Romulus Reviews – “Old-School Chiller” Elevates Franchise to New Heights

Alien: Romulus‘ first reactions dubbed it the “best in the franchise,” praised for its intense final act. Now, with the first official full-length reviews in, does that initial acclaim hold up?

Critics have spoken on Alien: Romulus, awarding it a Certified Fresh 83% from 127 reviews. This marks a significant improvement from the last film in the series, Alien: Covenant, which scored 65%.

“It thrives on twisting the knife in terms of building suspense and delivering gory jolts that are sure to make horror fans proud,” says Aaron Neuwirth from We Live Entertainment.

This reaction mirrors the early thoughts of audiences. Brian Truitt from USA Today agrees, noting that “Alvarez is keeping an old-school chiller alive for a new generation.”

As always, some differing views can be found among the praise. Esther Zuckerman of Bloomberg News pointed out that one particular moment “ruined what was otherwise a fun, icky trip to space.”

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian also expressed reservations. While he acknowledges that Alien: Romulus is “a technically competent piece of work,” he feels that “no matter how ingenious its references to the first film, there’s a fundamental lack of originality here which makes it frustrating.”

Alien fans can feel they’ve secured a win with this film as it prepares to head to theaters this weekend.

Here’s a roundup of reviews:

• BBC.com: [Álvarez] has triumphed with a clever, gripping and sometimes awe-inspiring sci-fi chiller, which takes the series back to its nerve-racking monster-movie roots while injecting it with some new blood – some new acid blood, you might say.
• Discussing Film: Alien: Romulus relies too much on nostalgia at times, but when director Fede Álvarez does present enough of his own fresh ideas, it takes the franchise to exciting new heights.
• Variety: This is closer to a grandly efficient greatest-hits thrill ride, packaged like a video game. Yet on that level, it’s a confidently spooky, ingeniously shot, at times nerve-jangling piece of entertainment.
• RogerEbert.com: It’s fun, tense, and slimy. It’s also nowhere near as ambitious as some of the films in this series deemed failures. We can’t have everything.
• indieWire: A gorehound whose tastes and talents are much better suited to the Grand Guignol splatter of “Evil Dead” than they are to the suffocating dread of “Alien,” the director would rather torture his cast than develop their characters.

Related: Alien: Romulus Director Shares New Preview of Animatronic Xenomorph