Alien: Romulus is brilliantly made sci-fi that jumps the shark

The first two Alien movies are two of the best films ever made.

They are pioneers of the sci-fi horror and action genre and have inspired countless other filmmakers. The issue with the Alien franchise is that since 1986 (the release of Aliens), the franchise has failed to recapture the magic that made the first two so scary and fun!

Alien 3 insulted fans after the highs of Aliens, Alien: Resurrection was a parody of its predecessors and Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, while interesting, focus too much vague philosophy over substance.

So when the first trailer for Alien: Romulus dropped and it showed the franchise going back to its claustrophobic horror roots, I was locked in (insert Futurama shut up and take my money gif).

For the most part, Alien: Romulus gave me exactly what I wanted. Fun scares, awesome horror visuals, a banging soundtrack and brilliant leading performances by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson.

Unfortunately, a couple of late decisions that look to tie this film with the two prequels, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, really left a sour taste in my mouth.

Romulus is set between the original two films. It follows newcomer Rain (Cailee Spaney) and her android brother Andy (David Jonsson), who are stuck on a mining planet light years away from the next habitable colony. After being denied leave, Rain is called by her friends, who have a plan to leave the mining planet by travelling to a low-orbit space station, picking up cryo chambers that will make their nine-year journey to the next colony feel like a night’s sleep.

This is an Alien movie, however, and once they board the space station, they slowly uncover that it is housing a laboratory conducting experiments on ‘the universe’s perfect organism’, the famous Xenomorph.

Reading that, it’s very simple, and it’s the simple stuff that this film does brilliantly.

From the get-go, this movie is grimy and dirty. The world feels lived in and the characters are clearly exhausted with the hand that life has dealt to them.

The setting of an abandoned space station is also quite clever. I feel some of the newer feels pushed too far in their locales and it takes from the confined horror that made the first two so genre-defining.

The CGI and special effects are also top-notch, aside from some noticeable de-aging that I won’t specify for spoiler’s sake. The set pieces and the locations are fun to watch and 1970s-looking props give off a feeling of retrofuturism.

Now, that’s a lot of praise. Fundamentally, this film is incredible and, in my opinion, one of the best-made and best-looking of the year. The people who worked on the props, special effects and the cinematography need to be applauded. Unfortunately, it’s the writing department that wastes the natural tension the movie naturally gives off.

Without going into spoilers, there’s one plot thread in particular that ties the original 1979 Alien with newer prequels that really frustrated me.

If it remained as a side plot, it wouldn’t have been such an issue but to the film’s detriment, it becomes the only plotline of the third and final act. The result is so silly that even for a movie about killer aliens, it somehow jumps the shark and begs for suspension of disbelief.

This left me really disappointed. The time spent learning about the central characters and their motivations, the extended takes expanding the world, and the claustrophobic tension built naturally by the incredible production was thrown into the void of space for a really cheap connection to movies that aren’t as good.

Alien: Romulus had almost everything going for it. Up until the final act, I thought it was going to be the third-best Alien movie, right behind the first two. Unfortunately, incredible lead performances, including a career-defining turn for Cailee Spaney, fantastic production and top-notch cinematography, can’t prevent dumb story decisions from making the film feel goofy.

If you love the Alien films, there is still a lot of fun to be had here; just don’t expect the complete return to form that trailers or interviews may have you believe.

Alien: Romulus is now showing in cinemas across the country.