'Alien: Romulus' Arrives As The Best-Scored Entry Since 'Alien'

Alien Romulus

Alien

“Don’t f*** it up.” That’s the advice Ridley Scott gave to Fede Álvarez when he was about to make Alien: Romulus. And it appears he did not, and has made an Alien film even better than at least one of Scott’s.

With 127 reviews in, Alien: Romulus has an 83% “Certified Fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes, which just so happens to make it the highest scored entry in the entire, very long series since Alien. Here is how the list breaks down by score now after its arrival:

Aliens – 94% Alien – 93% Alien: Romulus – 83% Prometheus – 73% Alien: Covenant – 65% Alien Resurrection – 55% Alien 3 – 45% Alien Vs. Predator – 22% Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem – 12%

So, a few things to note here. Even in third place it is still a large leap to the two most classic films in the franchise. But it’s also notable that Romulus beats out Ridley Scott’s own Prometheus, probably the most controversial entry of them all. I also A) did not realize critics hated Alien Vs. Predator so much and B) I have literally never heard of Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem. It appears there may be a reason for that. Finally, I also forgot David Fincher directed the “that didn’t go well” Alien 3 despite having access to Sigourney Weaver.

Alien Romulus

Rotten Tomatoes

These scores are certainly good enough to make me see it tomorrow, as if it was much below that I probably wasn’t going to bother. I’m not exactly some huge Alien fan outside of the originals, but if this really is as good as everyone is saying, it seems like it’s going to be worth getting out of the house for.

As for its box office? That depends. It’s R-rated and the literal ninth movie in the franchise, so we’ll see what sort of draw it is. Critical acclaim is not the giant box office indicator you may think, and it’s going to have to do well through word of mouth. This is also the second weekend of It Ends with Us, the blockbuster Blake Lively feature, and I expect that may be strong enough to hold on to the number one spot. Still, I would probably expect Romulus to do well in the long term, though I’m not sure how high budget it might be as a pretty ambitious sci-fi blockbuster.

I’ll see it tomorrow and report back if it’s as good as critics claim, and now I’m looking forward to it.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.