Alien: Romulus (2024)

‘Alien: Romulus’ plays the hits, both for better and for worse. It’s entertaining and well-done, with one standout performance especially, but ‘Alien: Romulus’ leans hard on nostalgia to the point of distraction.

The ‘Alien’ franchise has gotten especially convoluted in the 21st century, with spinoffs (‘Alien vs. Predator’), origin stories (‘Prometheus’) and sequels to prequels (‘Alien: Covenant’) clogging up the trajectory of what started out as something simple and elegant: a haunted house movie set in space. ‘Alien: Romulus,’ directed by Fede Álvarez, works hard to bring the brand back to the basics. And in many ways, Álvarez succeeds: working off a script he co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues, Álvarez has created a mostly tense, atmospheric, and to-the-point monster movie that – much like the first ‘Alien’ – has a terrific central character at its core.