REVIEW: Alien Romulus

For long-time fans of the Alien franchise, a new movie is always approached with equal parts excitement and trepidation and Alien: Romulus is no exception. From the almost universally beloved horror/action one-two of the first pair of films, every sequel has promised big and under-delivered, whether due to studio interference, flawed scripts, Ridley Scott wanting to change the whole message of the franchise or any other of a laundry list of ‘development hell’ issues.
Alien: Romulus thankfully breaks this trend by providing a tightly scripted horror experience that embeds itself in the franchise’s lore, adds to it and gives us plenty of tension and jump scares along the way.

That was to be expected as director Fede Álvarez has built his reputation on respectfully handling remakes of big name horror titles such as Evil Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre as well as the acclaimed Don’t Breathe films. He helms Alien: Romulus admirably with a slow burn build allowing us to empathise with our protagonists and anticipate the cosmic horror to come and then unleashing the face-huggers, explosions, the full grown xenomorphs and more later on.

One consistent criticism of the film seems to be that it’s just fan service, but to be honest there’s only one or two moments that feels egregious. Almost every other reference to other parts of the franchise serves a purpose, it explains to us how we (and as importantly, the Aliens) got here, this story’s place in the wider universe and at the same time, because WE know that, we also know what is coming in a way that our protagonists don’t which leads to some delicious tension.

The plot is very simple, our protagonists are indentured miners on a Weyland-Yutani colony and it’s clear that none of them are getting out except through death. I got serious Outer Worlds vibes from this – less the faux-cheery 50s imagery. Some of them discover what they think is a derelict ship in orbit and hatch a plan to steal it’s cryo-pods and zoom off for a better life. They pull in Rain and her adopted brother Andy – a damaged Weyland-Yutani android to help with accessing the ship and off they go. Unsurprisingly, things do not go well.

This film has what looks like a very young cast (although that might be because I’m getting old, twenty somethings look like children to me)  but they all play their parts beautifully and their tender years adds to the sense of their naivety and desperation – they’ve all seen their parents die young on this benighted mining rock and they want off.

Our main protagonist, Rain is played by Cailee Spaeny with a sense of weight that belies her years and stature. We can feel the pressure on her – to escape, to care for her damaged robot brother but also her cynicism and intelligence shine through. She is the sensible, good girl dragged into dubious adventures somewhat against her better judgement.

David Jonsson plays Andy, the damaged synthetic, repaired by Rain’s father and told to do what’s best for her. Unfortunately, his damage means he presents almost like a child with profound autism, complete with physical twitches and simple, repetitive thought patterns. Suffice to say that he has a tremendous character arc throughout the film which draws on some established franchise themes about responsibility, what the ‘right’ thing is at any given time and what constitutes a person.

Jonsson’s performance as a synthetic, effectively with a learning disability (and slight spoiler, later without one) is outstanding and believable. You really feel for the cowering, stimming Andy at the start and want so desperately for him to be OK, to be a hero.

The rest of the cast all play their parts well, evoking sympathy and distaste exactly when required.

A huge part of any Alien film is the aesthetics and Alien: Romulus absolutely nails that. The mining colony feels like the worst place in the world, wet, muddy, lit by inconsistent work lights and clearly a place that people worked until they got sick and died.

This contrasts with the sequences in space – still industrial but beautifully clean and crisp, evoking the differences between the aesthetics of Alien and Aliens. The familiar monsters come along in due course and are suitably terrifying, with facehuggers stalking and skittering and the xenomorphs seeming like an inevitable and unstoppable monster. There are some new iterations in the film as well, which I’m a little torn on but the execution of the designs is excellent.

The big panning shots of ships in space, explosions and the nearby rings of a planet are stunning and the docking sequences feel suitably tactile – all of which is to be expected when Ridley Scott is still on board as a producer.

The accusations of fan service can mostly be explained by how Alien: Romulus embeds itself in the lore of the series, placing it in a direct chain of events from both Alien and Prometheus and embedding the series long message that Weyland-Yutani are the real villains of the piece.

This film might not have someone as massively punchable as Paul Reiser’s Carter J. Burke from Aliens to give that point a human face but the impersonal way it is applied is all the more scary in an age where the algorithm decides if you get to make rent this month.

Alien: Romulus is great. It’s easily the best instalment in the franchise since Aliens and possibly since the first film. It’s a tight, atmospheric movie that blends cosmic and body horror with relatable concerns about your life prospects and unscrupulous employers. It looks great, it sounds great and you will cringe and jump at the right moments, guaranteed. It’s fantastic, go see it.

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