When I heard co-writer/director Fede Álvarez was the one to do the next chapter in the popular sci-fi/ horror franchise, there was a good chance Alien: Romulus could be one of the more memorable offerings. Because let’s be honest: Everybody agrees Ridley Scott’s original Alien and its 1986 sequel, directed by James Cameron, are bona fide classics for the genre, with my favorite going to the second. Since then, it’s noticeable that everything coming out afterward had difficulty capturing the elements that made those first two all-time blockbusters, especially from well-established filmmakers (David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet). Even when Scott returned to the universe, he gave us Prometheus and later with Alien: Covenant. Both are perfectly fine, but the staying power wasn’t there when delving into the lore. Maybe the world wasn’t sure about another one, but all I hoped to get out of this latest and seventh installment was to change the pace and try to do something different we hadn’t seen before. By that, are we looking at Alien: Romulus to be the most fantastic movie this summer? Not really, but the best thing to say is that it might be the most re-watchable sequel after Aliens if that’s saying anything.
What’s the Story: On the Weyland-Yutani mining colony of Jackson’s Star, where the sun never appears, Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) has plans to escape the planet with her adoptive brother Andy (David Jonsson), a synthetic human programmed to protect Rain. Luckily for them, they join her ex-boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux), along with his sister Kay (Isabela Merced), their cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and his girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu), on a mission to steal cryostasis chambers to escape to the planet Yvaga. As they board the decommissioned space station in what should’ve been an in-and-out job, the young Colonists find themselves fighting for their lives when they encounter hostile, horrifying creatures, from deadly Facehuggers to the Xenomorphs.
Those who go into the Alien movies have an understanding of what to expect besides experiencing the terror of the characters getting picked off one by one. The formula is usually there. Since we’ve seen how Alvarez handled himself with horror after his Evil Dead remake and Don’t Breathe, it’s funny to assume he made the latter in space. But you can tell he wanted to take the series almost back to basics and not be all philosophical about where we come from. Alien: Romulus gets right up front and offers the best of both worlds by combining what fans love about the two: the dark, claustrophobia set inside the spacecraft and tension from the action throughout. Once we step in, it captures the look of the technology, with the overall environment looking too practical to ignore.
Not everything made it as effective as his other films, but you can tell he grew up watching Alien and tried to make this his own when trying to grab the same sense of atmosphere that’s a race against the clock to find a way out. The action is an attention-seeker, and it’s surprising to realize later that there’s not much gore here than I anticipated. Still, there’s nothing better than these creatures hiding in plain sight. The fact that the Xenomorphs look great on a practical effects level greatly helps. The one sequence that will be remembered for a while involves anti-gravity, which was legitimately cool. In addition, it’s supported by some impressive visual effects and cinematography work courtesy of Galo Olivares.
To say we’re officially living in Cailee Spaeny’s world is marvelous since she’s continuing to be one of the most prominent actresses in my age range. With her performance as Rain, she continues the franchise’s tradition of having a badass female protagonist, channeling enough of Ripley without coming off as a copy of her. This reluctance to go along with this plan to steal fuel changes when it’s a dead or alive situation, but in the end, it helps because of this unexpected dynamic she has with Jonsson’s Andy. Jonsson was another standout because I didn’t know he was an android, and I was worried he wouldn’t have much of a personality besides telling corny dad jokes. But how he conveys a robot to protect and serve Rain makes this one of the most complex droids in the series. The rest of the characters, aside from Merced, aren’t really that investing to follow, which is a given considering they’re there to get killed, but I hoped a few would be more than stereotypical.
Much like the others, it is a slow-burn approach in the beginning to set up our characters before going off, and it does take a while to set things in motion. But when it wants to do specific callbacks, it only sometimes hits. Because it seems like an obligation for someone to repeat a famous line from a previous movie, that’ll only come off as forced. The marketing wisely doesn’t reveal an aspect, and I’m still unsure how it was handled based on whether it was necessary. All I can say without going into spoiler territory is the only time the CGI was distracting. However, the third act will make or break your overall enjoyment. For me and possibly everyone else, it got too ridiculous where Alvarez was going, and I’ll admit it took a big swing to go in that direction. But once you think it’s wrapping up, you feel like it was a reshoot after test audiences disliked the original ending or whatever didn’t sit right and might give me nightmares. But other than those flaws that kept it from being great, it was smart to release this theatrically instead of going straight to Hulu as they did with the equally entertaining Prey.
Overall, Alien: Romulus delivers on the thrills and tension only Fede Álvarez can provide in a satisfying installment. Anyone who was probably turned off by what we got previously will be surprised at how this goes back to basics, with a primarily standalone story eager to pay attention throughout. Even when it doesn’t always bring something new, it’s still a good time.
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