After Ms. Spenser watched it on an airplane, we decided to watch Alien: Romulus (2024) at home. I thought it was a perfect distillation of Alien, Aliens and Alien 3 (didn't I blog this one?). Ms. Spenser decided it was a stale rehash.
It starts with an expedition finding the wreck of the Nostromo and salvaging an odd black cocoon (with something Xeno-shaped within). Then we go a dark and dismal colony planet. Teen (young adult?) Callee Spaeny is trying to get a transfer to nicer planet, but instead gets her contract extended. Her best friend is a stuttering, autistic-seeming android, played by David Jonsson. He was altered by her dead father so that his prime directive is to do what is best for Spaeny.
Some of Spaeny's young friends have a plan to get to a better planer: Highjack a ship, then go to the derelict space station to pick up some cryo-sleep pods, and head out. Soon they are stuck on the station with a Xenomorph or two. (BTW, the station has two sides, Romulus and Remus. This may have meant something, or just been a cool name.)
Director Fede Alvarez and writing partner Rodo Sayagues took a lot of what's best from the earlier entries. For ex, the colony world from Aliens. The station had a nice throwback look (CRT monitors - well, maybe the colony didn't have the resources to do flat or holograph screens), but mainly it got the haunted feeling of the original. There were plot points, like someone being quarantined because they'd been face hugged, which is the right thing to do, but some people don't get it.
Like I said, I liked how true to the vision this was, and Ms. Spenser thought it was too derivative. On the other hand, I didn't feel like it was the greatest of all Alien movies, and Ms. Spenser enjoyed it for what it was. I'm not sure this is one of those retro-sequels, where the key is nostalgia, but it might be.
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