Alien Romulus (Fede Álvarez: 2024)

 

I have to begin this review by mentioning that I enjoyed all of the past Alien movies, with the exception of Alien: Covenant, which seemed to me a lost opportunity to expand on the story that began being told in Prometheus. As for the original tetralogy, I enjoyed, with varying degrees, all of the movies even the fourth entry into the franchise (for the purpose of this review I’m excluding the Predator crossovers).

            As an Alien movie, Romulus is competent, for it takes all of the elements of the previous movies and basically ties all of the loose ends of the franchise story wise, at least on the surface level. However, it lacks the atmosphere of the first movie, and a definitive signature by the director which could be felt, on different levels, on all of the first three movies. But being a competent movie is lacklustre in a franchise from which one expects at least to be either scared or entertained.

In other words, although Alien Romulus is a decent science fiction movie, the lack of atmosphere and characterisation of the characters makes one feel rather distant after you’ve watched it. The best actor present is David Jonsson, who plays a defected android, as he is able to switch between personalities due to the events that befall him. The main character, Rain, portrayed by Cailee Spaeny, lacks the presence necessary to carry the movie, in my opinion.

However, the relationship between her and her “brother” is one of the strongest points of a movie that seems so want to achieve many things, but fails to do so, for the most part. It is an enjoyable movie, but I doubt it will have the lasting impact of the previous movies of the Alien franchise, due to the lack of a stand out story and atmosphere to make it memorable.