REVIEW (MyKeeneNow) – 2013 evil Dead proved that director Fede Alvarez could honor what made a franchise iconic, while still injecting it with new vitality. For me, his film is the best of the Deadite series.

No, I’m not saying that Romulus is the new king of Foreigner Berg, but he sits quite comfortably in third place, just behind the first two.

And it is precisely between those first two films that Alvarez, who again co-wrote the screenplay with Rodo Sayagues, creates a memorable place in the franchise’s timeline, two decades after the crew of the Nostromo responded to what they believed to be a distress signal.

We still meet a group of weary Weyland-Yutani Corp. contract workers, but this time they’re in their twenties, having grown up in a grim mining colony and never seen the sunlight. Rain (Cailee Spaeny, solid) and her brother Andy (a great David Jonsson) lost their parents “three cycles ago,” and it’s become clear that the chances of them ever being released by Weyland-Yutani are zero.

But her friends Tyler (Archie Renaux), Kay (Isabela Merced), Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and Navarro (Aileen Wu) have a plan.

Cailee Spaeny in a scene from “Alien: Romulus”. Courtesy: 20th Century Studios via AP ” data-medium-file=”https://352today.sagacom.com/files/2024/08/AP24219727730948-640×480.jpg” data-large-file=”https://352today.sagacom.com/files/2024/08/AP24219727730948.jpg” data -height=”675″ data-id=”33290″ data-link=”https://352today.com/film-review-alien-romulus-3/” data-url=”https://352today.com/files/2024/08/AP24219727730948.jpg” data-width=”1024″ data-amp-layout=”responsive” aria-label=”Image 1 of 3 open in full screen”>

Director Fede Alvarez on the set of “Alien: Romulus.” Courtesy of 20th Century Studios via AP ” data-medium-file=”https://352today.sagacom.com/files/2024/08/AP24219727724375-640×480.jpg” data-large-file=”https:// 352today.sagacom.com/files/2024/08/AP24219727724375.jpg” data-height=”683″ data-id=”33288″ data-link=”https://352today.com/film-review-alien-romulus /” data-url=”https://352today.com/files/2024/08/AP24219727724375.jpg” data-width=”1024″ data-amp-layout=”responsive” aria-label=”Image 2 of 3 in the Open full screen mode”>

Archie Renaux (left) and Cailee Spaeny in a scene from “Alien: Romulus”. Courtesy: 20th Century Studios via AP ” data-medium-file=”https://352today.sagacom.com/files/2024/08/AP24219727752022-640×480.jpg” data-large-file=”https://352today.sagacom.com/files/2024/08/AP24219727752022.jpg” data -height=”609″ data-id=”33289″ data-link=”https://352today.com/film-review-alien-romulus-2/” data-url=”https://352today.com/files/2024/08/AP24219727752022.jpg” data-width=”1024″ data-amp-layout=”responsive” aria-label=”Image 3 of 3 open in full screen”>

They steal the decommissioned Weyland ship docked at the Romulus space station, restart its hypersleep program, and embark on a nine-year journey to a new life on a planet with sunshine.

But there is something else waiting for Romulus. You know.

And Alvarez draws on what we know early and often, creating instant tension when new characters discover the “perfect organism” we’re already intimately familiar with. That familiarity also means we don’t have to go without monster rum, so get ready for plenty of brutal alien action that recalls the great sci-fi horror of Ridley Scott’s original 1979 film.

The technical execution (apart from a strange shaky effect that I won’t reveal here) is also outstanding. Alvarez relies on the expertise of cameraman Galo Olivares (Rome) and sound designer Lee Gilmore (Prey, Dune: Part One) to create another dark, ominous aesthetic that reeks of despair and terrifying interruptions of silence.

When Rain and her crew learn what’s in store, Alvarez changes gear to repeat the thrilling adventures that James Cameron thrilled us with in 1986’s The Last Man. Aliens. Yes, you will be reminded of the glory of the past, but Romulus also has some clever and refreshing ideas of its own.

One of them is a brilliant twist Foreigner a story so thrilling and visually arresting that it’s hard to believe we haven’t seen it before. Bravo. On a more philosophical level, the script manages to develop a fascinating contrast between humans and their “synthetic” counterparts, and explores how quickly a little acid blood can change the nature of expendability.

However, this is not a further consideration of engineers and the reasons for their engineering work. Romulus is a return to the basics of the franchise and gives us a little more insight into the corporation’s endgame with a revelation that leads to a banger of a third act.

And it’s the way you accept what awaits you there, along with the film’s amount of fan service (for me, it’s one callback too many) that should cement your feelings about Romulus.

Credit Alvarez with another win. He knows what made this franchise successful and how to make it successful again. Alien: Romulus is relentlessly thrilling, consistently exciting and a thoroughly entertaining excursion.

Evaluation: R Duration: 119 minutes Open: Now in cinemas

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