Cailee Spaeny may not be as tall as Signourney Weaver, but she is just as much of a bad ass; strong and effective in this reboot of the Aliens franchise. As Rain, Spaeny (Priscilla) definitely holds her own, but the standout in this film is her pseudo relative, the synthetic automaton-like brother, Andy, played to perfection by David Jonsson (Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy). It’s tense, gory, ewww-worthy gross, with an ample number of jump scares involving monsters not unlike those we’ve seen before. Is it as good as the original? Yes, until the third act.
Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead) is director and co-writer Rodo Sayagues also collaborated on Don’t Breathe 2). This is the 7th Alien movie in the series, and Director Ridley Scott of the original Alien film, plus Prometheus” and Alien: Covenant, is a producer on this one, placed on the timeline in between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986.) Might be a good idea to see those to pick up on all the references in this one to lines in those previous films. It was originally to be released on HULU, but it was decided early to make it a theatrical release, where it belongs on a big screen (IMAX) with big sound (Dolby). Your seats may rumble.
Rain is desperately trying to escape life in the mines on a desolate outpost of a dark, bleak planet with Andy, the “brother” who was programmed to protector her. Jonsson goes through a transformation on this journey. Rain gathers a group of rebellious young cohorts who commandeer a ship to head to an old space station where they can get the fuel needed reach a planet that can provide a better life. They include, Tyler (Archie Renaux), Kay (Isabela Merced), Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and Navarro (Aileen Wu) Bjorn’s girlfriend. Director Alvarez allowed his actors to go off script and improvise.
As they explore the old, dilapidated space station, these young explorers find they’ve gone from bad to the worst. This band of rebels continually has to battle grotesque, slimy, creatures, big and small, who ravage whatever they kill, some from the inside out. The monsters aren’t unlike those we’ve seen before in this franchise, but maybe they were kept that way for continuity. One, however, had a silver grill of teeth that made us think of rap stars and almost expected to see it break into song.
There is one chase after another as they split up looking for some way to use whatever they can on the ship to get to safety. It’s not that different than when Sigourney Weaver bounced all over her ship to elude the monstrous creatures who are so hard to kill. But the special effects of emerging slimy monsters from inside victims loses some effectiveness because have seen it before. The Backlit scan here lets you know what’s about to happen. And this naive group of young explorers make some pretty silly, dangerous decisions.
The eeriest character is brought back to life through AI for this film. It interacts with the rebels, but their motivations were not always aligned. It’s a very creepy character.
There are times in the film when the score is overpowering, which drowns out some of the dialogue, especially that from Spike Fearn who plays Bjorn. Shot in Budapest, Cinematographer, Galo Olivares, had extraordinary sets to work in and Alvarez used real stand-ins instead of green screen to shoot practical effects.
This film is close to being laboriously long, even though it runs just shy of 2 hours. The third act is weak with too many endings leading to more jump scares with the gross drooling creatures we remember. Spaeny is tough, and Jonsson is a standout in a film that moves forward but still harkens back to the iconic original film. While they say “In space, no one can hear you,” this film will leave Alien fans screaming for more.
20th Century Studios 1 hour 59 minutes R
