Critics reviews

The taut set pieces are so dynamic, the tension so stickily uncomfortable, the sound design so jarring and full of screaming metal, that you barely notice that the connective tissue between the action scenes strains to hold them together (and certainly doesn’t stand up to in-depth scrutiny).

[Alien: Romulus] is perfectly adequate filler... Despite some minor differences in the characters’ personalities, their most distinguishing aspect is how — and how fast — each of them dies. That’s too bad, and it’s boring.

This is a film that understands the appeal of the original two, and summons the same mysterious, magisterial, mythical mood; H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph, when it finally arrives, is filmed with reverence and awe.

What’s so frustrating about Alien: Romulus is that it never manages to really say anything... While incredible practical gore effects and stunning set pieces make Álvarez’s installment well worth watching, it’s as void of meaning as space itself.

Romulus [is] a movie engineered mostly to provide some basic genre thrills and keep the IP alive... [It] is diverting enough, but it’s also instantly forgettable — something I don’t think I’ve ever said about any other Alien film, good or bad.

Major props to Fede Álvarez for cooking up something fresh in this furiously exciting, gnarly seventh entry... Álvarez is a straight-up horror filmmaker and he’s a perfect pick for the job, pulling off satisfying jumps, ingenious zero gravity sequences, and camera moves that come at the dead-meats-vs-monsters action from entirely new directions.

While “Alien: Romulus” takes a little time to really find its feet, once it does, it’s on... Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues do to pull the strings of the franchise together in a way that honors “Alien,” specifically, is innovative and very effective.

“Alien: Romulus” occupies a strange position: It’s lovingly aimed at fans who have seen its Carter-era predecessor 15 times, yet it’s unlikely to scare anyone except those who are new to the “Alien” shtick.

One could argue that “Alien” movies are like pizza — they’re good even when they’re not so great — and aside from a few head-scratching choices that will no doubt inspire reams of think pieces, “Alien: Romulus,” with its thrilling tactility and appealingly plucky cast, is a very enjoyable pie.

“Alien: Romulus” was billed as a back-to-basics reboot, and to its credit, it’s a no-frills, straight-up genre piece built largely on the bones of the first two movies. All that’s missing are originality and a convincing final act, and, honestly, you could do worse for a Saturday night eek-a-thon.

[Romulus] is handsomely mounted and propulsively grim... If it hadn’t had someone of Álvarez’s care and attention at the helm, [the film] could certainly have been a lot worse. One does wonder, though, how many more times we can watch this same chain of events play out.

The film’s refusal to abandon its past — or even to kill it if it has to — personifies the worst instincts of Hollywood’s approach to IP. That it does so with a damning hint of self-awareness, and the implicit admission that it’s a bad idea to the exclusive benefit of corporate interests, is a curious wrinkle, but not curious enough for “Romulus” to get away with having its cake and eating it too.