Plot
A group of friends living on the perpetual midnight, Weyland-Yutani mining planet LV-410 want more from life. They long to live on the planet Yvaga – where sunlight exists.
Rain is told by her ex Tyler that there is a decommissioned ship hovering above them – and along with an assortment of others, plan on taking the nine year trip (in cryo sleep) to get there.
However once aboard, they discover that they are not the only ones aboard – there is a frightening alien creature hunting them one by one!
Direction
Fede Alvarez directs. While I haven’t come across his work before, I felt he did a stellar job. With brilliant set designs and other technical aspects, I enjoyed his work.
There are also a small handful of jump sequences that got me good!
Cast
Cailee Spaeney plays Rain. I really like what she brought to the franchise. She was a step up from Daniels in Covenant, but still no Ripley.
David Jonsson is the star of the film as Andy – Rain’s “brother”.
Archie Renaux plays Tyler, Rain’s ex boyfriend.
Isabela Merced plays Kay, Tyler’s pregnant sister.
Spike Fern plays Bjorn – who has animosity with Andy due to the death of his mother.
Aileen Wu, plays Navarro – the groups pilot.
Breakdown
Starting with a slightly ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ vibe – where a spaceship in deep outer space has a mission to capture a rock/asteroid. A group of scientists then cut it open to find the outline of a Xenomorph inside, and we know that this is going to be another Alien movie… but how good is it going to be???
We are then introduced to Cailee Spaeney’s Rain, along with her ‘brother’ Andy. Andy is an android, who is constantly taunted by the locals, as their dad programmed him with a “dad joke” humour, and almost childlike personality.
She works as a miner for Weyland Yutani, on the planet LV-410. It is always dark, as the sun never rises. Death is constant from the illnesses that the miners get.
She has just completed her ‘service’ to the company… but is gaslit by the company to say she must complete a further six years of service before she can potentially leave.
At the same time (how fortunate for the timing) – her friends group are discussing the find of a decommissioned spaceship hovering overhead their planet – and they plan to go up there, commandeer it, and head to the peaceful planet of Yvaga (where the sun does rise).
Later that day (not even joking… literally hours later…) the gang head up to the ship, to start their journey. There they come into a few problems. One, they don’t have enough cryo fuel to make the nine year trip to the planet (I liked this inclusion as it adds to the mythology of how cryo sleep works), and that one of the group Bjorn hates Andy due to his being an android (as his mother was killed by an synthetic/android in his youth). Also, Andy is banned from Yvaga as synthetics are not allowed (something that Rain knows).
The horror starts early, with the Xenomorphs having taken over the ship from the very beginning of the film. They also find a version of Rook (a CGI of the late Ian Holm) one of the other Synthetics in the Weyland Yutani company.
In order to save three trapped members of the team, Rain must take Rook’s module (think a USB) and implant it into Andy (which turns the meek and mild childlike American into a brave, fearless British speaking. Effing spectacular acting from Jonsson here.
Throughout the rest of the film there is some great tension moments (like when Rain and Tyler must walk through a hallway of baby Xenomorphs), among others – all the while there is the secondary conflict with the spaceship they are on drifting slowly into an asteroid belt.
Some of the characters are genuinely likeable too (Kay, Navarro) so when they fall, you genuinely do feel sad.
Spaeney is solid in the action sequences, a step up from Noomie Rapace in Prometheus and Katherine Waterston in Alien Covenant. She’s still no Sigourney Weaver, but an improvement nonetheless.
There are some solid and quite frightening monsters, but I wonder if CGI Aliens replacing practical effects are the right way to go? I loved the sound design of outer space (the silence) – and the score by Benjamin Wallfisch is phenomenal!
Overall
This feels more “Alien” than the previous entries – and had some genuinely solid character development, a strong female lead – and one of the best performances within the franchise from Jonnson.
There are also some truly frightening moments, and you don’t truly know how it will end!
Strong recommend.
4/5
