No one would disagree that George Lucas profoundly changed the space opera genre back in 1977 with Star Wars (now retitled Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope). And it could similarly be argued that Ridley Scott set a new standard for space creature-features a few years later with Alien.

Back then, we didn’t yet have the odious phrase “tent-pole movie,” but both of these groundbreaking flicks spawned numerous sequels, prequels and “re-imaginings.” A few were pretty good, but most were retreads shoveled out by profit-oriented, creatively bankrupt studios to put butts in multiplex seats. 

So I’d like to report that this latest slimy-monster installment is exciting, scary and riveting. 

I’d like to, but I can’t, because it’s not. 

You can tell director Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead) is struggling to tell a new story. But while the movie is mechanically proficient and connects all the dots (even managing to work in Sigourney Weaver’s classic line, “Leave her alone, you bitch”), he repeatedly fails to escape the franchise’s fan-boy gravity. The film lacks thematic subtlety and gets so lost in endless exposition that by the end I was rooting for the monster. (119 min)

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