Alien: Romulus: Movie Review 

Cast: Cailee Spaeny, David Johnson, Isabela Merced 

Director: Fede Alvarez  

Mixing extreme fan service and Don't Breathe director Alvarez's penchant for horror, the latest Alien outing (the ninth in the franchise) tries to mix things up. 

Set in between Alien and Aliens after the crew of the Nostromo discovered the Xenomorph, Alien: Romulus pits a young crew of would-be escapees from the grips of the Weyland Yutani mining corporation. 

But stumbling headfirst into a get-rich-quick scheme on a seemingly abandoned space station, the group soon finds themselves in a desperate fight for survival - both from the Alien creature and the company's machinations. 

Alien: Romulus succeeds in ratcheting up tension thanks to a combination of a slow build first 40 minutes and a sparse soundtrack, before unleashing the familiar chest-bursting, alien screaming, acid killing spree that usually accompanies these films. 

Extremely reminiscent of the franchise so far, Alvarez's penchant for pithy jump scares and Easter eggs permeates much of the proceedings of the film, despite the actual film feeling in large parts like an extension of the 2014 computer game Alien: Isolation and its space station setting. 

But if the nods to the past become obvious in the final stretch, which houses scenes directly replicating key moments and crowd-pleasing language from the original films, non-fans won't really notice the difference as most of the reference points feel organic rather than gratuitously shoehorned in. 

Perhaps more successful is Alvarez's world-building. 

From practical sets that echo the original 1970s look of Alien to a clever use of silence throughout the film, the atmospheric mood of Alien: Romulus is the most successful part of the movie. 

The grime on the ground and the seemingly corroded and corrupted look of the space station and its corridors all ring true throughout. 

 Equally, whilst it's only a team of six core actors (as well as one person cleverly hidden from trailers), there are some stand-outs among the Alien-killing fodder. (Though it has to be said some of them feel so broadly written that it's hard to care when they're dispatched.) 

 Civil War's Cailee Spaeny and Industry's David Johnson are excellent as a brother and sister who hold the key to the group's chance to escape. 

The latter (for reasons too spoilery to discuss in reviews) manages to do something different with the character he plays - and is more than impressive and expressive throughout. Spaeny has Sigourney Weaver levels of pluck and brains throughout (something Alvarez is keen to exploit in sequences where she actually looks like a young Ripley, right down to the clothing) - but despite a reverence to the original character, she manages to bring something different to the role, even if the script and ambition does not. 

 However, while a messy final third act plays a little too fast and loose when taking an almighty narrative and mythology swing, there are some visual pleasures that impress - particularly a zero gravity attempted escape. 

 Perhaps that's some of the rub with Alien: Romulus - it manages to embrace its past and exploit the franchise for good measure, rejuvenating it as a greatest hits for a new generation. 

But for true fans of the Alien franchise which has endured nearly 50 years' worth of terror, it's impressive yet it doesn't quite feel like the kickstart of a new terror that may last another 50 years.