Alien: Romulus

The Alien franchise has lasted quite a long time thanks to multiple continuations, but (much like many film franchises) very few of these follow-ups have managed to recapture the magic that made them beloved in the first place. Ever since its creation in 1979 with the original film directed by Ridley Scott, Alien as a brand stands as an iconic and impactful film for the genre of science fiction, yet outside of its incredibly successful sequel in 1986, Aliens, directed by James Cameron, none of the later sequels, spin-offs or reboots have managed to win people back in a meaningful way. While Prometheus has its fans, the 2014 video game, Alien: Isolation brought horror back to the series in a splendid fashion, and the 2025 FX series, Alien: Earth did garner some interest, it’s safe to say the brand isn’t what it once was, but the most recent cinematic entry, Alien: Romulus, made people think a second coming was on the horizon for the franchise.

Set in a period between Alien and Aliens, an orphan named Rain Carradine (played by Cailee Spaeney) lives on the space colony of Jackson’s Star and is unable to secure travel permits to another planet due to the rigid and authoritative stance of the Weyland-Yutani corporation occupying the planet. With her only family being her adopted synthetic brother, Andy (played by David Jonsson), Rain may find the salvation she needs in the form of her ex-boyfriend, Tyler (played by Archie Renaux) who along with some friends, are planning to retrieve some cryostasis chambers left behind on an abandoned derelict spacecraft drifting in the planet’s orbit in order to successfully travel to the haven planet of Yvaga. Although reluctant at first, both Rain and Andy accompany the group to the ship and find it ravaged to an extreme degree. Although they find what they’re looking for, they also come across a familiar extraterrestrial creature, which goes on a rampage and starts picking off these unprepared youths. With Andy’s readjusted programming causing him to act in favor of the company rather than his sister, this battle for a fresh new start will have to come after a fight for survival.

Being the first Alien film to be released since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, Alien: Romulus has become another successful property for the mouse to bank on, with solid box office results and strong critical reception from both audiences and critics. While it doesn’t shake up the franchise and feels a tad redundant of past entries, the craftmanship, atmosphere and overall quality of the product, makes it all worthwhile.

This movie was originally set to go straight-to-streaming on Hulu, but after the success of the 2022 Predator revival film, Prey, (another retro franchise which had solid beginnings, yet tanked with future releases), the confidence in this project skyrocketed. The film got a pretty decent budget of about $80 million (enough to make it more than a standard horror flick, but still not extravagant that it looks like it’s overstepping), got both Ridley Scott and James Cameron involved in the project (with both assisting during the scripting process and Scott becoming a producer), released an advertising campaign that, while still slightly uneven, got people reinvigorated in the brand due to containing a largely missed horror quality, and made the very smart decision to allow Fede Álvarez to take the reigns as director. Previously proving his abilities to tackle an old IP in an effectively modern yet respectful manner with his 2013 reimagining of Evil Dead, Álvarez has a good understanding of what works within a traditional horror film without resorting to lazy tropes and dumb jump scares, but also has a clear respect for the properties he’s attached to, because the amount of easter eggs present in this film is quite plentiful yet very few feel forceful and they work their way into the plot fairly organically.

The movie has a lot of great atmosphere thanks to stunning visuals and production design, the moments of tension and fear are played very effectively with good pacing, wonderfully raw acting and enough new sparks in done-before scenes to make them interesting and creates a mood and personality that actually feels like traditional Alien again through its simple survivalist focus and character-driven narrative. With that said, while well-tooled and led by a capable filmmaker, the film isn’t necessarily that fascinating for a fresh start and seems very repetitive of what came before. The script written by Álvarez and frequent collaborator, Rodo Sayagues, is pretty bare bones, the themes are interesting in theory but aren’t explored in a way that makes them match with the simple framework of the plot and characters, the first act is pretty dull with slower pacing and an occasional awkward line read, and while it does a great job emulating Alien and calling back to familiar scenes, ideas and visuals, this makes the experience feel like a revisiting and just ”another one on the pile” rather than its own creation that can stand on its own.

The characters are one of the key problems with the movie, not because they’re awful as the actors all do pretty decently, but because they are very one-note and only seem to exist to deliver upon expected narrative trope and die in a gruesome fashion. This would be fine in a typical horror film that focused more on the kills rather than plot and character, but it introduces some familiar but decently complicated elements halfway through involving cloning, corporate greed, programming versus desire, and other components synonymous with the franchise, especially in the later Ridley Scott films like Prometheus and Alien: Covenant (both of which aren’t very scary). Where those films failed is that it took a more analytical and thoughtful approach to a series that by design, is very proactive and emotion-driven, paying attention to personal dilemmas rather than psychological ones. In this movie, it starts off with an emotional core with the lead and her brother stuck within a traditional survivalist situation, yet the inclusion of the universe’s corporation and the consequences of their studies and experimentation completely upheaves this direction, and while handled passably, it isn’t allowed to be explored in a complex way because the writing and characters are pretty safe

Most of the supporting roles like Aileen Wu, Spike Fearn, Isabela Merced, and Archie Renaux are only around to be killed off in grotesque ways, and their acting can be a bit half-and-half depending on the scene they’re in. Even Spaeney as the lead is a little mixed, as while her performance is fine and her character isn’t unlikeable, it’s hard to say that she’s interesting, well-written or shares any strong chemistry with anybody, it’s an element that could’ve been better handled. The only character that feels a little different is Andy, as the synthetic humans have always been an interesting aspect of this world that despite frequently being used, manage to some of the more memorable characters in their respective films, and Andy is the best part of his. The way he switches from an unassuming, people-pleasing, socially awkward child-like individual to a cold, direct, mission-driven ”weapon of the company” is a simple but effective switch and David Jonsson does a fantastic job conveying both sides without ever becoming a trope of either, it’s a great showcase of his abilities.

The trailers gave a great look at how the atmosphere would be handled in this film, adopting a greasier and more feverish vibe which, alongside the dilapidated environments, would heighten the tension to such an extent that people would be on edge even before the xenomorph arrives. The glossier and chrome-esque look of the more recent Scott films weren’t done poorly, but it was a style that didn’t look scary, whereas this movie feels more natural through its harsh lighting, warmer tones of color like orange, yellow and green, and the weary production design by Naaman Marshall, which closely replicates the look of the original films but doesn’t feel lazy because of it. The cinematography by Galo Oliveras is also fantastic, capturing some truly gorgeous shots that makes everything look cinematic and expertly framed, yet never to the point that it loses its grimy, close-quarters display. It never goes full Hollywood and still captures the cerebral and elegant yet furious and appropriately ‘cold’ quality of space that these movies were always so good at capturing.

The effects are also a major reason why the film looks so good, with Álvarez specifically going out of his way to use as many practical sets, suits, and models as possible with CGI only being for extreme reasons. This mindset works so much better in the world of horror, as a digital creation is never going to scare you as well as a physical creature since it’s hard to feel afraid of something that noticeably isn’t real, but when these creatures look and feel like they’re on set with these actors, it really makes things feel more stressful and imposing. Getting most of the same effects people who worked on the original Alien films like Legacy Effects and Studio Gillis, both they and Eric Barba (the visual effects supervisor) do a great job retaining the look of the original films through how the creatures move and look. It strangely doesn’t have too many moments that could be classified as scary, but the build-up and execution of those select scenes does feel effectively intimidating.

Alien: Romulus doesn’t match Alien or Aliens in quality but is easily the best made in a while since it’s the first to capture the mood, atmosphere and tension this franchise was once known for. It can’t escape the philosophical element entirely however, as the film does contain its share of deeper themes and allegories, and due to not being deep enough to follow through with them, it doesn’t work as a whole. The references to past films and its insistence on retreading old scenes isn’t portrayed poorly, but it keeps the film from feeling like a new feather in the cap, and that’s a shame because it has solid performances, effective production value, great visuals, a decent intimidation factor, and good direction. You might not be overwhelmed by what you see (even in regard to the ending, which isn’t as crazy as many people make it out to be), but the fact that we have another good Alien film may be enough to get you to burst.