“You don’t understand what you’re dealing with, do you? The perfect organism… Its structural perfection is only matched by its hostility.” —Ash (Alien 1979)
Perfection is what Ridley Scott managed when he took his razor-sharp sensibilities, creature designs from the brilliantly disturbed mind of HR. Giger, and a screenplay by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett. After the paradigm shifting success of Star Wars, every producer and their dog wanted a sci-fi franchise, and unleashed a boatload of derivative tripe trying to cash in. Scott wanted to make a horror movie, veiled in a science fiction environment, and he succeeded stunningly.
It took nearly a decade, but James Cameron followed up with the same MO. Make something unique from something beloved. 1986’s Aliens was a tour de force, balls to the wall, action orgasm. Terrifying, thrilling, nail-biting stuff that stood completely on its own merits.
After two home runs, 20th Century Fox would continue chasing the dragon and falling short, with Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, two abysmally bad Alien vs Predator films, Scott’s own sequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant and now, with Disney holding the rights, Alien: Romulus joins a long line of follow ups that try to recapture the magic. Question is should they bother?
Director Fede Alvarez, a renowned horror director who cut his teeth making the excellent Evil Dead remake and the superb Don’t Breathe movies, was tasked for another go-around with the indelible xenomorph.
Set between Scott’s Alien and Cameron’s Aliens, Romulus introduces Rain (Cailee Spaeny), a Wayland Utani mining colony worker, who thinks she has earned enough credits to get herself and her adopted android brother Andy (David Jonnson) off the oppressive planet, where they never see the sun. Of course, the company rip the joy right out of her, extending her contract by years. Despondent and desperate, Rain is cajoled by her ex-boyfriend Tyler and a bunch of misfits into stealing cryo-pods from a derelict space station to travel to an idyllic planet. Andy, being former Wayland Utani property, has inbuilt passes to get them into the station. Of course, what they don’t know is this station had been used to experiment on a creature found in the wreckage of a little-known ship called… The Nostromo. Upon entering the station, they quickly succumb to what made the station derelict. Rain begins a fight for her life to save them and get them off the station before an asteroid belt or the alien threat ends them.
This is a great story, with relatable characters, cracking pacing and a satisfying conclusion. There are ticking time bombs on the characters from the moment they land aboard—timing, environmental and mortality included. It adds heft and urgency to each scene and ratchets the tension up in a stellar fashion.
The actors (save one surprise, which I won’t spoil) are little known to me but fill their respective roles effortlessly. I was particularly taken with Cailee Spaeny and found David Jonnson’s android the most affecting since Bishop in Aliens.
Alvarez wisely has stuck to a load of practical effects and blended them seamlessly with the excellent CGI. There is one element in the film’s effects that I think doesn’t sell as well as the rest. I can’t go into it, as it would spoil a big surprise, but when you see it, I’m sure you’ll know it.
The film firmly plants its feet back into the horror genre, following your basic haunted house structure and starts to pick off the characters, one by one. But I’m not taking anything away from it, as it’s really well done, choked with some inventive tension building and scare sequences. It also takes in canon tropes and does something new with them (There is a scene with zero gravity and the alien’s acid blood that had me clenching my seat!)
And here finally the levity. Scott and Cameron made their mark once, by delivering something definitively them (with Scott not succeeding in subsequent tries.) Like Scott, as impressive as this film is, Alvarez does not accomplish the same. There is a crap tonne of unnecessary fan service, far too much. The “Get away from her, you bitch” line reuse is cringe. Now, Alvarez has absolutely delivered the best sequel in this franchise in decades, there is no question. He is obviously a big fan of the first two flicks and understands what made them great… but over-relies on their tricks, instead of his own (of which there are glimpses). But the question still rings in my ears, as good as this was, if it doesn’t bring something different, is there really a need?
You decide.
MPAA Rating: R for strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references.
Runtime: 119 mins
Director: Fede Alvarez
Writer: Fede Alvarez; Rodo Sayagues; Dan O'Bannon
Cast: Cailee Spaeny; David Jonsson; Archie Renaux
Genre: Horror
Tagline:
Memorable Movie Quote: "The solution for a claustrophobic astronaut is to give him more space."
Theatrical Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Official Site: https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/alien-romulus
Release Date: August 16, 2024
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonists come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
