The Alien franchise, like its famous xenomorph, is a very weird creature in and of itself. The first two installments are often hailed as sci-fi classics, every other cinematic entry since has been…divisive, to say the least. Enter Alien: Romulus, writer/director Fede Álvarez’s attempt at bringing the franchise back to basics. Romulus mostly succeeds at this by being genuinely scary, but there’s some major caveats holding it back from reaching the heights of the predecessors.
Taking place between Alien and Aliens in the year 2142, the film starts off in Jackson’s Hope, a gloomy mining colony that Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) is hoping to escape alongside her “brother”, an android named Andy (David Jonsson). After the mining company repeatedly denies her requests to leave, a small group—led by her old friend Tyler (Archie Renaud)—approach the pair with an ambitious plan: Sneak to a nearby abandoned space station and steal the materials they’ll need to find a new home for themselves. Upon the group’s arrival to the station, things expectedly go south as Rain and co. find out the reason the station was abandoned. Cue the facehuggers, xenomorphs, and all hell breaking loose.
There’s a whole lot to like about Alien: Romulus. In its best moments, Álvarez makes the xenomorphs and especially the facehuggers the scariest they’ve been in years. There are several setpieces across the whole movie that feel truly inspired, like Rain attempting to dodge acid blood in zero-gravity. Just like in his Evil Dead remake and Don’t Breathe, he isn’t afraid to get really weird and gross, especially in the insane third act. In addition, the entire movie just looks stunning, especially on an IMAX screen.
“At the end of it all, Alien: Romulus is essentially a mish-mash of the first movie’s scares, and the second movie’s action.”
Álvarez has gone at length in interviews about shooting the film on real sets and using mostly practical effects, and the results pay off beautifully. I wish the same dedication had been placed to the characters, as most of them feel one-dimensional bodies waiting to hit the chopping block, with the only exceptions being the two leads. While Rain is essentially Ripley-lite, Cailee Spaeny still manages to make the role her own.
That being said, David Jonsson steals the whole movie with his layered performance. Jonsson alternates between wildly different personalities. In one moment, he’s awkwardly sharing dad jokes, and another he’s cold and pragmatic, reminiscent of other androids across the franchise. Andy’s familial bond with Rain is the one real bit of humanity in the film, and it feels genuine.
“There’s a whole lot to like about Alien: Romulus. In its best moments, Álvarez makes the xenomorphs and especially the facehuggers the scariest they’ve been in years.”
Where things go bad are in Romulus’ need to “play the hits”. I surprisingly dug the connection to Ridley Scott’s prequel Prometheus and how it factored into the third act, but I wasn’t a fan of famous lines getting rehashed when it didn’t make sense for the characters to say it. Where it crosses the line is the use of CG replica of a deceased actor from the original Alien to establish a connection between the two. It was a ghoulish practice when it was done in Rogue One but at the very least, they were on-screen cameos that lasted just a few seconds at most.
In Romulus’ case, they become a major supporting character for the rest of the movie. What makes it baffling is the movie legitimately didn’t need to have that actor portray the character in the first place. It’s a different kind of gross than the type Álvarez intended and it sours the movie as a whole.
At the end of it all, Alien: Romulus is essentially a mish-mash of the first movie’s scares, and the second movie’s action. I came out merely liking it when I wanted to love it, but as someone who also dislikes every movie but those first two, it’s still the most I’ve legitimately enjoyed an Alien movie in years.
