Alien: Romulus Review

 

Alien: Romulus: Spoiler-Free Review/First Impressions

Alien: Romulus is the new film in the Alien franchise, co-written and directed by Fede Alvarez, and produced by Ridley Scott, the latter having been involved with three of the previous eight films, including the 1979 original. I tend to go into way too much detail when reviewing these movies. This time will be a little different. I will, once again, be going into extreme detail, but will keep it all separate, so those who are just seeking a review will get it, and those who are as invested in this series as myself can get my deeper insights, as well. So, maybe, for once, this will be a short review—short for me, at least. 

A younger group of characters than we’ve ever seen before in one of these movies is seeking to escape the mining colony on Jackson’s Star and journey to the planet Yvaga, where they’ll actually get to see the sun and won’t be forced into slave labour. Their plan is to sneak aboard a deserted space station and retrieve cryostasis chambers for the long journey, and they need Andy (David Jonsson), the synthetic brother of Rain (Cailee Spaeny) to help them break into the company-controlled locale. When they get aboard, they discover facehuggers in stasis, and a few more nasty surprises, as well.

Alien: Romulus is a conundrum in that it’s simultaneously not stupid and not clever. Canonical continuity errors and retcons aside, there is nothing glaring in the screenplay that makes no sense. The small cast of characters are established early on, there are little setups with payoffs later, and they make logical decisions from beginning to end. That being said, there are no big concepts here that are new. There is nothing truly original or creative except for an action-packed third act sequence and the initial plot setup. Many reviewers as using the terminology “greatest hits” to describe it, which is a convenient shorthand, but it isn’t entirely accurate either, in my opinion. The film isn’t devoid of new ideas, but it does go beyond mere callbacks and emulates most other reboots from the past decade (Jurassic World, The Force Awakens, Rogue One, Halloween, etc.) by giving us what worked best before once again. 

My favourite character was Andy, the new android, but the only thing that disappointed me about him was his name—like, yeah, I get it, Andy the Android? Like the term used in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (famously adapted by Ridley Scott into Bladerunner). I had hoped they would find a more franchise-appropriate name—we’ve had Ash, Bishop, Call, David, Walter, all named with specific intention by the screenwriters—but then another android is introduced later, which is named more appropriately: Rook. I won’t say anything else about this one because it’s a pretty major spoiler, except that upon its introduction my enjoyment of the movie started to decline. I found myself loving the first half or so, but the second half, while still entertaining and interesting and intense, did not grip me as tight. 

I liked the relatively small group of characters, and the story had a compelling enough setup, but what I loved the most about the whole thing was the production design. Right from the opening shot, I was enthralled by the visuals, which hardly ever happens in a movie of this nature anymore. The reason, though, was not just because of the clever use of CGI mixing seamlessly with practical effects (worth noting: it was made on a modest budget of $80 million), but because the retro-futuristic aesthetic from the original Alien was recreated so faithfully and in such detail that I truly felt like I was back in that world. The bland visuals was one of the biggest issues I had with Alien: Covenant previously, next to it being dumb and not scary. Alien: Romulus has eye-catching cinematography, and Alvarez honours the look and feel of Alien (and Aliens) without it feeling like a rip-off (visually, at least). It was clearly his vision, and he makes all the creature’s life cycle stages scary again—though still not as scary as they once were many movies ago.  

I’ll end this review with my overall feelings during my initial viewing. I was caught off guard with the opening few minutes and instantly hooked, then I was thrilled with the world building (or rather world recreating) and the setup, but after the characters got aboard the space station and made one particular discovery, my enjoyment declined, only spiking back up a few times with some cool shots of the creatures, a couple fun moments, and then the fourth act felt a bit tedious. It’s not a spoiler to say the movie comes to an end then has another ending, because pretty much every movie in the series has done that, and this one is a slave to the Alien structure (for better and for worse), only it doesn’t come as a surprise fourth act even within the movie, it’s telegraphed long before it happens.

It’s difficult for me to simply recommend Alien: Romulus. In some ways it will play well for longtime fans, but many will be disappointed with its formulaic structure. Newcomers will not mind its repetitious nature, but if you don’t know how gross these movies can get, you’ll really be in for a nasty surprise. I’m not finished with my evaluation of Alien: Romulus just yet. This is it for my spoiler-free review; next time I will take a wider look at where this film stands in the overall franchise, still without spoilers, and then I will get into specific, spoilery reasons as to why Romulus was in some ways the best Alien movie since Aliens, and in other ways the worst one yet.