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Trigger warnings: violence, gore, death
Ringing in the seventh film in the Alien franchise of movies, books, manga and an underrated video game, Alien: Romulus is an interquel taking place somewhere between Ridley Scott’s original Alien (1979) and its direct sequel, James Cameron’s Aliens (1986). The series is known chiefly for terrorising its blundering protagonists with the ‘Xenomorph’, a brutally violent alien life form whose primal instinct is to further propagate its species by forcing its eggs into human hosts. It achieves this with great success via ‘Facehuggers’ which, believe it or not, attach to people’s faces. Romulus jumps straight into the very familiar set-up of introducing a space-dwelling crew tangled up in complex relationships; the protagonist’s ex-boyfriend’s cousin is dating the crew’s pilot, for example. Your feelings about the characters do not matter on any deep level, seeing as you know that you are about to watch them get messily dispatched one-by-one in the style of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.
A crack team of Rain’s exes and siblings and cousins steals a space hauler
This crew appears younger than usual, led by Rain (Cailee Spaeny, whose name rearranges to ‘ye space alien’) and her reprogrammed android brother Andy (David Jonsson, a highlight of the film). They need to escape the dangerous mining planet of Jackson’s Star, a hellhole overseen by the galaxy’s arch-capitalist Weyland-Yutani company, and so a crack team of Rain’s exes and siblings and cousins steals a space hauler. Their plan is to venture to a nearby unmanned station with reckless abandon, in hopes of stealing cryostasis pods with which to flee the star system to a distant planet. The station in question is split in two halves: the Remus side and the Romulus side. The last thing the gang expects to find within the station’s dimly-lit hallways is a walk-in freezer full of Facehuggers.
Thrills and spills ensue as the crew is hunted for sport, including all the Alien classics such as Xenomorph nests, synthetic androids behaving with moral ambiguity, shot-for shot recreations of iconic visuals from previous entries in the series, and a healthy number of innovative jumpscares. One particularly bold blast from the pastarrives in the form of a character portrayed from beyond the grave by an actor who featured in the original film (using AI). I won’t spoil his identity, but reception to this addition has been mixed; its inclusion leads naturally to the ongoing conversation about the use of ‘deepfake’ technology to revive dead actors, with the aim of mining IP for added surprise value. Additionally, there are plenty of living actors around who would probably appreciate the work. With even the series’ most memorable one-liner repeated at a crucial moment, the only thing the film is missing is a fourth-wall break.
Thrills and spills ensue as the crew is hunted for sport
The story clips along; for some viewers, Romulus’ predecessors Prometheus and Alien: Covenant suffered for having their action sequences interrupted by a valiant attempt to philosophise the Xenomorph and its lore. If your primary interest is watching the Xenos ablaze under machine gunfire, then you may find Romulus more palatable. Director Fede Alvarez leaves a stamp of originality on the series, despite the references and Easter eggs; his dedication to using practical effects where possible lends the film the same visceral sense of urgency and unpleasantness as the very first film from 1979. Even the retro aesthetics disregard Prometheus’ and Covenant’s more polished, modernised look in favour of the shabby space chic of the original film’s 1970s set design. The music score is pounding during moments of tension, and shrill during moments of terror.
My only grumble is that the deaths feel a little more formulaic
The final twenty minutes of the film is what everyone’s talking about. Another fairly typical Alien trope is the fake-out ending where all the drama appears neatly resolved, only for the Xenos to orchestrate a grand finale, usually by hiding in an escape pod or evolving to a higher power level. Romulus’ closing act bestows upon us a fresh interpretation of HR Giger’s humanoid alien, which is always delightful; the Xenomorph and its family remains towering over science fiction as one of its most influential character designs. I’m willing to overlook Romulus’ unsubtle references as I’m a fan of the series; my only grumble is that the deaths feel a little more formulaic than in its creatively violent predecessor Covenant. In Covenant, you never quite knew which body part the gestating Xenos were going to pop out from; every second of the gore is captured in full detail and the audience is forced to bear witness to it all. By contrast, the death sequences in Romulus appear choppy, perhaps as if edited down for the film’s final cut.
Verdict:
Opinion on its quality will differ, but Romulus is due to surpass its predecessor at the box office, with worldwide takings of $118 million in its first five days. The noise the film has made demonstrates that this 45-year-old franchise still has gas in the tank, and Facehuggers in the freezer.
7/10
Alien: Romulus is in cinemas now.
Trailer:
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