Alien Romulus is a worthy addition to the Alien series
Having watched the trailer and knowing how formulaic contemporary 'horror' films have been the last twenty years, I was skeptical about Alien: Romulus. Was it going to be another movie about some group of generic characters screaming every two minutes while running from some CGI entity? There are few modern horror films made in the last decade that I like.
As it turned out, Alien: Romulus is an excellent addition to the Alien series. I'd say it's definitely better than Alien: Resurrection, and maybe better than Alien 3.
There were four things in particular I liked about Alien: Romulus.
- Aesthetics: The aesthetics were totally consistent with the first Alien film which gave Alien: Romulus the feel of being the sequel to that.
- The characters: Okay, the characters were a bit one-dimensional, but they were a random group of people trying to escape a mining planet for a better future. The acting was still quite good. The guy who played Andy really stood out, to the point of probably being the central character, and he should definitely play whatever android they might have in whatever Alien film might follow.
- The creatures themselves: The spidery face-hugging creatures are a lot more scary than the main alien creatures themselves, and there are hundreds of them on the space station. The main alien isn't crappy CGI either - it looks just as solid as the alien in the 1979 movie. Oh, and there's one very messed up, genuinely scary creature in addition to the aliens we're familiar with.
- The gore: Excessive gore is usually the hallmark of a really tedious film that has nothing beyond shock value. With Alien: Romulus, it's used inteligently and sparingly ways, and in a way that's directly related to the way the creatures procreate and defend themselves.