For me, a big point of stupid pride is not getting nostalgia-baited, so I'm conflicted whether the low-tech/early digital/pre-glass-cockpit aesthetics are something I'm nostalgic for (despite it not really being a feature of my youth) or just an aesthetic I like.
Because boy howdy, this movie just drips those aesthetics. Everything on screen seems reach and touchable, save for the few space exterior scenes. The screens with their grainy audio, the big buttons everywhere, the... whatever the UI style was before we got mouse and icons. Gold. Love it. Great. A movie you can watch just for that.
Prometheus also had some gorgeous physical stuff, but it was also plagued with a crew of rock-stupid characters, all the more damningly so as they were supposed to be the most smartest, best scientists sent on a mission of paramount importance. Prometheus 2 had an even dumber crew, so much so that we quit the movie one hour in.
In Romulus, it is somewhat easier to swallow the actions of the people, since they're youths of ambiguous age (the leads are 26 IRL, though you're supposed to consider them younger?), and even when they act stupid, you can either understand or forgive them.
And while the movie continues the theme of Weyland-Yutani having 100% failure and casualty rates whenever they touch a xenomorph, at least Romulus tries to do something more with the threat we know so well. We already know everything there is to know about the Xenomorph and their life cycle, we will not be surprised. But some effort is made to make their threats not be literally the same as last time.
I'm not a fan of all the callbacks made to previous movies, basically fan service, but if you haven't seen Alien or seen it once, a million years ago, you will not get them and they'll be fine.
I feel the ending is entirely too long. The "end boss" was entirely unnecessary and just extended the movie past the tension point where you thought it would have been naturally over.
On the brainworm phrenology side of things, I think Cailee Spaeny was cast because she looks so good scared. When nothing's happening, she's just an attractive woman, not like, say, Megan Fox, who you'd cast to get the MEN going. However, when it comes to being scared, Speany looks so soft and protectable, it's main reason you saw her in the trailers for Civil War. Look at her! So protectable!!! But other than that, she works well in her role - and so does the rest of the cast, tbh.
And I guess that's what Alien: Romulus is: it works well. Even as meta-brained as I am, constantly fighting the plot, I felt the tension, physically reacted to the things on screens, and greatly enjoyed what I saw, visually. My main complaint is the unnecessarily-long ending.
Oh, and one SPOLERY thing for the folks that watched it:
You guys, the crash of the station. I know the planetary ring isn't going to be that dense as to work like a belt sander, but I love how Romulus didn't explode the moment it touched it. I loved that we constantly saw it in the background being sanded to shit. 10/10