Brief Story Line
Set in the year 2122, Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny - Civil War, Devs mini series etc) and her adoptive brother a synthetic human referred to as Andy (played by David Jonsson - Rye Lane, Industry TV series etc) were working on the colony Jackson's star. When she met with her ex boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux - Shadow and Bone TV series, Upgraded etc), his younger sister Kay (Isabela Merced - Madame Web, Sweet Girl etc), their cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn - Tell Me Everything TV series etc) and his girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu), Rain was convinced to join them in going to a decomissioned spacecraft so they could go to planet Yvaga.
Though relucant at first, but Rain finally agreed to join the group as she felt she would never be free and had to work all her lives in the same place. Unfortunately there was huge danger inside the spacecraft that would threaten all their lives.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
During the opening scene of the movie where it showed the cast name, I was unfamiliar with some of them and thought it was a bit unusual as the last few Alien films had some established actors in them. So I was a bit skeptical at first whether it's going to be wonderful. But as the story progressed, I could see that these young cast were more suitable for the story the movie maker tried to do and they actually brought freshness to the film. Good thing they did quite well in their roles, especially the character Rain who my wife and I felt was very intelligent and David Jonsson who I thought was convincing portraying synthetic human.
The first 15 minutes or so was a bit slow but understandable as it served more as introduction, but as soon as they arrived at the spacecraft, the suspense was starting to build up. Once the creatures started to appear, then it's almost non stop intensity. My wife and I were feeling suspenseful throughout the movie with many jump scare scenes and moments where we were strapped to our seats due to some breathtaking scenes. And the sound effects were absolutely amazing and truly satisfying as they elevate our experience. Obviously the special effects were the contributing factor to the high level of enjoyment since they were greatly done, not only on the creatures but also the space sceneries including the space ship. Only thing that rather disappoint me was the brightness felt too low resulting to difficulty in seeing certain things like writings on the door and smaller creatures.
Like in other movies in this franchise, the story was set mostly in a confined space ship where the people were terrorized by the alien creatures. In case you are not aware, this is the seventh installment of the series where the timeline was set between Alien and Aliens but with a completely different characters (they called it Interquel). I have watched all of the previous films (though some of the earlier ones I only watched through VCD/streaming) and I thought this was a really good sequel and very entertaining. There was a bit of familiar feeling too especially the scenes involving Rain in a space suit which reminded me of the scene in first movie with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).
In the credit scenes, I saw the name of Ridley Scott who was director of Alien, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant credited as producer. Since he is basically the father of this franchise, it's no wonder the film felt a strong suspense feel. It was a bit weird though as I thought they would make the third film to complete trilogy of prequel. Perhaps the box office performance was not too satisfying that resulted to doubt in the studio's mind. However, I am still glad they chose to go ahead with this one. And I think they also appointed the right director in Fede Alvarez (Don't Breathe, Evil Dead etc) as he managed to maintain the quality and especially the essence of horrifying story of people fighting against aliens.
Overall this was a very enjoyable movie to be seen on the large screen of a cinema with good quality sound system. I understand critics were impressed with this one and fans of the franchise were very appreciative as well. My wife who frequently screamed during the film also liked it as it was totally intense. So if you like Alien movies, then I am pretty sure you would enjoy this one too. It also has a perfect duration to my opinion with 119 minutes including credit scenes (but no mid or post end credit scenes) as it had sufficient time to show all the intensity. For those who are unfamiliar yet, probably better to at least see the first and second movies which are currently available on Disney+ to be more familiar of why the aliens were so scary. Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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