This week, the Alien franchise is celebrating its 45th anniversary by releasing Alien: Romulus. The film is a sequel to the original Alien, and takes place during the decades-long gap between that movie and James Cameron’s Aliens. The first reactions to Alien: Romulus have now arrived online; and while most of the early word is good, there are some mixed responses as well.
Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter called it the “summer’s best movie,” and teased a “crazy new direction.”
ALIEN: ROMULUS: Has all the great hallmarks of what you would expect in an Alien flick but never feels like it’s pandering to nostalgia or fan service…and even goes into a crazy new direction. Fede Alvarez & the cast just gave birth to summer’s best movie.
— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) August 13, 2024
Variety’s Courtney Howard added that the film “subtly plays the greatest hits” of the franchise.
Fede Alvarez’s #AlienRomulus is gnarly, gripping & gorgeously bleak (everything from the story to Olivares’ cinematography to Wallfisch’s score). Innovatively delivering smart, savvy stuff, subtly playing the greatest hits. Cailee Spaeny & David Jonsson dominate. This rules! pic.twitter.com/kEuDZku2Oz
— Courtney Howard (@Lulamaybelle) August 13, 2024
IGN’s Amelia Emberwing wasn’t quite as enthusiastic, and critiqued the character development and the set pieces. But she did praise the “effective scares.”
Alien Romulus is a curious one. Effective scares, but every set piece feels like a video game level, theme park ride intro, or horror nights maze. Character work didn’t hit me at all either, and I’m an easy mark.
It’s not for me. pic.twitter.com/kRayfGuoR4— Amelia Emberwing 🔪💋 (@ThatWitchMia) August 13, 2024
The Mary Sue’s Rachel Leishman said she was “terrified” by the film, and promised a wild third act.
#AlienRomulus is the first time I have been terrified during one of the Alien movies. Cailee Spaeny’s Rain is a perfect character to follow on this journey and through Fede Álvarez’s twists and turns, you never really know where Romulus is headed. The 3rd act is truly WILD. I dig… pic.twitter.com/vEaiz5966B
— Rachel Leishman (@RachelLeishman) August 13, 2024
Critic Isaac Feldberg appreciated the performance of Cailee Spaeny, but he was otherwise not a fan of the new film. He even said he preferred Ridley Scott’s most recent entrees in the franchise over Alien: Romulus.
ALIEN: ROMULUS is slick, efficient, and dispiritingly lifeless, emptying a familiar aesthetic of the freaky, psychosexual substance that made it iconic. Spaeny sells her Ripley stand-in, but would take more of Sir Ridley’s messy grappling with godhood over his cover band any day.
— Isaac Feldberg (@isaacfeldberg) August 13, 2024
Slash Film’s Matt Donato had a more middle-of-the-road take on the film. He noted that it’s “never on the level” of director Fede Alvarez’s 2013 remake of Evil Dead.
ALIEN: ROMULUS is another successful franchise “takeover” for Fede Alvarez, although the story feels a bit rigid in its franchise tie-ins. Happy to see Fede go horror-forward, there are tense as heck Xeno/Facehugger scenes, but it’s never on the level of his EVIL DEAD. It’s fine? pic.twitter.com/z0w4Yb4ixU
— Matt Donato (@DoNatoBomb) August 13, 2024
Inverse’s Hoai-Tran Bui echoes the earlier sentiment that the film plays “like a greatest hits of the Alien franchise.” But Bui also praised the jump scares and “a delightfully disgusting third act twist.”
ALIEN: ROMULUS plays like a greatest hits of the ALIEN franchise, for better and for worse. But it’s solidly constructed, full of well-placed jump scares, with a delightfully disgusting third act twist. I liked it!
— Hoai-Tran Bui (@htranbui) August 13, 2024
Reporter and author Max Evry noted the film references more than just the first two Alien flicks.
Maestro @fedalvar made an ALIEN movie that is both chock-o-block with new lore & wall-to-wall memberberries. Not just a tribute to the first two, but a franchise-binding entry with elements of all 6 previous flicks. Some all-time banger set pieces! #AlienRomulus is big big fun. pic.twitter.com/RkREXPEtDl
— Max Evry (@maxevry) August 13, 2024
Alien: Romulus will hit theaters on Friday, August 16.
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