As a long time fan of the Alien franchise, I’ve been skeptical about the upcoming Alien: Romulus movie. Its director, Fede Alvarez, has an impressive portfolio with Don’t Breathe and the 2013 Evil Dead. Nevertheless, this franchise is iconic and has had its missteps in later on sequels. I’ll also admit that looking at the cast made me think that this was going to be a little bit more of a teen version of Alien that catered to that audience only. But after watching the official trailer for this movie, I can admit that I was wrong. This movie looks good and something a longtime fan like me would enjoy. And we need to talk about the why.
First off, the atmosphere. This franchise has always had an underlying tension to it that made it so you could never relax. And right off the bat, the trailer for this movie has this tempo that gets your heart racing. The fact that they matched that tempo with a xenomorph trying to break through someone’s chest, is brilliant but also terrifying. And you see the use of music, or the absence of it, being used to set the atmosphere and the stage of it all at the end of the trailer.
There’s also the practical effects of it all. Because in Hollywood, they’ll do anything to save a buck. But those xenomorphs and facehuggers, they look practical. We even got a close up shot of the facehugger trying to implant itself on one of the characters faces. And I felt myself being grossed out because I don’t think I’ve seen the actual insertion before. So it was a great way to honor the way that the OG movies did things while showing us a new side of it all. Because we always see the before and after a facehugger gets you. Never the middle.
I’ve also got to give it up to the talent. Besides Shadow & Bone’s Archie Renaux and Isabela Merced, I don’t know any of them. So I was totally ready to write them off because they look super green. They were also giving “we’re making Alien but the Nickelodeon version.” There is nothing Nickelodeon about the panic, horror, and chilling emotion that you see in their faces as they are confronted with this mysterious alien as they’re trying to escape or leave an old life behind.
So yes, I will be in the theater when Alien: Romulus comes out on August 16th. And yes, I’ll be invested in how these young space colonizers end up scavenging at the deep ends of the universe and the destruction and horror the xenomorphs are going to cause. Because this movie isn’t trying to reinvent the franchise. Instead, it feels like it understands its roots and is delving a little bit more into how horrifying a situation like this truly would be.
Watch the trailer below:
Alien: Romulus premieres in theaters on August 16, 2024.
