Has the goodwill a film has accrued ever been undermined so completely by a single line of asinine fanboy zinger? (You’ll know it when you hear it.)

But mostly, Fede Álvarez’s plunge into the ever-popular sci-fi legacy is agreeable, a straightforward romp that returns the franchise to its claustrophobic horror-house-in-space origins. The set design and world-building are thoroughly immersive, the spaceship porn satisfying, the call-backs bearable but for that one zinger (although mileage may vary on this). For the most…

This is a film guided so much by tropes and a tired sense of going-through-the-motions that any potential in the true story basis is stifled from the start. This means that having De Niro play two parts doesn’t have the resources to overcome its novelty: rather, the audience may just spend the film being distracted by prosthetics/AI/CGI embellishments to his face throughout. It is a gimmick with no narrative justification and, really, De Niro’s gangster mafioso dialogue and schtick is…