Alien: Romulus - 9.5/10
The only thing I didn’t love/thoroughly enjoy was a very shoehorned in callback to Ripley’s line from Aliens. You know the one.
Aside from that, this movie is frightening, tense, refreshingly creative, and a real tour de force for some up and coming actors. The actor that plays Andy, a malfunctioning android coded like an individual with special needs, was especially compelling and fantastic. I loved him from the first few minutes, and after a certain point in the film, he turns on a dime and delivers an absolutely phenomenal performance on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. The entire cast does a great job, namely main character Rain, but I felt Andy blew them all out of the water. A combination of great writing and a fantastic performance gave me the first horror movie character in awhile that I actually cared about.
It’s hard to say more without spoilers, but this movie was heavily disturbing and had some seriously eerie or frightening imagery, especially at the very end. Death scenes are brutal. The most graphic for me was a character falling victim to the Xenomorph’s trademark blood. We’ve seen it before in Aliens, but here you see entire appendages dissolve in graphic detail, and it does not hold back.
Tension is done masterfully here. There was a scene that had me on the edge of my seat, and it was a wonderful use of the woefully underutilized Facehuggers. They get a lot of time to shine here and it really felt like someone said “hey let’s do something pretty neat with these things”. There’s also further elaboration on the Xenomorph’s biology and gestation cycle, with a new “cocoon” form added to the mix that feels distinctly HR Geiger in its design. Fits in seamlessly and looks disgusting while doing it.
Speaking of looks, this thing looks GORGEOUS. Whoever did the production design nailed it. The Betamax video aesthetic, the whole grungy industrial look, that sense that everything in this universe is function over form, etc. Having been on a bit of a bender playing the 2014 Alien Isolation game, this thing feels like the set designers and costume designers played that game, watched the first two films on repeat, and then got to work. I was astonished to learn this whole thing had a budget of $80 million USD. They stretched that budget out wonderfully. Special mention should be given to the use of practical effects mixed with CGI. Things feel tangible and real, from the prototype pulse rifles (though worry not, they’re used cleverly and not just as big standard action movie fare!) to even the Xenomorph itself.
I thoroughly enjoyed the way the film managed to take elements that have been reviled in prior entries (for example, the Prometheus/Covenant bio-goo) and make them not just interesting, but downright scary. Felt like we actually used those concepts to their fullest this time around and it justified some weaker entries in the series. Resurrection in particular gets a seriously disturbing do-over and it works wonderfully here, with a late Act 3 shot sending chills down my spine.
My favorite horror movie of the year (so far). Really loving the adrenaline shots both Predator and Alien have received lately. Here’s hoping that the future of both franchises starts as strong as their latest entries.
As an aside, I feel it’s worth mentioning a specific choice made in the film. A la Tarkin from Rogue One, this film uses CGI to bring back a deceased actor. I’ve heard a great many complaints about it, and while I can see where they’re coming from, that particular choice didn’t bother me as much as others. It made sense for the movie’s time frame/setting and worked in the plot.
