In the cold and bleak nothingness of deep space, a hundred years in the future, a salvage ship comes to life. A familiar rock floating in the nothingness is scooped up and taken back to base for research. For many years ‘The Company’ has been searching for this rock and now they’ve finally found it. God help them.
On a remote deep space mining colony, people work themselves to death in mines for the Weyland-Yurani Corporation. A conglomerate which doesn’t care for the lives of the little people, children born into their colonies simply become another cog in the machine. People like Rain (Cailee Spaeny), who along with her malfunctioning android Andy (David Jonsson), seem destined to be stuck there forever. But when a salvaging operation team of trapped youths such as herself set their sights on a derelict space station, it just may be the key to freedom for everyone.
The mission is simple at first, Andy helps them all get in, they get what they need, they leave. Time is of the essence with the station’s orbit putting it on a crash course with a nearby planet. But things begin to get more complicated, horrifyingly so when the station’s true history reveals itself. Now, trapped on board, the young adults are face to face with another passenger. This “perfect organism” reminds us that in space no one can hear you scream…
The Alien franchise needs no introduction but I’m going to give it one anyway. The original 1979 horror science fiction classic directed by Ridley Scott blew audiences away and spawned many pale imitations, until James Cameron did what he does best with Aliens (1986) and reimagined the film as a high adrenalin action blockbuster.
There have been sequels ever since but none living up to the high mark set by those initial two films. With many attempting to replicate Cameron‘s success, now director Fede Alvarez takes the series back to its roots with a claustrophobic monster horror thriller!
I was a fan of the Alien film franchise since way back before I should have been allowed to watch them. The Dark Horse Comics series and resulting action figure line of the 90s of course had a lot to do with it. However, I remained a fan of the film franchise ever since (Well, Alien 1-4 and Prometheus, at least). The point is, Alien: Romulus seems tailor made to be for the fans and this can be both blessing and a curse.
Alien: Romulus is clearly sticking as close as possible to the look and feel of Scott‘s ’79 original classic. The retro computers and world design is all there. Composer, Benjamin Wallfisch brings the same oppressive atmosphere here which he did in Blade Runner 2049. At its best, Alvarez shows us people under the boot of a tyrannical conglomerate. The very kind to give an order of “Crew expendable”.
The Xenomorph alien creatures are as creepy, vicious and slimy as they ever were. Inspiration seems to have been drawn also from the videogame, Alien Isolation. More thriller than action, the game itself celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
The relationship between Spaeny‘s Rain and Jonsson’s Andy is a highlight with Andy’s arc over the course of Alien: Romulus is surprisingly touching. David Jonsson in particular is the standout with unfortunately many of the others just filling out the roster by comparison. Even Rain as a character feels weak as this film’s obligatory ‘Ellen Ripley‘ stand-in, which is where the problems start as moving beyond the film’s impressive opening, mood and spectacular visual flair things feel far too familiar.
I think the reason I love the initial “quadrilogy” and additional film Prometheus is because they gave us a completely different vision and imaginative creatures. However, with Alien: Romulus, it feels more and more like a greatest hits compilation as it plays out. Enjoyable nonetheless but not nearly as original or…..alien.
Nostalgia is a powerful and quite profitable tool in cinema, but the recycled creatures and ideas will make this particular film less memorable in the long run. The most audaciously familiar moments had me wondering if the filmmakers even realised they were just repeating things themselves. There are the usual scares, the characters say catch phrases for no other reason than someone in else earlier in the franchise had said it. There’s even quite horrid deep faking of a character that would have better served the film had the audience not been fits of laughter the first time they were revealed.
As a fan of the Alien franchise, Alien: Romulus successfully scratched an itch and provided exactly what I expected from an Alien film released today. Unfortunately, it just didn’t provide what I *wanted* to see in a new Alien film, relying far too much on concepts and ideas, which at one time, were original but have since become trite and repetitive after years of sequels. All this said, Alien: Romulus is a fun and thrilling sci-fi adventure with a healthy serving of horror and gore.