ALIEN: ROMULUS (2024)

Fede Álvarez remade the “video nasties” classic Evil Dead (2013), but it’s fair to say Sam Raimi’s 1981 original had long shown its age and deserved a modern update. But how do you approach reviving mainstream interest in the Alien franchise, which has two all-time classics in its arsenal that subsequent entries have struggled to live up to? Even Ridley Scott’s return with Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017) received mixed reviews, so can the Uruguayan director bring something new to the series?

Don’t Breathe (2016), the horror thriller Álvarez made about three delinquents breaking into a disused house to steal valuables, seems to be the basic template for Alien: Romulus’s similar setup. Taking place between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), we follow orphan Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her adopted brother Andy (David Jonsson), a synthetic android her father salvaged and reprogrammed to protect her. These unusual siblings are living a miserable life on the sunless Jackson’s Star mining colony, working tirelessly for the uncaring Weyland-Yutani corporation. But after Rain’s contract is suddenly extended against her will, they decide to flee with the help of her ex-boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux), his pregnant sister Kay (Isabela Merced), cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Bjorn’s girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu).

The dangerous plan is to fly into space to retrieve cryostasis chambers from a derelict spacecraft they’ve detected in orbit, which they can use to travel to a better colony and start a new life. Andy’s help is instrumental in accessing the Weyland Yutani interfaces. Unfortunately, the spacecraft turns out to be an abandoned space station called The Renaissance, divided into two halves (Romulus and Remus), where the crew were killed after experimenting on the frozen corpse of the alien xenomorph retrieved from the Nostromo’s debris field.

Aptly, considering the title, Alien: Romulus is a movie of two halves. The first is a smaller and more intimate Alien movie focusing on a tightknit gang of younger characters, no doubt to appeal to a new generation, taking plenty of stylistic cues from Ridley Scott and James Cameron’s movies but effectively creating a compelling world and characters we’re interested to learn more about. Rain and Andy’s found-family relationship is particularly fascinating, as Andy exhibits traits one would ordinarily say indicate learning difficulties, meaning she’s the one often having to save her android protector from danger and bullies. 

Unfortunately, once a group of facehuggers are accidentally unleashed and begin scuttling around a laboratory, latching onto people’s faces to begin the familiar alien lifecycle, Romulus gradually slips into being a more perfunctory action movie. It’s certainly enjoyable and there are some memorable moments and excellent set pieces along the way, but without enough three-dimensional characters or a particularly new approach to the material, Romulus surrenders to becoming a straightforward sequel with iconic creatures running around familiar corridors.

Álvarez can’t resist throwing in visual nods to the earlier films, and such things grow increasingly abundant until classic quotes are crowbarred into the script (one laughably so), a dead actor is revived using deep-fake CGI to an extent that makes Peter Cushing’s return in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) feel restrained, and one significant twist in the third act is something Alien: Resurrection (1997) already did. It’s done much better here, but still. Fans will either embrace the escalating “homages” and just enjoy the thrill-ride nature of things, but a more discerning crowd could become irritated this is the first Alien movie with traits of a cash-in sequel.

Famously, every Alien film has felt different from the others. Alien was a horror film, Aliens a war movie, Alien³ (1992) a prison drama with religious overtones, Alien: Resurrection a gonzo sci-fi fairy tale, and while Prometheus and Alien: Covenant come under the same umbrella as science-fiction movies tackling epic themes about the origin of mankind itself, they both felt different as cinematic experiences. Alien: Romulus, sadly, has no clear identity of its own. It’s just a pocket adventure where more people are attacked and killed by xenomorphs, rather like a video game you can’t take control of. It’s great fun in the moment, but empty in retrospect.

However, there are saving graces. David Jonsson (Rye Lane), much like Michael Fassbender in Scott’s prequels, stands out as the most fascinating character as the gentle android Andy. He’s aloof and obsessed with “dad jokes” at the start, but the actor benefits from the most character development once Andy’s upgraded and starts behaving more antagonistically towards his crewmates. He becomes the walking embodiment of the emotionless corporate man, an archetypal role that often appears in Alien films, as the true enemy is those who don’t care about anything but the wealth the alien organism could bring to their business.

The rest of the cast is serviceable enough, although only Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) is given any real depth as a younger variation on the Ellen Ripley type. And she acquits herself well, even if David Jonsson quickly overshadows her because Andy has a more interesting arc. I also appreciated how the casting honours the franchise’s Anglo-American feel, with most of the actors having the type of thick regional English accents we haven’t heard since David Fincher’s sequel.

There are also fresh creative elements introduced, many of which will please and excite fans of the franchise desperate for something unexpected. We finally get to see the mysterious phase of the alien life cycle between erupting from a host’s body as a “chestburster” and growing into a drooling adult xenomorph. There’s a clever sequence involving acid blood and zero gravity too. And have you ever wondered what would happen if someone pregnant got facehugged? Wonder no more.

It’s just a shame Alien: Romulus ultimately reveals it’s a shallow echo of the classics it’s emulating most of the time. There’s an illusion of depth (Rain’s ship is named Corbelan after a character in Joseph Conrad’s 1904 novel Nostromo), but mostly no clear thematic reason for anything. Why exactly does the space station have two sections named after Romulus and Remus, twin boys nursed by a wolf after being left for dead by their father, who survive and grow up, only for Romulus to murder Remus and build Rome after a disagreement? I’ve been trying to trace this myth over the film’s characters and narrative, but can’t come up with anything that fits. There was a valid reason to call Prometheus by that name, as the human characters were stealing life-giving “fire” technology from their alien “Gods”. Maybe Romulus just sounded cooler than Alien: Renaissance?

It remains surprising that even after 45 years H.R Giger’s design for the alien is such an evocative screen presence, despite how we’ve seen the xenomorph in countless films, video games, and comics since 1979. The look of the creature, with its domed eye-less head and double jaws of razor-sharp teeth, is inherently unnerving and cool. And the CGI in Romulus isn’t as abundant as its use of old-fashioned practical effects. It’s great to see puppets, animatronics, and people in suits again, as there will always be that added sense of realism when the monsters are physically interacting with actors, not added afterwards by VFX teams.

One use of VFX to bring a dead actor back to life will certainly lead to more heated debates on the subject, as the technique becomes increasingly more convincing and less expensive to achieve. I’m of mixed opinion. It feels ghoulish to some extent because the actor himself didn’t give his blessing, even if his family agreed to the use of his image. However, there’s a valid reason why it would happen in this particular universe. Decide for yourself.

Alien: Romulus is a well-produced and skillfully made movie that perfectly sandwiches in-between the first two movies, and wisely doesn’t tread too much on the established chain of events. (Although it’s perhaps now a little strange how naive Weyland-Yutani representatives behave towards the xenomorph in Aliens onwards.)

The cinematography by Galo Olivares (Gretel & Hansel) is terrific, and the music score by Benjamin Wallfisch (Blade Runner 2049) carries just the right creepy ambience. It also contains two great performances, some exciting moments, and a lot of stylish SFX, even if there’s little genuine tension and it ultimately doesn’t serve anything we haven’t seen before. The pacing is also wonderful… right up until so many false endings arrive that Romulus outstays its welcome. A tighter, faster version of this story would have been preferable considering its more down-to-earth concerns.

UK • USA | 2024 | 119 MINUTES | 2.39:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

director: Fede Álvarez.
writers: Fede Álvarez & Rodo Sayagues (based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon & Ronald Shusett).
starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Aileen Wu & Spike Fearn.