In space, no one can hear the sigh of deja vue

There is so much that director Fede Álvarez gets right in this new addition to this long running Sci-Fi horror, that it feels wrong to criticise. After the dip into the mythology starting with Prometheus and ending with Convent, Romulus for the first time in a very long while actually feels like a proper ALIEN film.

All the familiar beats that made us fall in love with the franchise is here and present. The Spaceship setting, a crew getting picked off one by one by a mouth dripping acid murderous creature, with of course an obligatory chest-bursting scene slap bang in the middle. Also when it soars, it actually accelerates with a delicious bout of action that harks back to the James Cameron entry and compared to the horrendous fight fest with that Predator, this is light years away with its quality on show.

You can hear a but right? Well, being a huge fan of this franchise, this is the first film I feel does not quite have its own identity. Everyone has an opinion on the original four films but all must agree that they each had their own distinctive mark to set them all apart. From the pure horror of Ridley Scott’s original, to the bombastic action of Cameron, followed later by David Fincher’s more grounded approach to finally Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s gothic nightmare. Romulus takes all of these elements and sort of mixes them all into one neatly package. Its quite possible what this franchise needs at the moment to get it back on track- and the box-office figures clearly show that – but you can’t help but feel at times, this dips into the love letter territory of The Phantom Menace, with a groan inducing rehash of a classic line once said by Ripley herself, that had me shaking my head and doing the best Darth Vader impression by screaming….”Noooooooooo!”

Plot-wise its perfectly simple. Set between the first two films, we follow a young crew trying to escape the work life of Weyland-Yutani (yes fans – them!) and by doing this, they encounter something much, much worse. The new “Ripley” Cailee Spaeny’s Rain, is a very likeable character, left all alone in the world with only her synthetic brother Andy (David Jonsson) by her side, telling awful “dad jokes” to keep her amused.

When she bumps into an old flame, the scavenger Tyler (Archie Renaux), she is convinced to join him and his crew in raiding a now abandoned space shuttle. On arrival the sound of beeps and bops, hark back to the Nostromo, where a surprising familiar face onboard makes us the viewer aware that somewhere in the shadows is the baying face huggers, just waiting for the chance to become those xenomorphs.

The action scenes from here are delightful, with some genuine tension gripping horror smack bang in the middle ,Álvarez clearly honouring what has worked so well in the past, more so with Johnsson shining brightly as the synthetic who plays this role much differently to the memorable Ian Holm and Lance Henriksen.

If anything its when the film tries to tie itself into the Prometheus era that it gradually falls apart. Those still scarred by the creative decision in Resurrection, may be even more perplexed by the left-field turn this takes as it reaches its own finale, but by the time you have reached this point, you’ll either have embraced the entire nostalgia fest and believe this the best entry since 1986, or just feel that is yet another adequate sequel that you’ll enjoy, but still be left wondering and hoping that a day will come when Ripley herself will make a triumphant return…

Rating: ★★★½☆