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R
for bloody violent content and language.
Starring
Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn
Director
Fede Alvarez
Producer
Ridley Scott, Michael Pruss, E
Genres
Science Fiction
Horror
Released by
20th Century Studios on
8/16/2024
Nationwide
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Trailer
Review
(Contains spoilers about a certain cameo.)
A case could be made that Fede Alvarez's Alien: Romulus is the third-best film of the nine movies to feature the infamous xenomorphs (with the prequel Prometheus being the only one not to name-check them in the title). Romulus, which is positioned as a "side-quel" set in between Alien and Aliens, eschews some of the more ambitious plotting that characterized the least-popular franchise entries in favor of a straightforward narrative. Alvarez, obviously an Alien devotee, opts for an Alien/Aliens "greatest hits" approach replete with Easter Eggs and instances of fan service. It mostly works although the tension never quite escalates to the levels reached by Ridley Scott's original and James Cameron's even-better direct follow-up.
The time-frame is 20 years after the xenomorph rampaged through the Nostromo before being blown out the airlock by Ripley. (This event is explicitly referenced although Ripley is not named.) The body of the alien is retrieved and brought on board the space station Romulus/Remus for experimentation. Shortly thereafter, we are introduced to several workers toiling away terraforming a rather inhospitable planet. Rain (Cailee Spaeny), who has been harboring dreams of escaping the dreary world for someplace where the sun shines, discovers that the Wayland-Yutani Corporation has unilaterally changed her quota, pushing back her date-of-freedom for at least a half-dozen years. Following this betrayal, she and her synthetic surrogate brother Andy (David Jonsson) decide to join a small group of friends - her ex-boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux), his sister Kay (Isabela Merced), her cousin Bjorn (Spike Fern), and Bjorn's girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu) - in an audacious scheme to free themselves of Wayland-Yutani's yoke.
Tyler and Bjorn have discovered the derelict Romulus/Remus in high orbit above the planet and intend to take a small spacecraft to the space station to salvage the cryostasis chambers that will allow them to travel to a distant colony. Initially, things go as planned but, once the group boards the station, it becomes clear that things did not go well for the previous crew. The only "survivor" is the partially destroyed synthetic, Rook (which uses the voice and image likeness of Ian Holm), who serves the Prime Directive dictated by the Company. When an accident triggers the revival of a group of facehuggers from their stasis pods, the stage is set for an impregnation and, as always happens in an Alien movie, the subsequent "birth" results in a fight-or-flight struggle for life between disadvantaged humans and the "perfect" killing machine. In this case, as in Aliens, there's more than one.
Some of the best bits of Romulus are direct references to the beloved first two Alien films (although Alvarez also provides more obscure callbacks to Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and even the two other sequels). Alvarez, a horror director by trade (having previously made Don't Breathe and the Evil Dead remake), knows how to set up a tensely creepy scene (there are several of these, some involving facehuggers and/or the mature alien) but isn't as good when it comes to character development. One area where both Alien and Aliens succeeded was in fleshing-out secondary characters that would eventually become xenomorph-fodder. In Romulus, the four supporting humans are paper-thin with one or two recognizable traits each. Only Rain and Andy (and the relationship between them) seem worth the screenplay's time.
Set design establishes the divided space station Romulus/Remus as another consistent module in the universe established by Scott and embellished by Cameron. Everything here feels "lived-in" and borrows its aesthetic not only from the previous Alien films but from the TV science fiction series The Expanse. Creature appearance is faithful to that of H.R. Giger's original monsters with one new design. The decision to use Ian Holm's likeness (made with the agreement and cooperation of the actor's family) is a mixed bag. The way it's used, for a half-destroyed android, diminishes some of the downfalls of a CGI image recreation but it remains a distraction.
Cailee Spaeny, the young actress blazing a trail through Hollywood (recent credits include Civil War and the title role in Priscilla), fashions a character who's more than a "poor man's Ripley" but less than a force of nature. It's impossible not to compare her to Sigourney Weaver but that feels unfair. (Ripley, for example, received most of her development in Aliens - for the majority of Alien, she was part of the ensemble.) Spaeny does what she needs to do in providing viewers with a port of entry into this world. Her relationship with Andy, a glitchy synthetic refurbished by her father, is more touching than any of the human/human pairings in Romulus.
Is Alien: Romulus the Alien film fans have been craving since Ripley, Hicks, and Newt entered their cryo-sleep in 1986? Perhaps. It contains most of the requisite elements and, if it doesn't measure up to the high standard established by Scott (who has a producer credit) and Cameron (who provided suggestions to Alvarez), that's only to be expected. It's a good showcase for the xenomorph in its various permutations and a solid horror/suspense movie in its own right. The open question is whether it will reinvigorate the franchise after numerous misfires and cash-grabs. Only time (and the box office) will tell.
© 2024 James Berardinelli
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