Alien: Too A Hyperbole Free Review
Alien: Romulus is a chronological sequel to Ridley Scott's original sci-fi horror movie, Alien. It takes place in the Alien timeline between Alien and Aliens. The film could as easily been called Alien 2 or Alien: Red as it was called Romulus. Romulus, we learn is, in addition to being a cool-sounding word, is also one of two sections of a derelict spacecraft where most of the film's action occurs. For the remainder of this review, I will refer to the movie as Alien: Too.
Alien: Too continues the tradition of Ripley by featuring a female lead named Rain. Rain is an orphan living on a mining colony with her "brother" Andy, a synthetic human programmed by her father to care for Rain. Rain discovers her contract has been extended when she was supposed to be able to leave. Obviously distraught, Rain seeks comfort from her friends and ex-boyfriend, who conveniently have a plan to steal a ship and head to the aforementioned derelict spacecraft to retrieve cryotubes so they can go to a new planet nine years away.
I bet you can guess where this is going.
The beginning of Alien: Too looks remarkably like a mix of the look of Alien and Alien 3, set against a Fede Alvarez (director) backdrop. Once they hit the ship and the action quickly ramps up, the red aesthetic kicks in. It all looks great. A little dark, but i think that may have been my theater's projection.
There's not a whole lot of need to go into the rest of the plot. There are facehuggers aboard and soon one of the group i face hugged. A Xenomorph chest bursts and chaos ensues. Plotwise its more like the original movie. A small group of prey in a confined area is menaced by Xenomorphs. Yes, there are lots of them. I was a little unclear how since there was just one person infected. There was scene where i guess one was in a mouse maybe? I dunno. It's fine, because eventually, we see Rain shooting the fuck out of Xenomorphs in low gravity and it's cool. As is the aftermath which includes floating acid blood.
Alvarez modernizes and Alvarez's the heck out of Alien: Too. The gore is amped up, and there are plenty of the director's signature scenes and screams. There is also plenty hat tips and head nods of fan service. There are plenty of recreated scenes from Alien and Aliens, including a tad cringe-worthy recycling of a line from Aliens. The movie even tries to legitimize the Prometheus movies with a plot point from those movies prominently featured.
All in all, Alien: Too is a fine entry in the series, much better than the Prometheus movies and not as good as the first two. I had fun visiting this world and seeing Alvarez's work without having to have nightmares from watching Evil Dead. Ultimately, the movie is remarkably unnecessary but it is fun, tense, and competently made.
