Review: Alien: Romulus

Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios.

The "Alien" movies are similar to the "Terminator" movies - they were great early on and there's been an occasional winner over the years, but the sequels to these series have mostly been just OK. "Alien: Romulus" is the latest in the just-OK category; the first two "Alien" movies were great and 2012's "Prometheus" is the one film in the series since that has made an impact.

The film is directed by Fede Alvarez, whose "Don't Breathe" was good enough but whose "Evil Dead" remake I found to be tiresome. I'll give him some credit: "Romulus" has some standout imagery, especially in early scenes that the film's cast spends on a planet that fits in with the visual style of the early films. For a movie this dark and often dank, it looks pretty good.

Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny, of "Civil War") believes that she has met her working quota on a mining planet, only to have the goalposts moved significantly. When she and her synthetic Andy (David Jonsson), who is more like a brother, catch wind of a plan to raid an abandoned space station floating above the planet, steal its cryo-pods, and take off for places unknown, the temptation is too great to pass up.

The crew includes a handsome leader (Archie Reynaux), his sister (Isabela Merced), his unpleasant cousin (Spike Fearn), and another young woman (Aileen Wu). Once aboard the abandoned ship, something seems off, and the discovery of a nearly destroyed synthetic makes the crew realize that they should not have boarded this space station.

"Romulus" is filled with fan-service callbacks, some of which are welcome, while others not so much. There's a digitally recreated former crew member of a previous "Alien" movie whose presence is, well, a bit strange, while the abandoned ship might seem familiar to fans of the series. Not one - but two - characters have aliens burst out of them, although in different spots. The most groan-inducing callback is a famous line from a previous "Alien" movie delivered somewhat haltingly. 

For the most part, "Romulus" plays by the numbers and, while it does so, it works well enough. I'll give credit where it's due to Alvarez for the finale, which is not something I would have had on my bingo card, for the chutzpah involved. However, I wouldn't say the surprise in the film's final 15 minutes exactly works. Outlandish, yes; effective, well, your mileage may vary.

Ultimately, this eighth (assuming you're counting the execrable "Alien vs. Predator") film in the series does little to move it forward but rather mostly plays like a variation on the hits. At times, this works well enough in its favor, but "Romulus" ends up being just another average entry in a long-running franchise.