Alien: Romulus — Ripley’s Essence is Hella Missed

Photo by Mikita Yo on Unsplash

I went to the movies again this Sunday, this time trooping forward to enjoy a Sci-fi action movie from a much-beloved and favorite franchise.

Which franchise you might wonder?

The latest addition to Alien, Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Aileen Wu, David Jonsson, Spike Fearn, and Daniel Betts. When space colonizers decide to go visit the derelict Space Station where both Romulus and Remus sections exist, and it is here that they encounter what is considered one of the most dangerous and successful apex predators in extraterrestrial existence. This catapults the movie into an instant disorder situation where none of the cast has any clue what has occurred on the substation nor any idea what might still be there banking on the characters’ ignorance to unleash what will be their ultimate undoing.

As I am sure we all know, Ridley Scott’s Alien Franchise has existed in continuation for so long because it was such a good concept from film one, and a lot of that rested on the character of Ellen Ripley as portrayed by Sigourney Weaver.

Ripley’s character is considerate, driven, loyal, honorable, strong, intelligent, and completely badass. In a role that showed how a brilliant woman with an interest in helping not only herself but her entire team, everyone came to love Ripley, and her commitment to fighting the Xenomorphs and the station AI, Rook, is what made this such a great box office smash and a cult classic that remains a fan-favorite after forty-five years.

Clearly, as a fan of the franchise I’ve always loved that aspect of the story and seeing how other similarly strong and driven characters would help their team succeed when faced with an apex predator like the Xenomorph. I was thrilled when I saw the first trailer and instantly added it to my Must-See Movies List for 2024. Then I waited several weeks for it to finally premiere and hoped I might even snag the Romulus popcorn bucket, but alas, no such luck. They were sold out well before the movie even premiered according to what I was told at the the theater today. Still, hopeful that the movie would be fun and excited to see it, I went in happy and ready for some science fiction horror and badass action sequences.

I had high expectations for this movie and I was super stoked to see it. The action sequences are pretty good, and as usual, the Xenomorphs are badass and calculated with their tactics and approach but when you are a fan of something like Alien and Ripley for the perspective of a brilliantly intelligent and badass female character you tend to want to see that continued in a franchise.

Unfortunately, none of the human characters in this movie were even remotely likable to me. They all held deeply regrettable flaws and were selfish, egotistical, and ignorant which made them excruciatingly hard to root for — and that includes the final girl, Rain Carridine.

The saving grace is Andy, who happens to be an AI which may be a bit of a spoiler but nevertheless the perspectives his character brings and the moral dilemmas he makes you think about in consideration of the human characters are crucial to the storyline.

One aspect of things is a bit predictable, but I will keep that vague on purpose and say that hybridism is a strong theme here for sure.

All in all, a mixed bag because it was well-written, well-filmed, and had some good actors who I really like such as Archie Renaux but the final girl lacked substance, was too weak, and was manipulative and borderline foul as a person.

I give it a solid ⅗ stars. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️