This finally came to theater in the small pocket of the North we live in, and my teenaged son and I went to see it. We’d managed to avoid spoilers and I’m glad we did. We had an awesome time. Easily my favourite of the series since Aliens, I’d probably give it a solid 7/10.
The two most controversial things, to me, were Rook and Andy’s big line. For Rook, I didn’t so much have an issue with the idea of using him as a character or anything like that - it’s more that his appearance, and how poor that CGI was, brought me right out of the movie at first. This movie is absolutely gorgeous in almost every other way, and an absolute tower of strength of practical effects, too - but that had some serious uncanny valley vibes to it. Once I got past the initial shock, it was fine, and it worked for the story - so really, it’s just a gripe over its look.
And Andy’s line - I didn’t hate it. And in fact, our theatre popped quite nicely at it. But it still seems a bit shoe horned in. I thought Rain’s “die motherf***er” was a far more organic callback (we miss you, Hudson).
But man, this movie delivered. Some absolutely great set pieces - the cryo lab, the hallway, the zero gravity, the locked door, the final act…this was a fun movie to be scared of. And man, did it make effective use of face huggers to make your skin crawl.
Andy and Rain were the standout performers. Hat tip to Kay as well, who delivered possibly the best scream in the whole franchise, and then proceeds to have a terrible, no good, very bad day. But Rain carried on the proud tradition of badass female leads in this franchise, and Andy just did an amazing job playing very different versions of himself with very different motivations.
Lots of fun. Will definitely watch it again.
