ALIEN: ROMULUS (15) 119mins ★★★☆☆ IN space no one can hear you scream. But watch this jump-scare adventure on a big screen and they probably will. Directed and co-written by Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead) the intergalactic outing marks the seventh release in the sci-fi series (there are also two Predator cross-over films).
It time-travels back to the earliest and arguably strongest days of the franchise, retrospectively positioned between Ridley Scott’s 1979 original (Alien) and James Cameron’s 1986 follow-up (Aliens). The latest lift-off sees a group of twenty-something explorers encounter the extraterrestrial lifeforms. READ MORE FILM REVIEWS Gore-shock scenes After blasting into orbit to escape trapped lives working for a mining corporation, they discover the abandoned Romulus space station and attempt to loot it for fuel.
But Xenomorphs are lying dormant aboard. And when the satellite’s systems are rebooted, they wake back up. The slimy, scuttling, interstellar marauders are quickly up to their old tricks of throttling, face-leaping, body-possessing and hunting to kill.
Most read in Film With protracted gore-shock scenes, claustrophobia and cat-and-mouse montages, there are numerous nostalgic horror homages. Plucky badass Rain (Cailee Spaeny) is our Sigourney Weaver -style Ripley-esque hero. And there are many leap-frights which tie in to the Alien legacy.
But there are too many overly familiar moments. Some big scares feel like tribute scenes, although Alvarez .