Aliens are back to kill everyone in Romulus

I’m a few days late to the party, but finally got out today to see the newest in the Alien franchise. Alien: Romulus is a sequel to the original Alien film from 1979, and takes place before its 1986 sequel Aliens. Thus, it’s great for moviegoers who’ve only seen the first film, with no deep learning curve to get into the action.

The action does come, but there’s quite a bit of setup to get there. On a mining planet 65 light years from Earth, Rain is an older teen living on her own, her only companion a synthetic human (android) named Andy. Rain’s parents died in the mine and that will be most likely be her fate one day too, so when an opportunity comes to leave the planet, she takes it. Her friends have a plan to board a derelict, drifting space station that has come into the planet’s orbit, in order to grab some cryostasis chambers. This would allow the friends to go to sleep over the journey to a better world. Unfortunately, the station is empty for a reason, and of course we all know why.

Things go wrong right away. The cryo chambers lack the power they need, and in searching for juice, the group wakes up some facehuggers. In the ensuing frenzy, the space station’s decaying orbit is accelerated, pushing it towards the rings of the planet below. Whereas they thought they had 36 hours, now they have less than 1 before the station crashes into the rings. The station’s android, Rook (another version of the Ash model in the original Alien film, thanks to computer-aided technology to bring back his face in this film) comes online and wants to continue its agenda, to get the Xenomorph’s DNA back to “the company” for further study. When the shit really starts to hit the fan and everyone starts dying, the action and thrills ramp up.

After a slow start, the movie gets going and is very exciting in the second hour. It’s downright scary at times, and *feels* more like the original Alien films than the last couple (though unlike many, I actually enjoyed Alien: Covenant). And contrary to the last movie, this one is making lots of money, so it should set the franchise back on the map. Here’s hoping. ★★★★