Alien: Romulus Review

I've Seen This One Before

When I was a young lad, I was lucky enough to go to Disney World with my family, and there I went on an experience that would be highly influential in my life: The Great Movie Ride. The ride would magically transport you into the world of iconic American cinema, with the likes of The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, The Searchers, Singing in the Rain, etc. My eyes were lit up with awe and amazement by the colors and sounds as I was taken to places I couldn't even dream of. That was until I got to the Aliens section, and the dream became a nightmare, and I was utterly taken back in horror. The setup was that the ride had taken a turn, and we weren't supposed to be in the Nostromo. The sirens blasted, fog poured over our seats, and finally, the perfectly designed Alien appeared, spouting its second mouth into our seats while I pulled my shirt over my face. It was traumatic for me as a young ginger lad, but my fascination and love for the Alien series also began. The experience was so terrifying that it left a lasting impression on me, sparking a fascination with the horror genre and the Alien series in particular.

Alien: Romulus is like being on a ride of the greatest hits of the Aliens series and feels like a missed opportunity. It's visually stunning, has excellent performances, and the film captures the Alien's atmosphere and body horror very well. The atmosphere is tense and foreboding, with a sense of dread that permeates every scene. The body horror elements are visceral and disturbing, adding to the overall sense of unease. However, the film doesn't do anything with the source material besides pay homage. Several sequences in the movie rip and had me on the edge of my seat, but all feel hollowed out by this weird desire to rehash and nostalgia bait those franchise fans. If you are not an Alien fan, I feel as though you will have a great time with a sci-fi horror thriller that's constructed perfectly, but for fans of the Alien films, it feels like a weird off-shoot video game movie tie-in game that is playing it safe. They took the ride that made me fall in love with the series and put it on screen to less avail.

Alien: Romulus follows a group of young adults trapped on a corporate mining planet, desperate to escape their harsh living conditions. Their discovery of a ship with sleep pods that promise a safe journey to a better world sets the stage for their adventure. However, their hopes are dashed when they realize the ship is a secret corporate science lab dedicated to creating more aliens. The group must fight for survival, navigating a straightforward plot with simple writing brought to life by the actors' commendable performances.  If anything, I liked the setup and worldbuilding on the mining planet at the beginning and how awful the world was made out to be.

I adored the performances by Cailee Spaney and David Jonsson. David Jonsson, especially as the Android Andy, I found his work super exciting and invested in his sympathetic character and relationship with Cailee Spaney. Cailee Spaney held her own as our badass lead with a strong presence, and her terrorized looks rocked! I wish there were more investment into the other characters' personalities besides they are the girlfriend or boyfriend of another crew member or they hate androids, which is immediately exposition dumped to us. There are lots of telling and not showing character traits, if any, in this one.

Fede Álvarez's direction once again is excellent! He creates some disgusting and thrilling sequences that are some high marks of the series. I think he gets the Alien atmosphere and made the Alien creature incredibly horrifying and menacing this time. Álvarez shoots this wonderfully and sticks the landing with the gore. It's miserable that it doesn't seem he was given full reins regarding the story. I can only speculate, but it looks like Disney stepped in to make this a movie about the IP of Alien.

The movie is not a love letter to the Alien franchise but a callbacks galore of references to all the series' films. It's not as deplorable as the jingling of the keys in front of my face as Deadpool vs. Wolverine, but it's closer to a sidewalk apart than a canyon. It takes ideas from all the films in the series, even Alien: Ressurection (yes, I know, wild), but doesn't have any new ideas in itself. Minor Spoiler - the film brings back an actor who has been deceased and makes them a significant part of the film, which story-wise feels like a lazy storytelling device, but also the ethics of that are just gross. You'll be watching the film, seeing lines and actions directly pulled out of the other Alien films, and be like, well, I've seen this before and have also done much better. Say what you want about the other Alien films, which do have flaws, but at least they tried to tackle interesting new ideas in each one. They all had an identity, and this one was lacking or stealing from its IP.

Overall, I am mixed on Alien: Romulus. Even though some aspects of the film hit, I feel empty. Some solid performances and sick, gorey sequences did not save it from being a theme park ride of Aliens' greatest hits. I wanted to rewatch all the other films that came before again, as I did this week in preparation for this new Alien outing. I wish Ridley Scott got to finish his Prometheus trilogy.

Final Score: 7/10

Written by: Kevin J. Pettit