Nerdly » ‘Alien Rubicon’ Review

09th Apr2025

‘Alien Rubicon’ Review

by Jim Morazzini

Stars: Preston Geer, Neeley Dayan, Vinney Pugliese, Michael Paré, Paul Logan | Written by Glenn Campbell, Tammy Klein | Directed by Adrian Avila

20th Century Studios released Alien: Romulus, and The Asylum – as is their modus operandi – was right there with their mockbuster Alien Rubicon, but those who mistake Alien Rubicon for Alien: Romulus are likely to be quite upset because, despite the presence of aliens, these are very different films.

Astrobiologist Dr. Jeff Morrow (Preston Geer; Trust in Love, 4 Horsemen: Apocalypse), is planning on using his days off to take his kids, Leanne (Neeley Dayan) and Adam (Vinney Pugliese; The Twisters, Twixxx) camping. Unfortunately, a brief stop at his lab puts an end to those plans when Adam detects a huge sphere approaching Earth from the same area his father detected a strange transmission a year or so ago.

On orders of President McCoy (Michael Paré; Streets of Fire, War of the Worlds: Extinction) Dr. Morrow is brought in to help figure out what it is and what to do about it. But when he and Captain Jeffe (Paul Logan; 2025 Armageddon, Bigfoot or Bust) try probing it with a laser it responds with a destructive blast of its alien weaponry and begins heading for Washington D.C.

The script for Alien Rubicon was written by The Asylum’s resident effects supervisor Glenn Campbell (Adventures of Aladdin, Trollz) and another effects artist Tammy Klein (Arctic Armageddon, Adventures of Aladdin). They gave themselves and director Adrian Avila (Alien Apocalypse) plenty of chances to showcase the destruction caused by the sphere as it battles the military on its journey to D.C.

Perhaps because it was written by the effects team, the CGI in Alien Rubicon is actually quite good for an Asylum film. Scenes of the sphere making short work of whatever planes, tanks and warships the military pits against it come off fairly good for a change. The only really weak effects were some shots of the heroes’ chopper making a crash landing.

As for the horde of alien creatures you see in the trailer, well what you see is what you get. Those few seconds of footage are all there is. You didn’t really think The Asylum was really going to spend the kind of money it would take to have them play a major part in the film, did you? It’s the same with the revelation that this is just a probe, gathering info for an invasion fleet the budget can’t afford to show.

Plot-wise, it’s all pretty standard stuff as Morrow and Jeffe do their best to stay alive while keeping the alien craft under observation. Of course, its path eventually puts Morrow’s kids in danger and there are plenty of scenes of the characters arguing in the President’s bunker before the final, do or die attempt to stop the invasion. That last-ditch effort involves one of the dumbest plot twists I’ve seen in a while, though. It involves one of the characters revealing the existence of a secret weapon he’s known about all along, but since it violates treaties, he doesn’t say anything while the East Coast gets destroyed.

Most of the rest of Alien Rubicon, from the cinematography by Michael Su (Hell’s Coming for You, 12 to Midnight) to the score, which somehow took three people to compose, are solid.

While it is better than most films from The Asylum, it is still one of their films. So, if you are a fan, then you should find this to your liking. If you’re not a fan, or at least a regular viewer of their output, keep your expectations in check, and you’ll probably find it enjoyable as well. And if you did end up renting it by accident, try to watch it with an open mind, and you might get some value for your money after all.