Alien: Romulus

'Alien: Romulus' is actually very good. Of the more modern day releases from this franchise, this is the one I've enjoyed the most. When I was immediately coming out of the cinema I was just plainly thinking of it as being solidly good, however the more I think about it the more I had fun with this seventh installment. The plot, or at least the set-up to it, is quite uncreative, as in I feel like so many films - from this series included - have a crew make-up of similar people and similar characteristics/motivations; 'Crater' and 'I.S.S.' (both very good, don't get me wrong) are recent examples that spring to mind. Happily, though, the rest of the flick makes up for any weakness in that area. Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson are the great performers in this, I found them both to be excellent throughout. Two actors I want to see much more of, having already seen them in a few pleasing pictures; e.g. 'Civil War' and 'Rye Lane'. I also liked the sound design and even the jump scares, which I'm not usually a fan of (bit lazy etc.) but there is enough about how they do them here that it works. Those facehuggers remain brilliantly effective, though the xenomorph isn't amazingly utilised - the human version didn't hit for me, felt 'I Am Legend'-esque. All in all, it's up there as one of my favourites from the franchise. For me, 'Alien' and 'Aliens' just narrowly better this, though it's a marginal improvement on (the entertaining) 'Alien Resurrection' and it surpasses every other release, in my eyes.

I gather director Fede Alvarez made a conscious - and probably expensive - decision to keep the use of CGI to a minimum here and it really does work. "Rain" (Cailee Spaeny) and her "brother" are looking to get off-planet but she can't get travel papers from the all-powerful mining company. Desperate, she and "Andy" (David Jonsson) are offered a chance by wide boys "Tyler" (Archie Renaux) and "Bjorn" (Spike Fearn) to raid a decrepit old spacecraft that appears to be in a decaying orbit, so they can pinch it's cryogenic pods and enable them all to escape to another planet out of reach of their enthralling taskmasters. Off they set onto the "Romulus" and that's where, well you just know what's going to happen now, as they inadvertently turn the central heating on and find themselves in mortal danger. "Andy" just happens to be a synthetic, which proves especially useful when they discover the remains of "Rook" (the spitting image of the late Sir Ian Holm) but is this oozing mess of gunge and wiring actually an help or an hindrance? Getting off is going to be a lot harder than getting on! To be honest, the acting here is really neither here nor there. Renaux and Isabella Merced - their cohort "Kay" do enough, Fearn rather over-plays his chip-on-the-shoulder character and there's a slightly soporific effort from Jonsson, but that's not what I was watching for. This is all about the best monsters sci-fi cinema has ever created, and right from their first appearance I was in their corner. There's loads of darkly shot menace crammed into the two hours with plenty of references to it's originator and even more insinuations about the greed of a "company" that doesn't know when to leave well alone. Just like the other "Alien" films, it takes a Russian Doll approach to the ending, so don't think we're going to get off with just the one, definitive, "get away from her..." moment, and of course the lift plays a pivotal part in the proceedings as acid blood drips everywhere. It's not so good as the first two Sigourney Weaver outings, but slips neatly into bronze medal position for me in a series that can still prove quite compellingly scary. It's a cinema must - telly just won't do the lighting and photography justice at all.

Whilst not as awful as the Aliens franchise films that came after the excellent first and second films, starring Sigourney Weaver, Alien Romulus is not without its shortcomings. Whats immediately noticeable, in spite of the rugged, industrial setting, is a cast that look like they just escaped from the set of Beverly Hills 90210. Youthful, fresh faced, physically unimposing, with not a grease stain or blemish in sight, they feel badly out of place. If you can put the sense of disbelief regarding the casting aside (I couldn't) the actual story fares only marginally better. It feels like a borrowed affair, where its taken aspects of the first two successful films and tried to craft a newer iteration. The results an alright, if at times, somewhat ridiculous story, punctuated by moments of compelling action. That said, haven't we seen it all before, in one form or another? In summary, miscasting combined with a story that blandly apes superior earlier films, leads to an "okay" watch that's fails to distinguish itself.If you are new to this franchise, my advice start with Alien from 1979 and then its plural successor Aliens, instead.