TAGGED AS: First Reviews, Horror, movies
Following two prequel films helmed by original Alien director Ridley Scott, the franchise is moving forward again with the sequel Alien: Romulus. (Or is it better described as a “midquel,” since it takes place directly after the first?) Produced by Scott, directed by Fede Álvarez (Don’t Breathe), and starring Civil War’s Cailee Spaeny, this new installment returns Alien to its horror roots while paying homage to fan-favorite moments of the past. And so far, it’s a hit with critics, as the first reviews of Alien: Romulus affirm the movie is scary and arguably the best installment since Aliens. It certainly has the Tomatometer score to make that case.
Here’s what critics are saying about Alien: Romulus:
Alien: Romulus is the Alien film I have been waiting for.
— Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community
Romulus ends up as the franchise’s strongest entry in three decades.
— Jake Cole, Slant Magazine
One of the best in the franchise in years.
— Jordan Hoffman, Entertainment Weekly
Alien: Romulus is one of the best Alien sequels… It delivers the slimy creep-out goods in a way that none of the last three Alien films have.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
There’s never been a terrible Alien movie (no, the Alien vs. Predator spin-offs don’t count), and that streak stays alive with Alien: Romulus.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
Alien: Romulus feels too over-designed and painfully nostalgic to qualify as one of the better movies of the franchise… in the end, Romulus is perfectly middle of the pack.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
The dedication to practical effects and capturing the banality of space portrayed in the original film is a sharp move away from the most recent franchise installments, Covenant and Prometheus.
— Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community
The film outdoes Scott’s more abstractly philosophical prequels in balancing Alien’s core themes of humans’ place in the cosmos, corporate malfeasance, and the sexual and reproductive subtext intimated by H.R. Giger’s original alien designs.
— Jake Cole, Slant Magazine
The most surprising thing about Alien: Romulus is that, with its climactic creature, it finds a way to subtly tip its cap to Scott’s underrated prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, with which it shares an abiding fascination with androids.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
While it may not have the visual sweep of 2012’s Alien prequel Prometheus, it benefits from the simplicity of its storyline.
— Jordan Hoffman, Entertainment Weekly
(Photo by ©20th Century Studios)
At its best, Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus is a winning attempt to get things back on the rails after the elaborate mythology introduced in Scott’s two prequel films, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, threatened to stretch the thematic core of the series beyond its limits.
— Jake Cole, Slant Magazine
Álvarez recreates the tactile and gloopy terror of the first two films to a, sometimes, alarming degree.
— James Croot, Stuff.co.nz
Even if his pedal-to-the-metal style is closer to the hard-charging combat action of Aliens, the claustrophobic sense of entrapment and escalating terror gives it a definite kinship with the slow-burn scares of Alien, if not the control or complexity.
— David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
Alien: Romulus recaptures the suffocating sci-fi horror and thrill of Scott’s first voyage with the Nostromo.
— Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community
For as many hallmarks as this entry loves to telegraph back to its original source, the major forgotten facet is a deep care for its narrative. It’s an elusive element that stunts it from having a lasting impact.
— Josh Parham, Next Best Picture
In its sweaty attempts to bring the franchise back to basics, Romulus feels less like its own movie and more like a greatest hits of the Alien series.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
While it subtly plays the greatest hits, it also brilliantly innovates, delivering smart, savvy thrills.
— Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction
The best of Alien: Romulus reminds us that some franchises are more open to a variety of directorial approaches than others.
— Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Álvarez manages to find a fresh angle in his screenplay that he co-wrote alongside Rodo Sayagues, beginning with the introduction of younger characters for a change.
— Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania
Álvarez may approach this beloved horror series with a relative lack of new ideas, but he certainly knows how to maximize what made the original movies so compelling.
— Jake Cole, Slant Magazine
While it doesn’t shake up the lore or deviate from the path, it’s such a thrilling ride you’ll be hard-pressed to care.
— Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting
It pushes the material into gnarly new gynecological territory.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
(Photo by ©20th Century Studios)
It’s filled with all the jump scares, point-of-view shots, unexpected twists, and nightmare-inducing imagery any sci-fi or horror fan who was 12 in 1986 – or 2020 – could wish for.
— James Croot, Stuff.co.nz
Alvarez puts the horror first here, with exquisite craftmanship that immerses you in the insanity.
— Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting
Alien: Romulus delivers thrills that no doubt will have squeamish folks covering their eyes at strategic moments.
— David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
Its most delightfully disgusting scene [features] a revolting, body-horror twist that feels like Álvarez’s freaky instincts overcoming any overcautious studio notes.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
The gore level may not be a shock to fans of Alvarez’s previous features, but for the casual franchise fan, well, it’s gory.
— Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
I wish there were two or three more characters on this adventure. Maybe I sound like a sociopath, but I would have liked to see more people get chomped and bisected by the aliens.
— Jordan Hoffman, Entertainment Weekly
The film’s CGI is excellent and so too is its set design, with every corridor drenched in shadows and mist, every lab lit by glaring fluorescent light, and every alien egg dripping with goo and opening with squishy squelches.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
What really impresses though is how Álvarez makes this movie look, as was his stated aim, as if it was made in 1982.
— James Croot, Stuff.co.nz
The sheer scope of the practical sets look and feel like Aliens brought into the now, with each new section of the ship distinct from the last… [It] speaks to Alvarez’s keen ability to add a tactile quality to the cinematics; the swooping camerawork ensures you feel the weightlessness.
— Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting
From the rust-bucket transporter that gets the group to Renaissance to the labs, corridors, airlocks and elevator shafts of the abandoned station, in various stages of disrepair, the movie makes enormous gains from creating multi-dimensional environments shrouded in unsettling lighting.
— David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
Dazzling visuals of the Corbelan ship traveling through cosmos are awe-inducing, best viewed in IMAX to overwhelm your senses… Cinematographer Galo Olivares’ work is impressive, not solely restaging iconic imagery, but blazing a new trail.
— Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction
(Photo by Murray Close/©20th Century Studios)
It’s David Jonsson’s Andy who winds up stealing the film as the sweet, innocent synthetic whose sole directive is to protect Rain’s happiness and well-being. Once he boards the abandoned ship, his arc quickly becomes the most complex and fascinating of the film.
— Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting
Andy is the film’s heart and, ultimately, its hero, too. Alien: Romulus offers audiences a character to question and root for, offering depth and complexity to the story beyond what the rest of the ensemble offers.
— Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community
For a franchise that often lacks richly drawn characters, it receives two of its most fully realized ones yet in Rain and Andy, each fighting against natural and programmed survival instincts to stay loyal to each other.
— Jake Cole, Slant Magazine
One significant lesson not learned from Scott’s original is the minimal time spent establishing these characters as distinct individuals. But since most of them won’t be around long enough to matter, perhaps that was the point.
— David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
Their personalities are flattened into pedestrian archetypes that are never all that compelling. These individuals feel like stock characters, empty vessels that are often seen in horror pictures that are only ever lifted from the page based on the strength of the performance attached.
— Josh Parham, Next Best Picture
Cailee Spaeny’s excellent… She scales every emotion and detail astutely, so that a reaction shot to something horrible feels, well, real, and not simply rote.
— Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Cailee Spaeny, with her clear eyes and serene resolve, makes her presence felt as Rain, the closest equivalent here to the fearless Ripley.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Spaeny proves to be a compelling lead, vulnerable and ruled by her emotions to a large extent, but also a technically savvy quick thinker with formidable survival instincts.
— David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
David Jonsson delivers a captivating performance that is constantly engaging to watch.
— Josh Parham, Next Best Picture
Jonsson steals the film by adding a new level of emotion and context around Weyland-Yutani’s Synthetics.
— Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community
(Photo by ©20th Century Studios)
Benjamin Wallfisch’s score harkens back to Jerry Goldsmith’s memorable musical themes and helps set a suitably ominous mood.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
Benjamin Wallfisch’s atmospheric score contains elements of the past works of Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner and Harry Gregson-Williams.
— James Croot, Stuff.co.nz
Benjamin Wallfisch’s riveting score… blends the late Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner from the respective first two movies while adding a unique, synthesiser-laden spin to his overall musical composition.
— Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania
The movie doesn’t quite stick the landing, piling on while lingering at the gate for an extra 10 minutes or so.
— Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Occasionally, the film must contend with the larger complications introduced into the Alien mythos by the prequels, and this leads to a final act that feels shaggy and overburdened compared to the preceding 90 minutes.
— Jake Cole, Slant Magazine
A final-act development lurches into overblown and slightly daffy extreme sicko horror… The movie goes bigger but for my money not better.
— David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
The third act has its moment but doesn’t work out as great as I thought.
— Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania
The third act is where everything pays off. It’s the most unique of the film and allows Alvarez to leave his signature on the franchise.
— Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community
It’s the final act of Alien: Romulus that’s designed to get audience eyes popping… What’s best about it is simply the flair with which Álvarez stages a lone-woman-vs.-humanoid-alien showdown. It’s a sequence tense enough to grab you by the throat, if not the face.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
(Photo by ©20th Century Studios)
In many ways, at least one I dare not mention, Alien: Romulus feels like this series’ equivalent of Star Wars: Rogue One (with a bit of The Force Awakens thrown in).
— James Croot, Stuff.co.nz
While Spaeny’s Rain feels at first like a wide-eyed take on Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, her resilient ingenuity and tragic backstory makes her feel more like Alien’s response to Rey from The Force Awakens.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
Alien: Romulus may feel like it’s “Don’t Breathe in Space” with the Xenomorphs and Facehuggers substituting the blind old man while the scavengers replace the thieves.
— Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania
There’s still plenty of acid-bloody life left in the franchise’s monstrous bones… In its homage-y closing notes, it also suggests a promisingly perilous path forward.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
Álvarez has course-corrected the franchise that it’s a positive step in the right direction compared to the last Alien movie seven years ago.
— Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania
Alien: Romulus shows a bright future for the franchise if Alvarez keeps at the helm.
— Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community
80%
Alien: Romulus
(2024)
opens in theaters on August 16, 2024.
Thumbnail image by ©20th Century Studios
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