Alien: Romulus plays like a greatest hits of the Alien franchise, which is both good and bad. After all, there are certain things you expect when dealing with the franchise. Romulus hits these head-on. It also looks gorgeous. But in the end, when fans know how every encounter with the xenomorphs end, what could Alien: Romulus offer that’s new?
- Directed by: Fede Alvarez
- Written by: Dan O’Bannon. Ronald Shusett. Fede Alvarez
- Starring: Cailee Spaeny. David Jonsson. Archie Renaux
Thematically, the Alien franchise deals with economic struggles and class divide. Romulus hits this head on with its main cast. They are Weyland-Yutani employees who are basically indentured servants working in deadly conditions, who decide to steal an abandoned Weland-Yutani ship and use it to escape. Of course, the audience knows it’s abandoned because they brought a xenomorph on board. Now, it’s just a matter of who dies first.
And how good the xenomorph looks. I find that much of my enjoyment from these later movies comes from the creature effects. Alien: Romulus is a beautifully filmed movie. The early scenes have a gritty quality one would expect from a mining colony. I honestly didn’t expect to love the visuals on any later-stage Alien movie, but I dug this.
Almost as much as I hated some of the characters. Which is fine, since they aren’t people. That’s right, once again we have bait. This time, it’s xenomorph bait. Aliens proved you can write compelling characters that still die. Miss you, Vasquez! But Romulus isn’t quite up to the task for all its characters; mostly because the characterization we do get, we’ve seen before. Except for Andy and Rain; I’ll talk about them later.
The other problem is the script relies on characters making incredibly stupid decisions. I mean sure, you just found out that your girlfriend is possibly infected by a lethal parasite that will wipe out everyone. Is running for the ship in a blind panic the best option? Gonna go with no.
Did I Like Alien: Romulus?
That all depends on what the point of it is. There’s nothing wrong with telling a solid story even if we know where it’s leading. I am someone who has watched twelve Friday the 13th movies; not a lot of surprises there. The issue I have with this type of movie is all about pacing. Now I enjoyed looking at Alien: Romulus, and it did a decent job of building some kind of conflict between Rain and Andy, for a moment. But here is the thing: I know there is a xenomorph in this space station. I have a limited amount of patience for establishing tone and mood when the outcome is preordained.
There is an irony to Romulus that I enjoyed. Andy is the only one paying attention to the surroundings, and he’s the one least able to process and communicate. Once he can communicate, he’s no longer the same person with the same goals. It’s a nod to WY’s corrupting influence.
Andy and Rain
The best part of Alien: Romulus is Andy. The role requires a lot from him, and the actor delivers. The switch he makes is chilling even before you know the full extent of it. He’s conflicted even as he accepts his new identity. It’s hard for me to say which version he plays better.
Rain is also a decent hero. She has a casual attachment to the group but loves Andy like a brother. Her struggle to recognize this new version of him is just as compelling as her fear of the face hugger. At the end, Andy still has his core malfunction and needs his sister, and she is still compelled to rescue him.
The Small Details
At one point, Rain comes across a corpse with the back of its head missing. We know exactly how this person died. It’s the good old mouth-to-the-back-of-the-head treatment. That’s one of the better referential details, a nod to us already knowing how terrifying these creatures are. There are other easter eggs, callbacks to the other movies, from Bjorn’s bandanna to borrowed lines of dialogue. For me, it’s a little much. I have no problem with the continuity in world-building, but all the repeated dialogue did eventually take me out of the tension.
The Bad
I’m gonna say pacing. When things finally get xenomorphy, it’s good. It just takes a while to get there and I’m not sure it was all worth watching. It wasn’t bad, just not new or original.
And then there is the newborn. I hated this thing the first time I saw it. I hate it now. Nothing will change my mind about that. This whole section I could have lived without. I’m not saying newborns aren’t scary. Well, maybe I am. But they’re also a solvable problem. See, the thing about xenomorphs is numbers. You don’t know where they are coming from or how many face huggers are lurking out there. They reproduce in such quantities that they are unstoppable. Newborns are a one-and-done. Mostly because they tend to kill off mom. You get one on your planet, you have a problem, sure, but not an extinction level event. Now you get a face hugger or two, and in the words of Hicks, “it’s game over man, game over”.
Final Thoughts
It’s time to start telling new stories in this world. Whatever that looks like, it can’t look like this again, but not because Alien: Romulus was bad. It wasn’t. It was just way too familiar.
PS: Thoughts from a Day Later
I came back to this after thinking about it for a day. My feelings on it are much more negative after some time and reflection. That’s mostly due to the wasted opportunity than the quality of the movie they made. I kept thinking about how much more interesting a story it would be if the whole thing started where Romulus tries to end. What if the pregnant Kay, Andy, and Rain make it to the colony, and THEN the newborn is well, born, and starts its rampage on the new, target rich environment?
This could in theory give new cool locations like the mines, and a ton of victims. We could also see a new skill set from this version of the newborn. I’m never going to love the design they chose or the concept in general but giving it a real chance to shine could help. Rain and Andy could then complete their story by destroying the colony and the growing newborn threat. I would suggest nuking it from orbit before heading off to their new home. This removes it from continuity in a way that allows Weland-Yutani to cover it up as a mining disaster and doesn’t break the timeline. It is a prequel after all. And, if you’re going to use references to the other movies, why not use one of the best ones?
All right, I’ve spent too much time on this movie, and I have much worse films to watch.
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