The new Alien film is hear, and if you know me, you know that this is my favorite film franchise of them all. Although I always try to be an objective and unbiased reviewer, this is one of those cases where I prefer to review a film from the standpoint of being a fan. This franchise has had entries from terrible to great, and the buzz going into Alien: Romulus was pretty good, so the question remains: do I approve or should I let “Face Huggers” have at it.
Directed by Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe), this installment stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu and takes place between the first two films of Alien and Aliens. Rain (Spaeny) and her android companion Andy (Jonsson) are wrongly stuck working on a hostile planet, which leads them to make a plan alongside four other workers to escape to a different planet. Above them is an abandoned space station, so the plan is to retrieve the cryo-chambers from it and add them to their ship so they can complete the journey to get there. Upon entering the ship, they realize there are more life forms on the ship then they were expecting the true reason the ship was abandoned.
This one is very tough to review because although there are some great aspects, there are also some letdowns. I did like the visuals as it really did not use a ton of CGI, giving it the feel of where it falls in the timeline of the films that came before it. I also enjoyed the “hidden eggs” (pun intended) along with the way it tries to answer some of the un-answered questions from the prior films like how the Xenomorph can grow in just a short time period.
On the other hand, Alien: Romulus asks more questions than it answers. Without giving away any spoilers, this film has to be a bridge and explain some of the long-lasting things fans have wondered like where the Queens came from or how the eggs appeared in LV-426, but it doesn’t. Add to that the number of plot holes that are in contrast to what we know of the Alien universe which end up not helping, making this even more complicated and weird like Alien Resurrection.
As an Alien fan, there are great components like the face huggers, exploding chests, Xenomorphs, scary moments, and the gore that can be expected. I am glad the film was made, but there was some disappointments. It has some great potential to add to the franchise, but it was just turned out to be another film. However, I will still recommend Alien: Romulus as a weekend afternoon showing in theaters.
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