Alien: Romulus is an entertaining, anxiety-inducing film that, at times, feels too caught up in trying to be nostalgic for its own sake. However, when it tries to be its own film, it becomes a thrilling entry that will be highly rewatchable.
Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her brother Andy (David Jonsson) are stuck on a Weyland-Yutani mining colony where death follows each generation of miners. Desperate to escape and find the planet Yvaga and feel the sun on her skin, she and her friends find an abandoned ship with the equipment needed. Once they board the ship, their dreams soon turn to nightmares.
Alien: Romulus is a bit of a mixed bag of a film, which, if we are honest, is, at this point, a trope of the Alien franchise. The production design will always be something special; there seems to be extra care ever since Ridley Scott’s Alien to ensure that, at minimum, the film looks fantastic. This has been successfully fulfilled once more in Romulus, with production designer Naaman Marshall doing some exemplary work. From the look of Jackson’s Star mining colony to the Renaissance ship, it’s inspired work. You are fully embedded into the world, and for them to wisely match the technology of the world they are in was a great touch. We are placed in the world between Alien and Aliens here and so any fancy technology that we saw in Prometheus and Covenant has been tossed to the side.
This then leads us to the wonderful (well, wonderful if you are a fan of the Alien franchise) creature designs that we get here; seeing the metamorphosis stage of when a chest burster alien turns to a xenomorph was as beautifully gruesome as you would hope for it to be. Fede Álvarez boasted about the practicals of each of the creatures we see here, and he wasn’t kidding as, again, the practical effects department has done some unbelievable work. Yet, you can’t discount the equally fantastic work the VFX team has completed here. For the most part (we will get to the part that doesn’t work in the spoiler portion of the review), the work here is on a top-level from Weta. You can only be impressed with the love and care everyone on the production has put in to make Alien: Romulus look as good as it does.
However, you wish that Fede Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues had put as much love and care into their script as they have written a film that is like the greatest hits of the previous six films. Picking little moments here and there from the last six films where they could lift from. For those who have only seen Alien or Aliens or are a casual fan, you won’t mind it. It is what it is, but for rabid Alien franchise fans, it becomes less like a love letter to those films and more of a lazy endeavour. As if they had the moments they wanted to use from the previous movies and thought, “How do I get this to fit?”. Sometimes, it fits perfectly well with the story, and at other times, it’s a bit, well, nonsensical.
For example, two different female characters are wearing shoes remarkably similar to what Ripley wore in Alien and Aliens. We even get close-ups of these shoes on purpose, as if Álvarez wanted the audience to be Rick Dalton on his lazy boy pointing at the screen. It’s a nice little touch sure, but is it necessary? That is mainly the complaint for some of these inclusions. For example, when the mining hauler Corbelan IV starts up, Álvarez uses the EXACT sounds from Alien’s opening scene. When I say exact, I mean actual, as if the audio has been lifted and dropped right into that scene. It’s lovely but needless and forced. When a character says a line from a previous entry, it is equally as forced and something that the Predator series has done to just as much of a forced level in their films.
Now, the story itself works terrifically well for the first half; the film has us feeling for Rain and Andy, and you want them both to get the hell off of that mining colony. The base work is all there, but once the turn happens on the Renaissance, there is an apparent need for the film to go a mile a minute, much to its detriment. In previous entries, we are given significant time with several characters to connect with them. Still, here, other than Rain, Andy, and somewhat Kay, we are given nothing but snippets of reasons to care about the other three crew members. For a cast smaller than Alien, this is almost inexcusable.
This disappointment increases tenfold due to just how strong the opening act and the first portion of the second act are. The stakes are raised, and all of the pieces are in place for us to care about what is going to happen to these desperately hopeful characters. Additionally, props are brought up for quite cool use and then used for a short second before being discarded. An example is the portable X-ray machine that should have been built up a bit more to allow for a far greater impact than what we eventually get. A few slip-ups, but not critical ones. This is due to the fact that the majority of the performances are good in Alien: Romulus.
Archie Renaux gives a strong performance as Tyler; there is a moment when all that is important to him seems to be lost, and he collapses and begs Andy to do something to help him that person breaks your heart, and it’s such an important little choice. He doesn’t get angry with Andy; he falls apart. It’s not something that we usually see in what should be the male lead of a film like this, and it allowed us to appreciate him that much more. Equally, as Kay, Isabela Merced does some great work in the film. Where Rain is the heart of the film, Kay is the soul. She is the one we need to see make it out of this chaos due to what she goes through, as poor Kay is thoroughly put through the wringer in Romulus.
Cailee Spaeny is exceptional here. While she does not give off the commanding presence that Weaver had as Ripley, she does present the more nuanced and devasted performance that Katherine Waterson did in Alien: Covenant as Daniels. You can feel her fear at almost every turn, and she is impeccable throughout the film.
The true standout is David Jonnson, who is sensational here. As much as Spaeny leads the film and is the heart of it all, Jonnson shines so brightly as the multifaceted Andy. His arc has him playing three different types of characters in his performance while leaving the audience at the edge of their feet if he is hiding something from Rain. To have the audience continually in doubt of his allegiance at all times is the tale of an actor at the top of their field, and damn, does he not leave you gasping at the subtle changes he exhibits as the varying iterations of Andy. As a duo, Spaeny and Jonnson are gold. If this sequel/mini reboot does garner its thread in the franchise, then I am excited about what they can do together again.
The design and the cast help elevate Alien: Romulus a great deal, and while the writing is a little suspect, there is one character that had absolutely no need to look the way they did, and that was the artificial person Rook. Why they decided to use CGI’s resurrection of a dead actor for this is beyond comprehension. It is purely for using some lines and is a “cool” idea on paper. However, ethically? A total and utter misstep. Even from a non-ethical viewpoint, its effect just does not work and, at times, is a total distraction. Another actor was robbed of the chance to be an effective character and (spoiler-lite, sorry) villain.
This use of that actor for the character of Rook caused the film to shoehorn his inclusion into scenes in a way that was, at best, iffy. Typically, this character would join the group or pop physically here and there. But, because of them using CGI to replace the face and voice of the character, they are limited to appearing on a screen, like an evil version of Holly from Red Dwarf. It’s an idea cool on paper, but for a film, it simply does not work as effectively as the film needs, and Álvarez wanted it to. This is a shame, as you could easily mine the idea of Rook well for a film like Romulus.
The added disadvantage to having a character pop up on a screen like this is that you simply couldn’t shake the feeling that when the characters are aboard the Renaissance, the film almost has a cutaway game feel towards it, especially if you have played Alien: Isolation. A fair amount of Alien: Romulus plays out like a video game, none more so than the gravity acid scene. Characters are taken to new set pieces without overly making too much narrative sense. While the moments are great to watch, they could make more sense in the overall scope of the film. Yet, you know something is about to go grim when they see Rook on the screen at a point near specific doors, which is too heavy a nod to the game Alien: Isolation to ignore.
The second act feels like a speed run to the finish thanks to the countdown the film placed upon itself that it causes everything, from the gestation period after a face-hugger attack to the chest-burster scene, to go so much faster than any of the previous entries could even dream of achieving. This juggling act of trying to appease franchise fans while bringing in a newer audience is difficult to achieve. Depending on your thoughts on Ridley Scott’s prequels, it gives you an idea of the task at hand and how those films work (hell, even Alien 3 and Resurrection still have continuous arguments being raised about how good those are).
What does work, though, is the final 15 minutes, which is as much nightmare fuel as you could ever dream of in an Alien film. An introduction to a slightly modified version of an old idea from Prometheus and Covenant brings us as many gasps and curses to the audience as you could imagine. You find yourself leaning forward, trying to look at every inch of what you are seeing. Álvarez has managed to take pieces of previous entries to conjure something up that absolutely works in its own hideous way and would be something Giger himself would most likely love.
Look, a lot of this will read as if I disliked Alien: Romulus, which isn’t true in the slightest; other than the odd grumble, I had a very enjoyable time with it. Is it as good as some of the other entries? No, of course not. Importantly, however, I wasn’t expecting it to be. As a fan of the franchise, I wanted a film that focused on the horror of being trapped in a situation like that with creatures you cannot comprehend. To that, it succeeded, and then some. There are many cool moments that work, and it would be recommended to watch Alien beforehand if you are fond of double-bills. I could go on for an age about Alien: Romulus. Still, by then, it would venture so heavily into spoiler territory that no one would be happy.
Alien: Romulus is a visceral, bleak film, and having Álvarez helmed, it was the perfect decision. He is a filmmaker with clear visions who isn’t afraid to go to those dark places that some mainstream horror filmmakers perhaps kerb themselves from. With the added “easter eggs” references from previous films littered throughout the film, you fear that it will be one who “love letter”.
That isn’t the case here; there is enough freshness to Romulus for you to enjoy, and other than Rook, the rest is just a superficial distraction. This is, in fact, the main issue with the film, that there is so much of that present that isn’t required at all. It was as if there was a lack of confidence in the writing, and these references and lines needed to be added to keep the audience interested. But, if you remove those lines and some moments, the film works as its beast. More than works it soars as a great entry that sadly got weighed down by nostalgia.
If we are honest with ourselves, Alien films, especially the first 4, are a mixture of a haunted house and slasher. They (yes, even Aliens) all follow the same structure, and nothing is wrong with that. We just want it to have a great-looking style while it does it, and, in that respect, Álvarez knocks it out of the park. Does it rely too much on the other films to have our point at the screen and go, “A-ha!”? Very much so. However, the film still works as its own piece and, importantly, brings enough new ideas to help flesh out the world. It’s highly rewatchable, but goodness does you wish they had gone a different way with a few of those ideas they went with.
★★★ 1/2
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