly together the "proper" Alien films and the new Prometheus sidestep, it is hard to think what more to make of this creature. Nearly all the mystery has been stripped from the Xenomorph. I do wonder, is there anything left to do with this creature? More stand-alone films?