First Alien: Romulus Reactions Say It Plays The Franchise’s Greatest Hits

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First Alien: Romulus Reactions Say It Plays The Franchise’s Greatest Hits

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This week, the Alien franchise is celebrating its 45th anniversary by releasing Alien: Romulus. The film is a sequel to the original Alien, and takes place during the decades-long gap between that movie and James Cameron’s Aliens. The first reactions to Alien: Romulus have now arrived online; and while most of the early word is good, there are some mixed responses as well.

Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter called it the “summer’s best movie,” and teased a “crazy new direction.”

ALIEN: ROMULUS: Has all the great hallmarks of what you would expect in an Alien flick but never feels like it’s pandering to nostalgia or fan service…and even goes into a crazy new direction. Fede Alvarez & the cast just gave birth to summer’s best movie.

— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit)

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Variety’s Courtney Howard added that the film “subtly plays the greatest hits” of the franchise.

Fede Alvarez’s

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is gnarly, gripping & gorgeously bleak (everything from the story to Olivares’ cinematography to Wallfisch’s score). Innovatively delivering smart, savvy stuff, subtly playing the greatest hits. Cailee Spaeny & David Jonsson dominate. This rules!

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— Courtney Howard (@Lulamaybelle)

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IGN’s Amelia Emberwing wasn’t quite as enthusiastic, and critiqued the character development and the set pieces. But she did praise the “effective scares.”

Alien Romulus is a curious one. Effective scares, but every set piece feels like a video game level, theme park ride intro, or horror nights maze. Character work didn’t hit me at all either, and I’m an easy mark.
It’s not for me.

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— Amelia Emberwing

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The Mary Sue’s Rachel Leishman said she was “terrified” by the film, and promised a wild third act.

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is the first time I have been terrified during one of the Alien movies. Cailee Spaeny’s Rain is a perfect character to follow on this journey and through Fede Álvarez’s twists and turns, you never really know where Romulus is headed. The 3rd act is truly WILD. I dig…

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— Rachel Leishman (@RachelLeishman)

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Critic Isaac Feldberg appreciated the performance of Cailee Spaeny, but he was otherwise not a fan of the new film. He even said he preferred Ridley Scott’s most recent entrees in the franchise over Alien: Romulus.

ALIEN: ROMULUS is slick, efficient, and dispiritingly lifeless, emptying a familiar aesthetic of the freaky, psychosexual substance that made it iconic. Spaeny sells her Ripley stand-in, but would take more of Sir Ridley’s messy grappling with godhood over his cover band any day.

— Isaac Feldberg (@isaacfeldberg)

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Slash Film’s Matt Donato had a more middle-of-the-road take on the film. He noted that it’s “never on the level” of director Fede Alvarez’s 2013 remake of Evil *****.

ALIEN: ROMULUS is another successful franchise “takeover” for Fede Alvarez, although the story feels a bit rigid in its franchise tie-ins. Happy to see Fede go horror-forward, there are tense as heck Xeno/Facehugger scenes, but it’s never on the level of his EVIL *****. It’s fine?

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— Matt Donato (@DoNatoBomb)

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Inverse’s Hoai-Tran Bui echoes the earlier sentiment that the film plays “like a greatest hits of the Alien franchise.” But Bui also praised the jump scares and “a delightfully disgusting third act twist.”

ALIEN: ROMULUS plays like a greatest hits of the ALIEN franchise, for better and for worse. But it’s solidly constructed, full of well-placed jump scares, with a delightfully disgusting third act twist. I liked it!

— Hoai-Tran Bui (@htranbui)

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Reporter and author Max Evry noted the film references more than just the first two Alien flicks.

Maestro

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made an ALIEN movie that is both chock-o-block with new lore & wall-to-wall memberberries. Not just a tribute to the first two, but a franchise-binding entry with elements of all 6 previous flicks. Some all-time banger set pieces!

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is big big fun.

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— Max Evry (@maxevry)

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Alien: Romulus will hit theaters on Friday, August 16.