I’m not very well-versed in the lore of the Alien films. I’ve seen Ridley Scott’s original 1979 film, but not in a long time. It’s a great film and there are just too many of them to make me feel like I should catch up at this point. But on a whim, I decided to see Fede Álvarez’s new entry to this franchise, Alien: Romulus, yesterday afternoon. Early word was good and it’s August and I was bored on a rainy Saturday afternoon. And I kind of loved this movie? I’m genuinely surprised to report that Alien: Romulus is one of the only summer blockbusters released this year to fully know what it’s doing and what its audience wants.

Set between Alien and Aliens, we meet our heroine Rain (Cailee Spaney), a young woman from a mining planet that never sees the sun. Rain’s only family is her brother, Andy (David Jonsson), a Synthetic who has been programmed to keep her safe. Rain’s ex boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux) and a few others enlist her to come along on a journey through space to a different planet where a better life allegedly exists. Mayhem ensues when the group begins to realize they’re not alone up there.

There are probably a million references and fan-service moments that were completely lost on me as a viewer, and I’m sure if I had a deeper knowledge of the Alien series’ lore, I would have had an even better time here. Or I would have found things to nitpick. But as it stands, I had a great time with Alien: Romulus. Fede Álvarez has proven himself to be quite good at the reboot by this point. After his successful 2013 Evil Dead, he followed that with Don’t Breathe, a very tense and atmospheric horror thriller. Alien: Romulus shows the filmmaker using what he learned from his earlier projects and making the most out of a studio budget. There’s a lot going on here with sound design, with practical effects mixed with CGI effects, and the whole endeavor is quite effective as a result. 

Cailee Spaney has been around for about five minutes, and yet I can’t recognize her from project to project. She’s got that chameleonic quality that is definitely going to serve her well in future projects. She’s not going for a Sigourney Weaver imitation, she’s doing something very different and I can appreciate that approach. David Jonsson is very good, having to play about three different characters as his Synthetic character. The less I reveal about his part, the better, but other than Spaney, he’s the only other actor here who really pops.

It’s also worth noting here that Alien: Romulus was originally meant to go directly to Hulu, skipping theaters entirely. It was made for $80 million, a conservative budget by franchise movie standards. But as I write this review on Sunday afternoon, it has already outgrossed its production budget. This is yet another reminder that we should not be sending films like this, or films in general, direct to streaming services. I can say with absolute certainty that Alien: Romulus will not play the same at home, and the viewer should see this film in theaters on the biggest, loudest screen they can find. The action combined with the specificity of the sound design absolutely demands that experience. The fact that it was almost robbed of it is insane.

Overall, Alien: Romulus is just a very good summer movie, one that remembers to do things so many of this summer’s franchise pictures have not. It’s theme park cinema, it’s a ride that once you’re strapped in, it doesn’t stop. It feels like it ends a few times before it actually does, but given the genuinely inspired nuttiness we get in the third act, I’m tempted to let that go. This is a fun popcorn movie, and also an effective horror picture. I’m not an easy target for jump scares, I’ve seen them all before and I can usually see them coming from a mile away, but there are at least two moments in this film that got me good. Alien: Romulus is two hours of action-packed terror that honors the films that came before it, but is also doing adding a lot that feels fresh and exciting.