David Jonsson, Archie Renaux and Isabela Merced also star in Fede Alvarez’s sci-fi/horror installment, set between the events of Ridley Scott’s original and James Cameron’s sequel.
, respectively from 2012 and 2018, were classy efforts to steer the franchise in a different direction, as far as possible from the silliness of two disposablemashups. But while the prequels were admirably ambitious, they were too bogged down by mythology and windy philosophy to be fully effective.
One significant lesson not learned from Scott’s original is the minimal time spent establishing these characters as distinct individuals. But since most of them won’t be around long enough to matter, perhaps that was the point. On arrival the group discovers that their planned means of escape is not a ship but a sprawling space station called Renaissance, with twin modules dubbed Romulus and Remus. Urgency is built in via the alert that the station will crash into the ring system surrounding the mining planet in a matter of hours and be destroyed, prompting regular computer-generated announcements on the remaining time before the impact event. But they confidently anticipate being in and out in 30 minutes max.
Once the threat is unleashed, there are the usual close calls, betrayals, cowardly retreats leaving others stranded and selfless acts of courage, particularly from Rain, who becomes the stand-in for Ripley. After impressing in, Spaeny proves to be a compelling lead, vulnerable and ruled by her emotions to a large extent, but also a technically savvy quick thinker with formidable survival instincts.
Rook does serve, however, to bring contrasting shades to Andy’s role by confusing the synthetic’s loyalties, adding sibling tension with Rain and allowing the terrific Jonsson (best known for the HBO seriesfor third-act crescendos featuring rampaging abominations and nutty reveals is again in evidence here.
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