Few franchises in Hollywood have cultivated the longevity and legacy of Sir Ridley Scott’s Alien anthology.
Dating all the way back to 1979, the first Alien film just celebrated its 45th anniversary, and through the years, it has since evolved into something more than the unadulterated “haunted house in space” concept. But it’s time to bring it back to its roots, and that is exactly what Fede Alvarez does with Alien: Romulus the latest installment in this legendary series!
In Hollywood, sci-fi is risky. Horror is also risky. So when Scott, and writers Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett created this story, it was something unheard of at the time. Thankfully, it was met with astonishing box office success and introduced the world to Ellen Ripley, one of the best protagonists in cinematic history. But I think it’s fair to say that the franchise transformed into different things over the years. Director James Cameron took it more into an action direction (brilliantly) with Aliens in 1986. The franchise ended up sort of drifting into schlock with the AVP films, before Scott returned with a more philosophical approach with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
Thus, after over 40 years of detours, what Alvarez does with Romulus feels fresh, choosing to focus exclusively on the horror and the bare-bones premise of the “haunted house in space” concept that made the original the classic it is today.
Alien: Romulus is a mostly stand-alone midquel set between Alien and Aliens; about 20 years after the first. It settles on a group of young settlers from a Weyland-Yutani mining colony; specifically Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her “brother” an artificial person/synthetic named Andy (David Jonsson). Looking for a way to get off their colony, and away from essentially indentured servitude to the company, they team up with Rain’s pseudo-boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux), his pregnant sister Kay (Isabella Merced), his cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and their pilot Navarro (Aileen Wu) to scavenge the remnants of an abandoned space station for parts to sell. Unfortunately, they find more than just scrap metal. They come face to face(hugger) with a terrifying presence that seems to have ties to the company they’re trying to escape from.
Alien: Romulus is a fun ride. And honestly, if you’re less tethered to the original franchise, I think you’ll enjoy it even more. It’s creepy as hell. There’s some incredibly thrilling, innovative moments for the franchise. There’s a lot of great action as well, for those who prefer their Alien more Cameron, less Scott. That said, I found myself really enjoying most of this movie, in particular the back to roots horror vibe of it. I think the passion with which Alvarez approaches the film is infectious.
However, I admittedly found myself a little disappointed with the fact that the movie is a lot more flawed than I was anticipating, given my fondness for Alvarez’s first two films. The biggest disappointment being its characters. This is where I believe your love of the original may make or break your sentiments towards Romulus. Because Alien (1979) had incredibly memorable characters. Ripley, of course, but also Ash, Kane, Dallas, Parker, and Brett all had personalities and motivations we could understand and get behind. The interpersonal relationships between all of them were well defined, and organic. That contributed to the suspense as you’re watching these Nostromo crew members get picked off one-by-one.
The same really can’t be said about Romulus. There is one terrific relationship defined in the film — that between Rain and Andy — but the rest of the characters are incredibly forgettable. In many ways, the blandness of the character writing and direction is quite a disservice to the actors playing them. We know Spaney, Merced, and Renaux can be incredibly charismatic. We’ve seen them perform beautifully in other works before. But here they really come off as bland caricatures, lacking in emotion and personality.
Everything we know about these characters is unfortunately told to us through expositional dialogue, which feels like it’s there just so we can say “hey here’s how they know each other, now let’s get to the horror.” And that’s fine. Not every movie has to have incredible character work, if you want to focus on the fun. But I would argue that it would make things more fun if we cared about them at all. I think previous Alien classics did that better than Romulus.
For instance, Fearn’s character Bjorn comes across as incredibly unlikable. He’s constantly rude, incredibly mean to Andy, and acts like a complete jerk for most of his on-screen appearance. The movie stops to tell us his parents were killed by a situation with a synthetic, and that’s why he is the way he is. But because all of this is being told to us blatantly, and we barely get to see a deeper, more sympathetic side to him, we just can’t connect or sympathize with him at all, even though the movie is telling us to. That’s not good for your movie.
With Rain, I really wanted to love her. She’s our Ripley proxy here. And as such, comparisons to Ripley, or even Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw from Prometheus, will be inevitable. Spaeny is a wonderful and charming actress, with a lot of charisma capable of being as iconic if her character was better written. But here she’s just a bit of a husk that emotionlessly walks from scene to scene without an ounce of the charm she’s shown in previous roles, like Civil War, Priscilla, or even Pacific Rim Uprising. There’s no expression on her face, save for the tender moments she has with Jonsson’s Andy. This relationship and their moments together are the only thing that make her character really stand out. But I was hoping for more after such strong performances in Civil War and Priscilla recently.
That being said, Jonsson and the character of Andy are among the best things the movie has in terms of character and performance. Jonsson essentially has to play two different versions of Andy, and does so brilliantly. One moment he’s a meek, caring simple synth. The next he’s quite sinister and callus, and Jonsson nails it! He’s perfectly casted and brilliantly capable of switching from one to the other on a dime. Even delivering a (phoned in) callback line in the final act that still comes across charming given his performance. Not easy to do, and yet, he wins you over from the very moment you meet him.
For the most part, I loved the practical effects, and the wonderful production design within this movie. Every detail, every prop, and every hallway evokes the very best of this franchise, particularly the first. The astonishing cinematography and lighting enhance that, while all reminding you this is indeed a Fede Alvarez movie, and that is one of the best aspects of this installment. It feels like Alvarez’s work, but also does match the tone and feel of an Alien movie quite perfectly.
Most twists Alvarez does stamp into the film do actually work nicely. There are two scenes in particular which stand out wonderfully. One incredibly tense moment that evokes the very best of his film, Don’t Breathe, and the other, a zero-G scene that feels incredibly “Cameron” but updated, certainly come to mind.
If there’s one moment in the movie that serves as an incredibly unnecessary twist, it’s one that comes at the very end. There is a reveal that tries its hardest to capture the final act scare of the first film’s final moments (where Ripley finally escapes only for the xenomorph to have stowed away on her escape shuttle), but it ends up feeling weird, unnecessary, and completely out of place. It’s a moment that, I think in some ways, serves as a more Prometheus-esque moment for the film, but it just doesn’t really work, and the film would have been better ending about 20 minutes earlier.
If there’s one thing as well that I think ended up being a terrible decision within the movie, it’s the inclusion of a character meant to resemble another character from the original film, that required the use of deepfake technology. And boy did that look awful. It also felt disrespectful to the memory of the actor who would have otherwise played the character in this movie. Worst of all, that becomes an antagonist and a large supporting part of the film.
This was not a good decision at all, and if removed from the movie, I think the film would have been a lot stronger and even more straightforward, which would have benefited the movie as well. I am honestly not sure why the decision to do what they did for this character was made, but I think it will absolutely alienate hardcore fans of the franchise who are loyal to a core, while also turning off the uninitiated who won’t understand why the uncanny valley is being forced on them during the movie.
But having said that, I can’t lie. Despite the flat characters, and a couple of terrible decisions, I actually had fun watching this movie. It’s almost impossible not to go into an Alvarez feature and not be entertained or engaged. He’s too good a filmmaker for that, and Romulus is definitely no exception. It captures the right tone, feel, and thrills of the original movie, while allowing Alvarez to leave his mark on the franchise.
Sequences are a lot of fun, and pretty thrilling. The passion and love for the craftsmanship of the original films is on full display here. I just wish the characters and the story were a bit stronger. Still, thanks to a terrific performance by Jonsson and a likable character in Andy, there’s just barely enough emotion there to allow you to enjoy the fun and thrills while being moderately invested in the survival of a few of these characters. Romulus is not a full on reboot success the way Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey was for the Predator series. But there’s enough bite in this one to allow you to enjoy yourself at the movies.
Overall Score: B-
