In space, no one can year you scream. (On streaming, anyone who’s at home with you is probably going to hear the yelling.)
The latest film in the Alien franchise, Alien: Romulus is set to make its streaming debut in a matter of days. The film, directed by Fede Alvarez, was conceived as a direct sequel to the original Alien, set prior to the events of the earlier three sequels (and not starring Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, obviously). It follows a group of colonizers trapped in a dead-end jobs who try to grab some technology from an abandoned space ship that will help them get off their planet, only to come face to face with facehugging aliens.
Romulus was the first Alien movie since Ridley Scott’s prequel Alien: Covenant in 2017, and the first produced by Disney since they acquired 20th Century Fox a few years ago. The film did well in theaters; it grossed $105 million in the U.S. and more than $350 million worldwide. Disney already has a sequel in development.
ALIEN: ROMULUS
READ MORE: An Alien: Romulus Sequel Is in the Works
I liked Alien: Romulus, with some reservations. It’s a solid monster movie, if not a whole lot more than that (and with a subplot involving a digitally-created character that I really didn’t like). As I wrote in my review here at ScreenCrush:
[Previous] Alien sequels weren’t all masterpieces, but they were consistently unpredictable. They took risks, they embraced the dark, and they pushed the envelope. Alien: Romulus, the first sequel in seven years, makes an effective monster movie, but that’s about it. It doesn’t move the franchise into uncharted territory; it drags it, kicking and screaming, back into the past.
Here is the film’s official synopsis:
This truly terrifying sci-fi horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful Alien franchise back to its iconic roots. While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young colonizers come face-to-face with the most relentless and deadly life form in the universe.
Alien: Romulus is set to premiere on Hulu on November 21. Not exactly my idea of ideal Thanksgiving night viewing, but you do you.
