‘Alien: Romulus’ Is a Propulsive Rocket on Autopilot

Early on in Alien: Romulus, the camera lingers on an advertisement for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the monolithic conglomerate whose shadow falls over every film in the franchise. It reads: “Building Better Worlds.” In the immediate context of the scene, which is set in a spectacularly dilapidated mining outpost somewhere in deep space, the motto doubles as a grim sight gag; if the sun never sets on this corner of the Weyland-Yutani empire, that’s because it never rises, either. More generally, though, the phrase points to the core mandate of a blockbuster series that ranks among the greatest of its era and cycles through visionary directors tasked with creating striking, fully realized environments expansive enough to accommodate several decades’ worth of Alien lore.