Alien: Romulus is now opening across the globe, and the first reviews are in. Surprise, surprise, it seems that it’s pretty good. That said, does the critical approval rating actually represent a solid average score?
When put against all the other entries in the long-running Alien franchise, including the Alien vs. Predator crossovers, it’s definitely true that Fede Álvarez’s (Evil Dead ’13, Don’t Breathe) take on the iconic sci-fi horror IP has convinced more critics (83% at the moment of writing) than any sequel or prequel since 1986’s Aliens, directed by James Cameron. That’s no small feat.
But of course, most entertainment fanatics prefer to look at Metacritic for an actual look into the scores that are being shared, as the Metascore is a single score built from a weighted average that comes from top critic scores. Therefore, Metascores are typically much lower than Tomatometers. In the case of the latest Alien movie, it’s sitting right now at 64/100, which is considered ‘generally favorable’ when it comes to movies.
That ain’t a bad result either, especially if you’re familiar with the blockbuster averages in MC. But how does it stack against the other entries in the franchise? Well, it’s tied with 2012’s Prometheus and below Alien: Covenant, Aliens, and Alien, in ascending order. This may not sound like great news if you weren’t a fan of the Ridley Scott-directed prequels, yet Romulus has been approved by more critics than those two. The key point here is that the prequels were slightly better rated by those who enjoyed them, and that explains why the MC ranking looks noticeably different.
All in all, and going through a number of positive, mixed, and negative reviews, it looks like veteran Alien fans are very likely to enjoy their time with the movie, in spite of some heavy-handed fan service and more reverence for the previous movies than previously seen in the surprisingly experimental sci-fi franchise. While most people agree that Alien and Aliens are great and everything else ranges from solid to terrible, a widely accepted strength of the Alien IP is that it’s allowed every filmmaker to come in and do their own thing, so maybe Romulus’ preference for functionality and respecting what came before over exploring new horizons has ruffled the most demanding cinephiles’ feathers. Fair enough, if so!
What about you? Are you watching Alien: Romulus this weekend? How would you rank all the movies?
