Review: Alien: Romulus

Score: 3/4

Fede Alvarez’s Alien Romulus is what happens when a filmmaker plays in another director’s sandbox without making the movie completely their own. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, as the Alien franchise, even with ups and downs, has consistently provided imagery that alternate between the visually splendid and totally nauseating. It’s one of the best sci-fi franchises in cinema. Alvarez is sticking closer to the blueprint of genre expectations than reinventing the wheel here, but his talent and some inventively grotesque touches still make an impact. I wanted more of Alvarez and less of dipping into the warehouse of IP possibilities, but I still enjoyed it.

My spoiler-free plot synopsis: Cailee Spaeny stars as Rain, who is stuck on a mining colony with her “brother,” an android named Andy (played by a remarkable David Jonsson)- they cling to one another in this hopeless environment and discover a possibility at salvation through a chance to join a ragtag group of thieves, who want to rob a ship that is empty and floating through space. Almost immediately after they arrive, things begin to go horribly.

The announcement of Alvarez as director and co-writer was exciting- once I got past my initial skepticism at hearing he was remaking Evil Dead (2013), I found he didn’t commit cinematic sacrilege but made a muscular, deeply disturbing and exciting take on the Sam Raimi classic that added the rich subtext of addiction and intervention to the tale of possession. Alvarez’s Don’t Breathe (2016) is still his scariest movie and remains one of the most novel home invasion thrillers. 

Alien Romulus has been brilliantly designed, whether it’s in the sets that reference prior installments or the fresher visions of a world where the sun literally does not shine. The visual effects, sets, costumes and especially the sound design are always dazzling. I loved the first act, found the mid-section unsatisfying and was mostly won over by the barf bag showmanship of the third act. Yet, Alvarez’s Don’t Breathe is more frightening than this and his Evil Dead is also far better and even more gag-inducing. 

Alvarez certainly achieves more here than he did taking on The Girl in the Spider’s Web (2018), as Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tattoo series was hardly right for a mainstream movie franchise, though Alvarez’s succeeded in making a tense work with great sequences and showcasing another terrific leading performance (Claire Foy’s underrated take on Lisbeth Salander). As much as I like Spaeny in Alien: Romulus, she doesn’t center the film the way Sigourney Weaver was so crucial to the first four installments. Likewise, her co-stars are capable, but I found myself indifferent to the survival of the core characters. Whereas I was on edge as to whether Ellen Ripley could save Newt in Aliens, I felt nothing when a character makes an all-or-nothing decision to save an artificial intelligence (why not just keep the memory chip and put it in a new model later?).

While Alien Resurrection (1997) remains among the most unloved in the franchise, I’m a fan and have always appreciated the risk-taking screenplay, inventive touches of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and savored the fresh take Weaver provided for Ripley. In fact, Alien Romulus resembles Alien Resurrection quite a bit, including the tweaks, additions and quirky footnotes it provides to the franchise and even the freakshow finale. 

I’ll tread carefully and not spoil a major reveal but need to address the obvious: a major character is presented through use of de-aging CGI and other artificial means, which strikes me as ironic, since this is supposedly a cautionary tale against the bureaucracy of franchise villains Weyland Yutani. Here’s the thing about this overused special effect of showcasing an old and/or deceased actor through CGI means- no one is buying it. If anything, Mike Flanagan figured out how to address this in his Doctor Sleep (2019), where he made a wonderful sequel to The Shining and cast look-alike actors instead of de-aging the likes of Shelly Duvall and Scatman Crothers. Flanagan’s old school approach worked, whereas Disney’s recent efforts to present movies with younger CGI renderings of Carrie Fisher, Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford, to name a few, are as crass as they are blatantly obvious. The same goes for this film- I liked the bold touch of including a rich character with a loaded backstory but was never fooled in the presentation.

There are a number of scenes here, particularly in the second act, that must have been riveting at the screenplay level but come across just okay on the big screen. Alien: Romulus is never the equal of Alien (1979) or Aliens (1986) and, despite wonderful moments and gorgeous imagery, isn’t on par with Scott’s exquisite, thematically richer, far more pessimistic Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017). 

Despite leaving Alien: Romulus with mixed feelings and a “not quite” response upon departure, it’s loaded with visions that I look forward to seeing again, especially on a big screen. Despite the flaws and lack of surprises, I was happy to return to this world and all the dread and danger it promises.