Alien: Romulus (2024) Review

After a few years, we have a new Alien film and though inspiration from Ridley Scott, the franchise is in new hands and we get a film that is made my new people who are passionate about the franchise. I saw Alien: Romulus yesterday and here is my review for the film. The premise of the film is set between Alien and Aliens and sees a group of young people trapped on a station with organisms that are out to get them. 

Main Character

Cailee Spaeny plays Rain and she is the main character of the film and I thought she was great here. I know very little of her work but she definitely gives a strong performance here and is a great lead character that we are meant to care about and I think that I did for sure. 

Supporting Characters

My favourite character in the film is Andy played by David Jonsson. Early on we find out that he is a synthetic and I think the film is really clever in the way that it handles his character and his role amongst the group of young people. He deserves a lot of credit for playing this pretty emotionless character and manage to make him one of the most interesting parts of the film. 

Unfortunately, the rest of the group fair a bit worse and I really didn't care about any of them. The young cast come across as annoying especially the one played by Spike Fearn who feels like he should be in a completely different film. 

There is an appearance that is a big spoiler but made the film much more interesting and I thought it added a lot to the film but yeah I can't really talk about it so you will have to see the film to find out what I am talking about. 

Story 

The story is interesting, the reason for these kids being on the station isn't that deep but when they get there, these characters encounter interesting things and there are valid and logical reasons as to why these Aliens are on the station. However, this film has a twist towards the end of the film and it just felt really weird and out of place for this film and that took me out of this pretty enjoyable experience. 

Script

The script is okay, there are some good dramatic dialogue and moments that made at least some of the characters interesting and made me care about them. However, there was a lot of weak dialogue, the build-up of the side characters and the introduction of our gang isn't handled particularly well. 

Style

The film takes stylistic choices of a mixture of Alien, Aliens & even a bit of Prometheus and I thought it really worked. The action is fast paced, but there are those slower more horror based elements and the fact that the film has both makes it more interesting. But the film does have a bit of a pacing issue and that is mainly from the first and last act that don't quite work and I wish they could have been handled differently. 

Overall

Overall, Alien: Romulus is an above average film that when it is at its best it is really good. However, there was enough that I didn't like to hold the film back from hitting the heights that I think it was capable of. I do hope that this franchise can continue but improvements will be needed for sure. 

Rating - 6/10