Alien: Romulus Slithers Its Way Through a Fun But Familiar Entry in the Series: Review

The post Alien: Romulus Slithers Its Way Through a Fun But Familiar Entry in the Series: Review appeared first on Consequence .

The Pitch: On a distant Weyland-Yutani mining colony, a group of young colonists — fed up with their bleak prospects and hardscrabble lives — make a desperate bid to escape their situation by scavenging a derelict space station that’s just shown up on their scans. But when they dock, they find the Romulus-Remus station abandoned, the gravity off, and mysterious burns and resins all over the dimly lit corridors. Turns out the station has played host to the most dangerous aliens in the galaxy… and these kids are about to get far too close a look at it.

What’s In the Best Interests of the Company: Since the release of Alien in 1979, the franchise has long been celebrated (and sometimes derided) for its big swings: Shifting gears to balls-to-the-wall action in Aliens , then nihilistic Gothic grunge in Alien 3 , then the bizarro French sex comedy of Alien: Resurrection .

Even Ridley Scott’s abortive prequels, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant , allowed him to mine the xenomorph mythology for deeper, weirder questions about life, faith, and creation, peppered with Michael Fassbender teaching himself how to, well, do the fingering. But years on, science fiction’s spookiest franchise returns with Alien: Romulus , which, for all its visceral scares and pitch-perfect atmosphere, plays it deceptively safe.

For one thing, much like the less-successful elements of Covenant , Romulus is hell-bent on reminding you of the films that came before: Set just a couple of decades after the first Alien , Romulus begins with the same credits font as the 1979 original. Then, a spaceship comes into view, grumbling awake in much the same way the Nostromo did: analog switches bleeping and blooping, CRT monitors crudely switching on, hexagonal corridors and puffy, cushioned insulation evoking the Ron Cobb concept art of the first film.

These aren’t the only callbacks you’ll get, either, especially as our scrappy crew of scavengers boards the Romulus-Remus space station to snatch some cryopods they think will help them survive their trip to the next system and subsequent freedom. Everything about the film’s production design is meant to echo the vibes of the previous franchise entries, from the lo-fi ’70s industrial vibe of the station to the proto-pulse rifles that become vital weapons later in the film. Even Benjamin Wallfisch’s score does its level best to emulate the grim orchestral majesty of Jerry Goldsmith’s score for Alien .

If some audio-visual nods were all writer-director Fede Alvarez (and co-writer Rodo Sayagues) leaned on to bring audiences back to the familiar climes of the Alien series, that’d be all well and good. But the script and its construction feel like a grab bag of setpieces and moments from all of the previous films thrown together, robbing Romulus of much of a distinct identity: Characters parrot famous lines from the first two films in ways that don’t feel organic to their characters, and the plot twists itself in knots to touch on references to just about every previous entry in the series, no matter how forced.

Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios)

The most egregious example of this is the reemergence of a familiar character (though not quite) from a previous entry, exhumed from death with the help of some ropey CG and AI so unconvincing that Peter Cushing in Rogue One feels positively lifelike by comparison. It’s such an unforced error, one designed merely to make Alien fans point in recognition — even though the character’s very presence feels ghoulish in all the wrong ways.

In Space, No One Can Hear You (Don’t) Breathe: These callback quibbles aside, one can credit Alvarez for scavenging all of the Alien series’ leftover parts into a workable thrill ride that functions more as rollercoaster than as masterwork of suspense. There are quite a few sequences here that recall the bloody delights of his Evil Dead remake and the high-wire tension of Don’t Breathe ; he makes more voluminous use of the skittery face-huggers here than in any other entry in the series, finding inventive ways for our characters to fight them off, or even avoid them (one deathly-silent sneak past an army of huggers evokes Don’t Breathe most acutely).

Acid blood and zero gravity come together for a particularly white-knuckle-worthy sequence, and the film’s final act takes the kind of bold, inventive swings one wishes the rest of the film had attempted. We even get a few new forms and stages of the xenomorph itself, though some work better than others (look out for some particularly yonic imagery that even H.R. Giger would think was too obvious).

I Prefer the Term “Artificial Person” Myself: As for the characters, Romulus gives its young space explorers some pretty uneven treatment. Much of the focus lies on Cailee Spaeny ’s Rain Carradine, a relative blank slate of a protagonist who doesn’t get much to do in the early stretches besides react to the goings-on on the station. Spaeny acquits herself well, though the script and her costuming (hello, chunky Reeboks) scream “Baby Ripley” at us for the whole runtime.

Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios)

The other humans (Isabela Merced, Archie Renaux, Aileen Wu, and Spike Fearn) are pretty disposable and understandably so; they’re pretty much there as cannon fodder for the xenomorphs. But Romulus ’ secret weapon is Andy (David Jonsson, Rye Lane ), a decommissioned android who serves as Rain’s erstwhile adoptive brother. In the early stretches, he’s dead weight; his various malfunctions (which, queasily, read subtextually as autism) make him a liability, but the discoveries on the space station soon leave him torn between his loyalty to his friends and the directives with which he was programmed.

It’s an intriguing wrinkle for the story, as Andy constantly weighs the calculus of survival for himself and his human friends, and it complicates his relationship to Rain and the xenomorphs in ways that keep the story aloft. Alien movies are, paradoxically, most interesting when they’re about the androids humanity has made alongside its quest for control of the beasties, and Jonsson’s expressive face and unique physicality really sell his compelling journey.

The Verdict: Just as Andy’s motives are split between Rain and “the best interests of the company,” so too does Romulus feel torn between Alvarez’s desire to tell a new story in the Alien universe and 20th Century Studios’ desire for a fan-servicey thrill ride.

The frustrating thing about it is that, moment to moment, it very much works. The thrills and kills are astounding (Galo Olivares’ cinematography is top-notch), and the visual effects and sound design are tailor-made for a big screen. It’s just a shame to see a series so dedicated to evolving and changing form (even when it doesn’t work) to sit on its laurels and play the hits. Still, go see it for yourself; it’s the only way to be sure.

Where’s It Playing? Alien: Romulus pops out of your chest like a party favor and skitters into theaters August 16th.

Trailer:

Alien: Romulus Slithers Its Way Through a Fun But Familiar Entry in the Series: Review
Clint Worthington