The online reviewer scores for Alien: Romulus were high. As usual, you have to bake a degree of “Squeeeee!” and “Pwesents!” into any of those. So what of the professionals? Well, they too are currently scoring it as the best Alien movie since Aliens, edging out Alien 3.
The film sits at 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. Here’s the highlights reel of reviews.
“Alvarez puts the horror first here, with exquisite craftmanship that immerses you in the insanity.”
Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting
“The creatures remain among the most truly petrifying movie monsters in history, and the director leans hard into the sci-fi/horror with a relentlessly paced entry that reminds us why they have haunted our imaginations for decades.”
David Rooney, THR
“An efficient addition to the 45-year-old franchise, Alien: Romulus draws on the strengths of the sci-fi/horror series without ever suggesting that the property’s best days are ahead.”
Tim Grierson, Screen
“The slime and the shadows and the silences are back. Horror DNA is honored rather than pointlessly duplicated. This time, at least, IP familiarity breeds contentment.”
Alonso Duralde, The Film Verdict
“Alien: Romulus has the capacity for greatness. If you could somehow surgically extract its strongest sequences, you’d see that beautiful, blood-quivering harmony between old-school practical effects and modern horror verve.”
Clarisse Loughrey, Independent
“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.”
Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“A technically competent piece of work; but no matter how ingenious its references to the first film it has to be said that there’s a fundamental lack of originality here which makes it frustrating.” –
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“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.”
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Alien: Romulus opens in movie theaters today.