Post-Deadpool and Wolverine, meet xenomorph Jesus. After various baggy saga entries, Alien: Romulus opens with a retrieval operation that hints at director Fede Alvarez’s (2013’s Evil Dead) back-to-basics, franchise-saving intentions, even before we see the salvage op’s spoilery find in a near-crucifixion pose.
But it’s an aim that’s only partly fulfilled by an in-between-quel – post-Alien, pre-Aliens – that aspires to be all things to all Alien fans. Often tense and tangible, sometimes mean and majestic, Romulus also freights its leaner pleasures with excess franchise matter to frustrating effect.
