'Alien: Romulus' is a wild ride and a return to form!

Director Fede Álvarez helms “Alien: Romulus”, the latest film in the “Alien” franchise that serves as an interquel, being both a sequel to “Alien” and a prequel to “Aliens”. The movie stars Cailee Spaeny as Rain, a young space colonist trying desperately to seek a new life for both herself and her “brother” Andy (David Jonsson), a synthetic who was tasked to take care of Rain after her parents died.

She is soon contacted by an old boyfriend named Tyler (Archie Renaux) who is also looking for a way off of their mining colony, Jackson’s Star. Tyler, his sister Kay (Isabela Merced), their cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and their pilot friend Navarro (Aileen Wu) want to infiltrate a derelict space station in order to gain access to some cryo containers so they can escape Jackson’s Star for another fully terraformed colony that is light years away.

The reason they need Rain and Andy is due to the fact that Andy is a reprogrammed Weyland-Yutani synthetic and he’ll have access to certain areas of the station. Rain agrees after her contract, supposedly fulfilled, is unceremoniously extended by the Company. Of course, when they get onboard they end up disturbing something sinister in the guise of facehuggers and Xenomorphs!

The Xenomorph is back in all its gory glory in 'Alien: Romulus'!

Now, the movie does start off kind of quiet. The first half hour is a bit of a slow burn as we learn of Rain and her friends’ predicament and motivations for wanting to raid the ship. However, don’t worry because by the time you reach the third act, this shit definitely has nuts in it!

The first thing of note are the special-effects. Now, for the aliens and the sets onboard the space station, everything is mostly practical and you can feel it. That’s not to say that the movie doesn’t have CGI effects. It most definitely does, but Álvarez only uses CGI when necessary and when he does, it’s gorgeous.

The movie also has more references to multiple films in the series and not just the first one, though the tone and aesthetic are most definitely based on producer Ridley Scott’s original classic. I was surprised to hear references to some movies, but I’m not going to spoil them here.

Cailee Spaeny plays Rain in 'Alien: Romulus'!

The good news is that if you’re not well versed in previous movies in the series, don’t worry. The movie provides you with enough information that you won’t be lost and you’ll be able to comprehend the movie all on its own. Knowing the franchise and recognizing the various easter eggs is just an added bonus for those who have stuck with this film series since the original.

Once again, composer Benjamin Wallfisch nails it with his score. The score has a lot of familiar beats from “Alien” while also adding an epic flair in order to accommodate the second half of the movie. This is especially true of the third act.

Now, I’m not going to spoil anything about the third act but to just reinforce what I’ve already heard a lot of people say about the movie. The third act goes straight for the jugular and it never lets go! There… that’s all I can say without getting too spoilery at this moment.

David Jonsson is Andy in 'Alien: Romulus'!

Finally, there are the performances. Cailee Spaeny is great as Rain, though to be fair, she is most definitely molded to be the Ripley of this movie. That’s one of the things I’ve noticed about this series. It seems they always feel the need for a Ripley-esque character, but thankfully Spaeny is more than up to the challenge.

The truly great performance of the movie goes to Jonsson as Andy, a simple-minded synthetic with dad jokes to spare as he is meant to be Rain’s guardian. Yet, throughout the movie, he has to go through a couple of twists that turn his performance into a balancing act of sorts and Jonsson is more than up to the task. I hope his performance here is recognized and we see a lot more of Jonsson in the future.

So, where does this movie rank in the series? Well, I’m a huge fan of “Alien” and “Aliens”, so I can’t quite say that this movie exceeds them, but I can say that it gets damn near close. This is a movie that lives up to the legacy of those first two movies and it even honors a couple of the other entries into the series.

The one thing that is certain is that this is a bonafide horror blockbuster that is worth your time and money. If there are any other entries after this one, which there likely will be, I hope they live up to this worthy entry that is a true return to form for the franchise!