IT has been almost 40 years but there is finally a good Alien film that reaches the heights of the first two titles in the franchise by taking what worked well in these movies and in some instances, Alien: Romulus even elevates them.
Directed by Fede Alvarez, Romulus is the first film structured around a fully developed emotional core and one that is vehemently anti-corporation in its blue-collar themes.
Set after the events of the first Alien, Romulus focuses on Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her brother Andy (David Jonsson).
Forced into the servitude of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation on a colonial outpost in space, Rain dreams of escaping the planet’s ravaged environment and increasing number of plagues to Yvalga, a planet not under the control of the company.
After Tyler (Archie Renaux) and his salvage crew discover an abandoned space station with the equipment necessary for space travel to reach Yvalga, Rain and Andy join them on their escape mission.
The group not-so-quickly find out that the vessel is not abandoned as initially believed.
Necessary rebirth
Following so many recent blunders in the franchise, fans of this mythic universe and Alvarez’s previous films are in for a treat with Romulus. From the film’s cold, almost silent opening down to the heavy use of practical effects, Alvarez flexes his writing and directing to deliver endless home-runs.
The choice to focus on Rain and Andy’s relationship as siblings mimics that of Ellen Ripley’s motherly relationship with Newt in Aliens, providing room for the audience to sympathise with their plight, bringing a tender, human paradigm that became increasingly rare in the franchise post-Aliens.
It also helps that Spaeny and Jonsson are excellent in their roles, particularly Jonsson as he has to pivot between two different “facets” of Andy, without giving away plot spoilers.
The same extends to the rest of the actors, who quickly prove their worth as they washed away early doubts that Romulus’ young cast would be a hindrance – every other Alien film had veteran actors above the age of 30.
Young heroes, hellish horrors
A running, possibly unintentional pattern to Alvarez’s films is how he torments his young characters in unfathomable settings.
In 2013’s Evil Dead, the young characters had to endure extreme violence and brutality from demons, with Alvarez using almost 190,000 litres of fake blood in the final act. Three years later, Alvarez pitted Don’t Breathe’s three young burglar leads against a blind, homicidal war veteran after he traps them in his home.
Rightfully, that should paint a picture of what Rain, Andy, Tyler and the others endure from the Xenomorphs in this film but it does not. Romulus is a step above from Alvarez’s previous films. Making a seventh Alien film is an exercise in futility, as retreading old ground is inevitable, but he deftly injects creativity not seen in the other films to keep things fresh.
For instance, early in the film after the group first enters the station, they find out that the vessel periodically performs “gravity purges” in order to relieve mechanical pressure, in which gravity would be turned on and off at intervals. Alvarez later uses this for several inventive action sequences once the gorefest begins.
Old-school scares, new-age reveals
The film also has a restrained approach to revealing and using the Xenomorphs, much like the first Alien, keeping them almost exclusively for the second half of the film. Alvarez opting to have the aliens brought to life by animatronics and practical effects was also great, rather than relying on CGI that would inevitably lead to artificiality.
Conceptually, Alvarez’s Xenomorphs are not different from other films but he does reveal something viewers have never officially seen. Just like H.R. Giger’s sexually suggestive art that inspired the franchise, viewers will finally see how “chestbursters” transform into full-grown Xenomorphs in Romulus.
As much as the Xenomorphs were great, Romulus also includes elements from Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, which is where the film slightly stumbles.
The integration feels forced and comes across really dumb if a viewer starts questioning the logic behind their inclusion. It was as though Alvarez was told to include these aspects through a mandate delivered by the studio or Scott himself.
Silly Prometheus and Covenant ideations aside, Romulus is the strongest film to burst out of the franchise’s chest in almost four decades and certainly one of the best blockbusters this year.
Alien: Romulus is in cinemas.
