Seven years after director Ridley Scott’s effort to make three Alien prequels died with the second chapter in that proposed trilogy (the underappreciated Alien: Covenant), the franchise has gotten another reboot with Alien: Romulus.
Director Fede Alvarez, who attempted to spark the Evil Dead franchise with a credible remake in 2013, endeavors to do the same with Alien, and the result, Alien: Romulus, is sometimes solid, and sometimes clunky and choppy. It has various elements that are throwbacks to prior films, but it also tries some new stuff out by throwing a bunch of bloody, gooey visuals at the space-station wall to see what sticks. Quite a bit does stick, and it’s super-gross at times.
Set between the events of the first Scott-directed Alien (1979) and James Cameron’s Aliens (1986), in the year 2142, the film owes a lot to the original look of Alien (the suits, the ships, the computer graphics), which makes sense with the film set just 20 years after the original.
Rain (Cailee Spaeny of Civil War and Priscilla) is living in a dark mining colony (offering echoes of Aliens and Alien 3) with her android “brother,” Andy (David Jonsson), and is seeking a way out. Some of her friends hatch a plan to board a derelict space vehicle and snatch some equipment that can help them hibernate and travel lots of space miles. The vehicle is owned by the same company that controls the colony, the villainous Weyland-Yutani.
After boarding the vehicle … well, there’s a Xenomorph problem, of course. Rain and pals must dodge massive loads of face-huggers and, eventually, the bigger suckers we’ve all come know, love and dread. Alvarez knows how to set up a legit scare, and some of the carnage scenes in this one rank among the franchise’s best.
The film lacks originality, but it makes up for that in sustained tension, dread and a sense of impending doom. As with past Alien films, nobody is really safe here, and characters who seem to be driving the plot are dispatched one after the other. There are times when it feels like the movie is more “fan service” than its own thing, with dialogue callbacks that make little sense and some completely copied plot points. There is a sequence involving a big cocoon that looks like a vagina which stands as the film’s most original concept—and it’s most yucky.
Spaeny is good here, giving us a character to root for, Ripley-style. But it’s Jonsson who offers the film’s best performance as he shifts between being a damaged, sensitive android and an emotionless, steely company drone, morphing in and out of different programs forced into his skull. There have been some great android performances in the franchise (Ian Holm, Michael Fassbender), but his might be the best.
Even with the great performances, solid special effects and effective pacing, the film still comes off as a bit forgettable—a non-important chapter in the series. Scott’s most recent films (Prometheus and Alien: Covenant) had a sense of grandeur and offered something new, despite their missteps. This one feels like enjoyable fast-food Alien, but it’s not substantial enough to rank it high in the series. It’s way better than Alien Resurrection, but nowhere near the excellence of Scott’s original or James Cameron’s Aliens. I’d rank it about even with Covenant.
This was originally meant to go straight to Hulu (like the quite-good Predator movie, Prey), but producers wisely chose to put Romulus on big screens—and it’s a hit. That sets us up for more Alien movies and, soon to come, a TV series. Alien: Romulus shows us that there’s life in them slimy Xenomorphs a good 45 years after their first screen appearance.
Will Ridley Scott use the momentum of this film to resurrect and conclude his trilogy? Will Alvarez keep the baton and continue that momentum? Will Ridley Scott ever make that Bee Gees biopic? Who knows—but we know that Alien will be back, this time on TV, with Alien: Earth, in 2025.
