Fede Álvarez’s “Alien: Romulus” is in theaters right now! The film’s big standouts are Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, who lead a stellar cast including Isabela Merced, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu. CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor Sean O’Connell was able to catch an early screening, and he’s here to break down the thrilling action, shocking set pieces and why this is one of the best films of the year.
00:00Not only is Alien Romulus one of the best Alien movies ever made, it is also one of the best films I've seen this entire year.
00:07Run.
00:14Let's start with the fact that Alien Romulus threads the needle between Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens.
00:21If you know the franchise at all, you know that these are vastly different types of films, even though they are the first two movies in the franchise.
00:27Alien being this sort of slow-burn horror film, get under your skin, whereas Aliens ratchets up the action, plenty more Aliens, and a badass Sigourney Weaver performance, and you get both of those movies together in Fede Alvarez's Alien Romulus.
00:44This movie is set on the timeline in between those two films, but just tonally, the way that Fede Alvarez is able to borrow from both the chilling horror of Ridley Scott and the overblown summer blockbuster of James Cameron comes together in a perfect marriage in Romulus.
01:00Are you sure you want to do this?
01:02I want to single out the entire cast.
01:09Fede Alvarez does a really good job of introducing new characters to this story.
01:13It's kind of a standalone.
01:14You don't have to know anything that's going on in the Alien franchise up until this point, and everybody fits their role really well.
01:20It's a heist movie.
01:21It's a group of sort of ground-level workers who think that they need to steal something in order to better their lives.
01:27But part of the team is Kaylee Spaney, who I have been trumpeting all year because of her work in Civil War and just everything that she's done up until this point.
01:36I love her in Priscilla and Pacific Rim Uprising, and she's incredible in Devs.
01:41I think she's one of the best actresses working in the movies nowadays, and her partnership with David Johnson in this film is incredible.
01:48He plays a synth android, and it's their back and forth between how much they can trust each other and how much they can trust what's going on in the story that really carries this one above previous Alien franchises.
02:02And their relationship gives this something really special to add to the Alien canon, something that we haven't seen before.
02:07What do you mean there's something in the water?
02:08I don't know, there's just something in the f***ing water!
02:10Finally, I just want to call out Fetty Alvarez's filmmaking process.
02:21The set direction and the production design in this film are unbelievable.
02:25It literally looks like it was filmed on VHS tape back in the 1980s.
02:29The look is spectacular, the audio quality is great, and there are set pieces, action set pieces in this movie that blow my mind,
02:38because not only are they really shocking, not only will they have your jaw kind of hanging as you wait to see how certain things play out,
02:44but I almost can't believe this is the first time that we're seeing them in the Alien franchise, even though this is the seventh Alien film.
02:50You would think by the time you get to the seventh film in any kind of franchise that all the ideas are tired and sort of worn out,
02:56but Romulus somehow figures out a way to take the concept of people trapped in a spaceship with facehuggers and with the Alien Queen
03:04and still figure a way to sort of ratchet up that tension and make you fear for the lives of the people who are involved
03:09and wonder how they're going to get out of it.
03:11There's something involving Zero-G in this movie.
03:14There's another sequence involving a tunnel with facehuggers everywhere.
03:18I don't want to give too much of it away.
03:19Don't watch too many of the trailers.
03:21Just go into this blind to know you're going to get a rollercoaster ride.
03:24Honestly, it's one of the best films I've seen this year.
03:26You, lad.
03:28Can you manage yourself with a gun?
03:31Yes, I f***ing can.
03:34I'm giving this movie four and a half stars out of five.
03:41There is one thing in particular that's preventing it from being perfect.
03:44I can't tell you what it is.
03:45I will just say that it is a line of dialogue that when you hear it, you will roll your eyes.
03:50You'll know exactly what it is.
03:51And even if you're just a casual Aliens fan, it's going to bother you.
03:54Everything else is fantastic.
03:57And I guarantee you that Alien Romulus is going to end on my top ten movies of the year,
04:02which means I'm going to have two Caley Spaney movies on my top ten movies of the year
04:05because Civil War is up there also as well, too.
04:07Go see that and go see Alien Romulus in theaters right now.
