Intensely gripping sci-fi horror with gore, shocks, cursing.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
a lot
Intense, visceral, bloody action and suspense. Jump scares. Futuristic guns and shooting, with aliens shot and blown to pieces. Vicious alien attacks: A face-hugger attaches to a woman's face, an alien bursts out of someone's chest (with blood spray), and characters are slashed and impaled by the aliens—including having an eye stabbed with an appendage and then being dissolved with acid. A character gives birth to an alien-hybrid baby; lots of blood and gore. Person falls from high place, clangs on a railing, and hits the ground, hard. Dead bodies wrapped up in nest of alien goo. Electric prod, zapping alien nest. Explosions. Video of cruel experiment on rat. Vomiting. Slapping.
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Several uses of "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "a--hole," "bitch," "twat," "hell," "d--k," "balls," and "Jesus Christ" (as exclamation). Characters who have never been to space are called "space virgins."
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Rain consistently shows compassion for her fellow travelers, including her artificial companion, Andy; she sees him as human, while others ridicule him or write him off for being synthetic. She believes everyone has a right to survive and that no one should be left behind.
Diverse Representations
some
Six major characters: Rain (Cailee Spaeny, who's White) is the heart of the group and is a compassionate, strong woman. Helpful synthetic person Andy is played by Black British actor David Jonsson. Group leader Tyler is played by Archie Renaux, a British actor with an Anglo-Indian background. Kay is played by Isabela Merced, whose mother is from Peru. Spike Fearn, who plays Bjorn, is White and English, and Aileen Wu, who plays Navarro, is Chinese American. Director and co-writer Fede Álvarez is from Uruguay.
The story is a commentary against the kind of corporate mentality that prizes profits over human well-being. It also raises questions about priorities, about whether saving the largest number of people while sacrificing the lowest number of people is acceptable. The movie suggests that everyone is worth saving.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Alien: Romulus is an intense, bloody sci-fi action movie that is part of the Alien franchise but also a standalone story. It's set between the events of the first movie and Aliens and stars Cailee Spaeny. It has plenty of the violence and gore viewers will expect for this series: There are futuristic weapons and shootings, deaths, blood spatters, monster attacks, impalings, someone getting burned by acid, dead bodies, intense peril, jump scares, and more. Strong language includes "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "a--hole," "bitch," "twat," "d--k," "Jesus Christ," and more, and characters are referred to as "space virgins." A woman gives birth to a mutant baby, and another is seen in underwear and a tank top. A character smokes what's either a cigarette or a joint. This gripping movie adds to the series' lore—and, like the other films, questions the kind of corporate mentality that prizes profits over human well-being. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
A alright alien movie that has a great start but flops a bit at the end.
Just finished watching at imax. Well its got it's good points, like the sets,puppetry/animatronics and the some of the story is really good to, the acting was very well done. But it was predictable in places, and a lot of the same dialogue was used from like alien and aliens,which made it a bit humorous. The ending did a alien resurrection job. Half human/alien/engineer,which was a bit pants. I'd say if you like alien resurrection then you'll like this. As i said i didn't hate it by any means, but wasn't a blow your socks of wow movie. If i was to recommend it,I'd say wait for streaming or bluray or if tou want to see it go to a standard cinema. A decent alien film that has plenty of nostalgia but has too much going on all in one go. i personaly liked it but wasn't like amazed(i preferred promethus in terms of suspence etc)and tried to copy a lot from alien, aliens and alien resurrection a little to much. so the same cocktail just a with a youger cast. this one was definitely more directed for the more teen audience i think. but saying that it is just my opinion, but would see it again. A solid 6.5/10 for me
What's the Story?
In ALIEN: ROMULUS, Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her "brother," synthetic being Andy (David Jonsson), live and work in a mining colony, vainly hoping to rack up enough hours to earn their freedom. They're approached by Tyler (Archie Renaux) and his crew—Kay (Isabela Merced), Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Navarro (Aileen Wu)—with a proposition. The group has discovered a decommissioned ship drifting above the planet that has cryo-pods in it. If they can steal them, they'll be able to escape, surviving the nine years it will take to get to the nearest habitable system. They need Andy to access the ship's computer so that they can get in. They make it aboard and find the pods, but the devices are low on fuel. They successfully track down more fuel—and then unfortunately discover that it was being used to keep something in a deep freeze. And now it's awake...
After a couple of science fictiony entries full of big ideas, the Alien franchise returns to pure horror with this ruthlessly gripping, brutally intense, refreshingly simple movie. Directed by Fede Álvarez, who successfully rebooted the Evil Dead franchise and whose Don't Breathe was a clever use of limited space, Alien: Romulus takes things back to basics. There are no scientists or philosophers here, no trained space explorers or soldiers, just regular folks who are trying to get out of a bad situation. Álvarez gets things moving well before the aliens appear with an impressive use of visual effects that gives viewers the most visceral vision of the perils of outer space since Gravity.
The movie also spends time on Rain and Andy, exploring their unusual but loving relationship; when Andy is installed with a new chip to give him access to the special alien room, he changes, and Rain looks at him with suspicion ("Andy, are you there?"). The themes of the original films (Alien and Aliens) come back into play here, with an evil corporation that's interested only in finding ways to exploit the aliens and their power for profit (no matter the cost in human life), but the real focus here is on survival. The sharp screenplay uses the familiar elements (the "face-hugger," the "chest-burster") but keeps them fresh. It keeps upping the ante, with bigger and bigger shocks and challenges as the clock runs down. Alien: Romulus easily ranks with the best of this series.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Alien: Romulus' violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?
Is the movie scary? What's the appeal of horror movies? Why do people sometimes enjoy being scared?
Do you consider Rain a role model? Why, or why not? Does she demonstrate any valuable character strengths? How does she compare to the other women in the Alien franchise?
What's the appeal of the Alien movies? How does this one compare to others in the series?
How do you feel about the movie's message regarding corporate motivations and priorities?
MPAA explanation:
bloody violent content and language
Last updated:
August 13, 2024
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