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Alien: Romulus Review
Image Credit: 20th Century Studios
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Directed By: Fede Álvarez
Written By: Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues; Based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett
Runtime: 119 minutes
MPA Rating: Rated-R for bloody violent content and language
Cailee Spaeny – Rain Carradine
David Jonsson – Andy
Isabela Merced – Kay
Archie Renaux – Tyler
Aileen Wu – Navarro
Spike Fearn – Bjorn
Fede Álvarez makes a valiant attempt to bring the Alien franchise back to its classic roots with the new “interquel,” Alien: Romulus. Despite showing meticulous care in the film’s style and presentation, Álvarez fails to serve the overall story and characters, culminating in an empty franchise rehash that lacks a soul.
Set roughly two decades after the original Alien: Romulus, the corporate overseers of Weyland-Yutani hit the proverbial pay-dirt in the ashes of the USCSS Nostromo incident. The saying of the franchise is “In space, no one can hear you scream.” But that doesn’t mean a corporate probe can’t find a proverbial needle in the haystack; that haystack being the void of space. Among the remnants of the doomed star freighter is a prized sample coveted by the Company that brings certain doom.
The story transitions to the Jackson’s Star mining colony, an off-world mining outpost run by the shadowy Weyland-Yutani Corporation. The harsh disease-ridden conditions of the mining operation leave a whole generation of children as orphans, left to fend for themselves, forced into indentured servitude for Weyland-Yutani with no means or options to go elsewhere. Rain Carradine (Spaeny) and her adopted brother, Andy (Jonsson) are among the colony’s neglected mining workforce. Andy is an antiquated Weyland-Yutani synthetic, reprogrammed to help his “sister” and do what’s best for her. After the Company callously increases Rain’s mining quotas, she and Andy are driven into a corner, forced to remain in their hellish, dystopic existence where the sun never rises.
Later, Tyler (Renaux), an old acquaintance of Rain and Andy’s offers them a potential solution to their problems. They detect an abandoned Company spaceship orbiting the planet with the technology and the means to escape the dystopic colony. The tech allures Rain with the hope of a fresh start in an independent colony. Tyler’s crew requires Andy since, as a Company android, he’s their key to accessing the derelict spaceship’s computer systems. Rain’s current predicament looks hopeless so she reluctantly joins Tyler’s crew, made up of similarly young, wayward space colonizers, who all lost their parents and were forced to fend for themselves from a young age. Unfortunately, they soon realize the abandoned space station they seek to salvage was “abandoned” for a good reason. Tyler and his crew’s activity soon revives the seemingly deserted ship back to life and its sleeping apex predators along with it.
Director Fede Alvarez’s reverence for the classic 1979 Alien is loud and clear from the first second of Alien: Romulus. The film’s visual style and aesthetic display impressive effort and measures to restore the now retro-future visual style and world that Ridley Scott and the artisans of the original film’s crew created. However, while that reverence does serve Romulus at first, it eventually goes overboard. Romulus lacks its own identity and has nothing new to say about the iconic Xenomorphs.
Romulus shows initial promise in its first half, aside from minor plot issues and rushed character development. The slow burn and search through the Renaissance space station ratchets up the tension. The opening and early second acts feature an eerily nostalgic feeling. However, the nostalgia bait that Romulus creates is the trap of legacy sequels such as this.
Regardless, it’s nice to see production designer Naaman Marshall and cinematographer Galo Olivares honor the work that came before them. The sets and oppressive, brutalism-style structures of Jackson’s Star Mining Colony and the Renaissance station display an accurate familiarity with the classic installments of the franchise. There are no holograms and touch screens. Technology reverts to metal switches, buttons, and LED screens with graphics and pixelated screens that look crude and antiquated by most modern standards.
Alien: Romulus features a specific moment where the script takes a nosedive into territory that should have been left behind with Alien: Covenant. In the film’s reverence for the franchise, the film unnecessarily forces reverence of the abysmal Alien prequels into its structure, to its detriment. The prequels deconstruct the Xenomorphs by explaining their origins, making them less terrifying, mysterious, and fascinating as cosmic horrors. These moments fail to serve the progression in Romulus when the film comes very close to restoring the Xenomorphs’ cinematic majesty.
Romulus is also hindered by the unnecessary presence of a familiar visage from the franchise. While the temptation and utilization of the familiar aspects are understandable, the visual effects look rough and out of step with the rest of the film. Considering Álvarez production provides some significantly impressive visual effects, specifically practical sets and creature animatronics, it’s the presence of a significant character, largely realized with CG visuals, who causes the biggest problems for the film and only drags down the experience further. From there, Romulus constantly veers into nostalgia trap territory, repeatedly calling back on the previous films while failing to build a truly unique identity. The presence of classic lines and motifs might be entertaining to some, but they serve no purpose in Romulus other than pointless, unearned fan service.
As a director, Fede Álvarez is undoubtedly talented, constructing multiple impressive sequences throughout Romulus. The isolated scenes conceptually look great and are well put together, but the story around them fails to elevate the material. One scene involving the classic Xenomorph almost brings the iconic movie monster back to its previous full cinematic glory. Sadly, the creatures become minor inconveniences for the remainder of the film. Another sequence shows the Xenomorph performing an act that makes no sense and comes off poorly. The scene offers Rain too much in the way of plot armor.
Cast members Spaeny and Jonsson come off the best as the central characters since the plot mainly focuses on them and their unlikely brother and sister bond. At first, Jonsson’s Andy appears docile, with the personality of a curious, socially awkward child in an adult’s body. He later takes a more sinister, darker turn when a Weyland-Yutani upgrade overwrites his more docile programming. Spaeny might not be Ellen Ripley, but at least she demonstrates more grace and competence than more recent franchise protagonists.
The other human actors lack suitable development to elevate their performances. However, the actors do their best with threadbare material. The second half adds a ticking clock gimmick, so it rushes to the finale after the effective slow burn in the first half. Isabela Merced’s character also becomes shortchanged in the process. The human cast loses screentime in favor of another nostalgia trap character.
While Álvarez and Ridley Scott thought the presence of a new creature might be absolute brilliance, it comes off as tone-deaf as it merely rehashes another idea attempted before and soundly rejected. Romulus exemplifies the seductive trap of franchises and legacy sequels. Film franchises are so popular and beloved that studio executives feel compelled to continue making them far past their expiration date, but it’s difficult to break new ground and advance what has come before while achieving that perfect balance similar to the originals. Alien: Romulus brings so little to the table that it rehashes an older idea that didn’t work beforehand and still fails in execution here.
The best ideas for continuing the franchise remain in ancillary media like the old Kenner action figure line, spinoff novels, select video games like Alien Isolation, and Darkhorse comic books. Alien: Romulus almost works as a legacy sequel, but the story’s flimsy structure falls apart in the second half. Despite impressive visuals and production values and a handful of striking action setpieces, the best Romulus can do is attempt to mimic previous entries without forging anything novel. Even the film’s risky maneuver in the final act rehashes old ideas but was haphazardly executed with new Prometheus and Covenant-style packaging.
