Alien: Romulus (2024) ***

Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus (2024) is a perfectly serviceable Alien film that doesn't do enough of its own thing, instead paying more fan service than it needs to (and, most egregiously, resurrecting (sort of) a character in a terribly uncanny way for far too much screen time). I just don't understand why anyone wants member berries. Recreating moments from beloved films with new characters is, for the most part, never a good idea. The reason we loved those moments in the first place is because they were unique and they are iconic. 

At least the also-perfectly-OK-but-not-amazing Ridley Scott prequels tried new things and had deeper ideas. Álvarez does try some new ideas in A:R (and those are some of the best moments in the film), but too sparingly. Instead, we get multiple scenes recreated (and somewhat subverted, so that they maybe feel newish)—and lines of dialogue directly (and poorly) ripped—from both Alien (1979) (review) and Aliens (1986) (review). It all feels really Marvel/Disney wink-winky and it's simply not my thing.

The new characters are...fine. Nobody stood out to me in any particular way. I also couldn't understand half of the dialogue with a few of the thick accents plus the way the sound was mixed. There are a lot of poorly executed exposition dumps and story plotting as well. Important points feel rushed and others not explained/explored enough. It's almost as if the filmmakers knew that none of that matters to today's audience because they just want to see people get chased and bumped off by aliens. And, make no mistake, there are some really great moments in that department on display here.

It's been documented that Álvarez opted to use practical effects for much of A:R's facehugger and xenomorph action. The problem I have with modern big budget studio pictures that use practical effects is that there is so much post-production involved it doesn't even matter. Everything ends up looking so digitized and smoothed over that the practical stuff just looks like CGI anyway. Which is a shame, because A:R looks really nice (although, again, a little too beholden to previous series entries).

All in all, Romulus is a competent and entertaining movie, albeit one that wasn't necessarily needed. It has a few dumb moments, a few great moments, and a few new ideas. It's time to reevaluate Alien 3 (1992) (the "director's cut") and Alien Resurrection (1997)—two films that I feel are unfairly shit upon while a movie like Romulus is receiving glowing reviews from franchise fans.

Fede Álvarez Feature Films Ranked

Alien Franchise Films Ranked