Will Harwood

Excellent. A lovely (and at times only just successful) homage and pastiche of every single previous Alien movie, with the possible exception of Covenant — which is the most forgettable anyway. The story and characters are enough to carry a whole grimy blockbuster movie with ample to spare; the fact that Alvarez lovingly weaves in the opportunity to relive every one of your favourite Alien moments of the past 45 years (yes even the Alien offspring from Resurrection!) in a heart-stoppingly punchy 90 mins of cinema is a bonus. He lacks the sheer miserable nihilism of Scott in Covenant, replacing it with youthful vibrancy from the stunning cast and new-and-improved jump scares (a roomful of facehuggers, anyone?!) Again, unlike Scott the R-rated stuff is powerful but somehow in much better taste. I came away enlivened rather than deadened as I have been since Aliens… Do we need to let this whole franchise die a death (and don’t even get me started on AVP…)? Yes. Is this its perfect swansong? Yes!