It's not often these days that I buy a movie ticket to the premiere of a new movie, but I did so recently so that I could attend the first showing (last night) of the new Alien film--Alien: Romulus. I chose to watch it in ScreenX format, which simply means that the screen extends to the walls on both sides of the theater, about halfway up on each side. I wasn't impressed with this format, and interestingly enough, it 'disappeared' about a third of the way into the film. It's simply irritating and added nothing to the movie, which was very good, by the way. I give it four out of five stars. It's a non-stop roller coaster ride into an alien universe that is neither friendly nor habitable for human beings. It's simply a fight for survival by humans and aliens alike. And most of the time, the aliens win.
The film takes us back to what made the original Alien films (Alien from 1979 and Aliens from 1986) so good. Those films were sci-fi horror at its best. The original Alien film was marketed with the tagline 'In space, no one can hear you scream'. The new film pays homage to these films while finding new ground; the xenomorph monsters in this film are essentially the same as in the original films (with one exception)--murderous and bent on survival at all costs, with corrosive acid for blood and the ability to prey on humans for food and for reproduction. They have a multi-stage life cycle, exhibit hive-like characteristics in terms of how they develop and live, and are fairly intelligent. In short, you don't want to mess with them. But the humans in all these films have no other choice, usually at their peril.
The overall story is simple enough; a group of young people leave the slave-like working conditions on the perpetually dark planet they live on (Weyland-Yutani's Jackson’s Star mining colony) for a better life on the planet Yvaga III where the sun shines. In order to accomplish this, they need cryosleep chambers that will make the nine-year trip possible. They end up stealing these from a decommissioned space station that was actually a research station, now deserted, that was studying the aliens. Of course we know that this space station is not deserted, but rather inhabited by the xenomorphs, who have killed all the humans on board. I won't divulge the last part of the film or the ending, but suffice it to say that the director, Fede Alvarez, has done a great job of providing non-stop action and scares. The ending didn't really open for a sequel as far as I could determine, which is probably just as well. This film stands on its own as one of the best new entries into the repertoire of Alien films.
