Alien: Romulus

• Directed by Fede Álvarez
• August 12, 2024 (Los Angeles) / August 16, 2024 (US)
• Based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett

Six space colonists seeking to flee their colony encounter dangerous creatures while searching an abandoned space station.

My hopes were not high with Alien: Romulus. The two most recent films were underwhelming despite the involvement of Ridley Scott who kickstarted the series (and served as a producer here). The man has lost his magic and was taking down the Alien universe with him. However based on the roughhewn environment focusing on the working class individuals and a return to the retrofuture look that the series started with my hopes certainly went up for this particular film.

I was not a fan of director Fede Álvarez’s version of Evil Dead. It just didn’t do it for me. His work here in my opinion is much better. He creates a movie that fits in nicely with the original two. It’s claustrophobic. There is the element of the ticking clock since the facility our cast of characters is on is going to fall into the planet from which they are trying to escape. As a director Álvarez understood that an appropriate amount of shadow and darkness are better for this type of film than showing everything. There is just enough light to see what is going on but not so much that you’re curious how they paid the electric bill.

There are numerous nods to previous Alien films. If you watched the whole series you’ll pick up on them. Nothing got ignored because it was unpopular or some decision maker personally hated it. I can appreciate that. It does not put it all front and center but acts just as a visual treat.

The most overt use of previous Alien imagery is the likeness of Sir Ian Holm as the android Rook. In the original he was the sinister Ash and that is pretty much what he is used for here. His presence is accomplished via a puppet and computer trickery. Sometimes Rook looks a little dodgy. The voice is spot on, but the face swap can appear a little two dimensional. A wiser move would’ve been prosthetics and shadow. Just enough to give us an impression but not enough to actually see the actor.

Not all was great or perfect. The rate of growth of the chest bursters seems to break the rules of thermodynamics or whatever regulates how rapidly something can reach maturity. Originally it took a little bit of time. It’s a thread that carried through most of the movies but here it’s minutes from infection to death. A plausible growth rate was something that helped to add to the danger because it was for lack of a better word realistic. It lent a bit of authenticity to the whole concept. 

There are no recognizable faces which does help you identify with the characters a little bit. At least the ones that get a little bit of substance to them. It’s easy to pick out who’s going to die quickly because you know really nothing about them. Navarro (Aileen Wu) is a virtual blank slate. You can surmise that Navarro and the jerky Bjorn (Spike Fearn) are dating but that’s in one brief moment which was put into Romulus I guess make her death a little bit more tragic. Without development you’re just excited to start seeing alien violence.

There is a new android series introduced with Andy (David Jonsson). He is a decommissioned unit previously used by Weyland-Yutani in aspects of their various mining operations. This one was reprogrammed to act as a surrogate brother to central character Rain (Cailee Spaeny) by her late father with the sole directive of doing what is best for Rain. He has a penchant for dad jokes and is rather simplistic in his thinking.

During the course of the movie Andy gets a new IOS along with a distinct personality change. David Jonsson does an amazing job of switching from innocent to something with ulterior motives. Jonsson crafts two distinct characters where you can still see the connection beyond their physical appearance.

Rain genuinely cares about him since he is the only connection she has to her parents but his caring exists only when his programming permits it. They never get too deep into that beyond Rain having a hard time not understanding why Andy is doing what he is doing.

Our desperate characters aren’t tricked into or forced into getting entangled with the aliens. They do not start out as a cog in a sinister plot. In fact it seems Weyland-Yutani did everything right. Weyland-Yutani decided to set up a facility to study the recovered the alien from the Nostromo but as per usual things got out of hand and the facility was destroyed with the implication that its decaying orbit was to ensure that things did not get worse for the world at large.

This group of characters thinking it’s a spaceship are going to rob it of the sleep pods so they can escape from this mining world where the company keeps screwing them over by extending their contract. Essentially indentured servitude. It expands upon the corporatocracy that has been present throughout the Alien series.

This movie has two endings with both strongly mimicking previous films in the Alien universe. It feels like a bit much. Was it to cram in a reference to not only the first film but one more acknowledgement of the last two films beyond the black goo? Or for an Easter Egg of Alien: Resurrection? Pick one and call it a day.

That’s not to say I hated it. I rather enjoyed myself. Between the claustrophobic environment and the ticking clock and good special effects there were plenty of superficial elements to keep me invested. The story, while it didn’t break any new ground was entertaining. I enjoyed the relationship between Andy and Rain and she wasn’t too unrealistic with her interactions and her capabilities. The action was good with a steady logic.

For about four films the Alien universe has been on a serious downturn. I’m including the Alien versus Predator movies in that. This is a definite step in the right direction if they wish to do more. Recapturing the magic of the original may be impossible, but with this did was present a worthwhile story with enough gore and engagement to satisfy.