Alien: Romulus Parent Guide

Life in a mining colony is brutal, and Rain (Cailee Spaeny) is desperate to get out of Jackson’s Star. Along with a damaged synthetic person named Andy (David Jonsson) that her father repaired for her, and her ex-boyfriend Tyler’s (Archie Renaux) gang, she gets involved in a plan to escape.

It’s too far to another colony to make it without cryostasis, but Romulus, a damaged Weyland-Yutani research station, is falling into Jackson’s Star’s planetary rings. If they can get up there and salvage the cryostasis pods before that happens, then they’ll be able to turn their backs on the colony forever. Unbeknownst to them, this station was involved in a salvage operation of its own. Before it went dark, Romulus was pulling parts of an old cargo hauler: The Nostromo. And whatever they pulled out of the debris is still aboard, just waiting for Rain and her friends….

After the soporific rehash of an old Star Trek TNG episode that was Alien: Covenant, I was expecting this to be another two hours of unwanted exposition. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when this movie was not staggeringly dull. Even better – dare I say it – it’s kind of good? Almost, anyway. Its biggest flaw is hewing a little too closely to the original films. There are some references that don’t fit naturally, and some shamelessly recreated scenes which likewise stand out from the rest of the film.

Otherwise, Alien: Romulus is a fun, if familiar, entry in the long-running Alien franchise. The return to the claustrophobia of a single ship is a huge boost, and the ticking-clock nature of the plot keeps the tension up. It’s not the scariest movie, truth be told, both because we’ve seen just about everything a xenomorph can do at this point, and because, if you’ve seen any of the other films, you know pretty much exactly how things are going to shake out. But if you can look past the predictability, the film sometimes manages to recapture some the dark, hunted feeling that made the first film so compelling.

This production isn’t a great choice for younger viewers, assuming you’re not trying to give your kids shrieking nightmares for months. Horror elements aside, there’s rather a lot of gore – hard to avoid when your titular critter reproduces by exploding through people’s ribcages. Then there’s the strange biomechanical sexuality baked into the aesthetic of the aliens, an enduring influence of original artist H.R. Giger. There isn’t anything explicitly sexual in the film, but it’s hard to miss in the visual design.

The legacy of Alien has varied from the highs of Alien and Aliens, down to the desperate trench dug by bombs like Alien: Resurrection and, even worse, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. Alien: Romulus is a strong return to form, and while it doesn’t quite reach the standard of Aliens, it comes much closer than any other installment. I had a good time, anyway, and that doesn’t happen too often.