Directed by Fede Alvarez — Screenplay by Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues.
The Alien franchise can mean a lot of different things depending on the person you ask. For some, Alien, due to the original Ridley Scott 1979 classic, is Jaws (or a haunted house horror movie) set in space. Others think more fondly of James Cameron’s arguably equally iconic sequel, Aliens, which injected Scott’s blue-collar space-set horror flick with action adrenalin and a militaristic focus, while still keeping its key distrust of corporations at the heart of the film. I wonder if the subsequent divisive-to-middling sequels and spin-offs only further complicated the core audience’s understanding of what an Alien film is supposed to be. When Ridley Scott returned to shepherd the franchise and meld it with some of the ideas of his Blade Runner film in both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, they, too, divided opinion. While some embraced Prometheus‘ ambitious ideas and a key performance, others rejected them wholesale, perhaps because it wasn’t enough of an Alien film or for its specific answers (or lack thereof) as a prequel film, though I acknowledge that some may feel that to be an oversimplification of people’s problems with it. In any case, Scott responded with Alien: Covenant, which continued the overarching narrative started in Prometheus, but also, at the same time, sometimes felt like an effort to compromise and satisfy those that felt Prometheus was too different. The naysayers weren’t won over by Alien: Covenant, which, I contend, is actually an extremely underappreciated film, and the film was a box office disappointment. Seven years later, we now have the first Alien film since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox titled Alien: Romulus, which is a solid and suspenseful horror throwback. However, truth be told, it is also maybe a little bit too safe of a film given the big choices and risks that directors like Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and David Fincher have taken over the years.
Alien: Romulus is set sometime in between Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens, and the film follows a young woman named Rain (played by Cailee Spaeny) who works on a faraway planet that functions as a mining colony for the mysterious Weyland-Yutani corporation. In the early stages of the film, Rain figures out that she won’t be able to leave that world behind and chase the world of her dreams due to a corporate decision. Rain is accompanied by a timid or interactionally challenged but kind android (or ‘synthetic’) named Andy (played by David Jonsson) — whose prime directive is to look after her — and who she thinks of as a brother. While dejected, Rain is approached by her ex-boyfriend, Tyler (played by Archie Renaux), who plans to take a spaceship to a nearby (potentially abandoned) Weyland-Yutani space station with the hopes of stealing their resources and cryogenic chambers that will allow them to journey to a distant planet, which may give them a brighter future. There’s just one thing: Tyler and his crew, consisting of family and friends, need Andy to gain access and communicate with the ship’s internal computer. Though it takes some convincing, Rain eventually agrees to take Andy with her on the mission. However, as you may have guessed, the derelict space station is not as empty or safe as the film’s cast of characters presumes, and, soon, they find themselves in a dangerous situation in which they are out of their depth.
In theory and on paper, it makes a lot of sense for 20th Century Studios to hire Fede Alvarez to write (with Rodo Savagues) and direct 20th Century Studios’ latest entry in the Alien franchise. Alvarez made his name with a feature directorial debut that was marketed as a re-imagining of Sam Raimi’s horror classic Evil Dead, and with that film, he proved that he knows how to take a beloved formula or narrative structure that worked and add in some intense new ideas to make a new film stand out. Alvarez has done the very same thing with Romulus. Though it is very clearly set after Scott’s original film (and is thus more than merely a remake or re-imagining), Romulus does, in broad strokes, follow the basic narrative structure formula of the original film, which, admittedly, quite a few of these sequels have done. Meanwhile, he also adds in a splash of originality in the first act, as well as some sequences that feel relatively fresh. For example, in Romulus, there is a really well-thought-out, set-up, and executed sequence in zero gravity, as well as a disturbing twist on a classic Alien plot beat in the third act. Alvarez’s film also does a good job of making the iconic facehugger creatures feel more ferocious than they have in a long time. When we first see these facehuggers in the film, Alvarez succeeds with a claustrophobic and suspenseful action horror sequence that essentially kickstarts the entire film following an appropriately methodically-paced start to the first act. Frankly, it also sometimes feels like Fede Alvarez has made a blend of his original horror film Don’t Breathe and Scott’s Alien, as Rain’s character motivations resemble those of Jane Levy’s Rocky in Don’t Breathe (in both films, the female protagonist hopes to steal from somewhere mysterious or sketchy for the purpose of improving her own and her sibling’s lives).
As the film progresses, it becomes quite clear that it is chock-full of easter eggs, callbacks, and references. Alvarez and Sayagues clearly wanted to honor and pay homage to all of the many Alien films that fans have come to know or love, depending on the person. It is an admirable ambition and some of these references are fun noises, set dressing, or the like. But the familiarity and the callbacks eventually almost derail the film, when one character, for no reason, blurts out an iconic line that cheapens both the original line and this new film. It completely took me out of the film and, I suspect, many will sour on the film when they first hear this line. Without going into details, there is also a CGI character in this film whose inclusion is completely unnecessary, highly controversial (for reasons I can’t go into without spoiling it), and purely inserted to have audiences point to the screen and acknowledge that, yes, they remember him. If the film had only lifted the original film’s well-worn structure, then it wouldn’t have felt as egregious as what happens here, because, frankly, most of the clear missteps in this film are related to its fan service-like moments where it knowingly winks at the audience. This isn’t to say that the clear references are all bad. Frankly, I think a certain music cue in the second act is quite rewarding, and I also think this film takes an idea from Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien: Resurrection and executes it much, much better and more horrifyingly through visual effects and design.
Other than being a little bit too interested in fan service for an otherwise relatively good legacy sequel, I also think the film, unlike the last two films in the film series, has too little on its mind. The Alien films are arguably the most rewarding when they have something new to say, as well as memorable characters, but, frankly, most of the characters here are disappointingly thinly drawn, while its commentary on androids feels too superficial. That said, I do think the two central performances — the ones delivered by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson — are fairly good. Though Spaeny is the lead of the film, her character also feels surprisingly underwritten, what, however, sets her apart from previous heroines is her character’s connection to Andy, and their dynamic is one of the film’s hidden weapons. Jonsson is particularly good as the film’s most pivotal synthetic. His android feels markedly different from fan-favorite synthetics played by Ian Holm, Lance Henriksen, and Michael Fassbender. There is an innocence to him in early scenes and a facial performance that pulls you in, and Jonsson does a good job of expressing his character’s development over the course of the film.
Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus spends a lot of energy in trying to connect this latest entry of the iconic sci-fi horror franchise together with each and every previous solo Alien-film. In Romulus, there are notable easter eggs, callbacks, and references that vary between being just subtle enough and being borderline groan-inducing in how they, basically, stop the film in its tracks to wink at the audience. With the way the film tries to pay homage to all of the Alien films (and even some games), Romulus does sometimes resemble a greatest hits entry or a safe legacy sequel in the vein of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This is because even though it does make bold choices with regards to how to pay homage to each film (including with what I presume will be a third act development that’ll divide opinion and be controversial to some despite its disturbing creature realization), it does stick pretty close to the overall structural formula of the series, as it only really changes certain structural aspects in the first act. Despite how familiar and overly callback-focused it is, it is a solid Alien film complete with excellent retrofuturistic production design, and plenty of scares and suspension-filled scenes for it to be more than worthy of the price of admission. It definitely is not the bold and thought-provoking step forward for the franchise that Ridley Scott tried to take with his as-of-yet (sadly) unfinished David-trilogy, rather it is a relatively safe playing of the hits that does, however, have moments of greatness in its evocation of the film series’ classic horror roots, as well as a small handful of clever new sequences.
7 out of 10
– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 