Although it’s the latest in the long running franchise to be produced, the story of Alien: Romulus takes place between Ridley Scott’s seminal 1979 original and James Cameron’s game changing 1986 sequel. It’s quite fitting, then, that director and co-writer Fede Alvarez’s blisteringly exciting take on unsuspecting space travellers fending off xenomorphs and face-huggers slots just behind those two franchise high points in terms of overall quality. A nice mash-up of the slow burn terror Scott achieved with the original and the elaborate, bombastic action-horror hybrid Cameron delivered, Alien: Romulus proves the franchise can still deliver great sequels as long as they strike a perfect balance between trying new things and sticking to the elements of the story that worked best in the first place. The fact that Alvarez has also delivered one of the scariest movies of the year is just as welcome a surprise as the franchise’s overall return to form here.
Rain (Cailee Spaeny) has been toiling for years on a mining planet that has never seen sunlight, owned and operated by the morally loose Weyland-Yutani corporation. Rain desperately wants to escape the planet and her thankless existence with her surrogate brother – a synthetic human programmed by her late father, named Andy (David Jonsson) – by her side. When the chances of that happening grown increasingly impossible, a life line is thrown by her scavenger friend, Tyler (Archie Renaux). Tyler has discovered a derelict space station owned by the corporation floating about in orbit above their planet, and on board are cryo-sleep chambers that can help facilitate a trip across the galaxy to freedom. Tyler has assembled a team, but he really needs the tech inside of Andy to help unlock doors and disable alarms aboard the ship. Rain reluctantly agrees to go, but soon they all realize that not only are they fighting a race against the clock – with the ship due to fall out of orbit and crash into an asteroid belt in 36 hours – but also at the mercy of a bunch of deadly creatures that caused the ship’s fall into disrepair.
Alvarez (the Evil Dead remake from 2013, The Girl in the Spider’s Web, Don’t Breathe) and frequent co-writer Rodo Sayagues show a distinct love for not only Scott and Cameron’s achievements within the series, but the entirety of the up-and-down franchise as a whole. While there’s a very low barrier for audience entry in terms of needing to know any of the previous films, Alien: Romulus is the only instalment that includes nods to all of the series entries that make them feel like a relevant whole. (Well, maybe not those two Alien vs. Predator movies, but who’s really counting those?)
Tonally, Alien: Romulus starts like Scott’s original, with the filmmaker and original writer Walter Hill working as producers here. The terror is palpable, and Alvarez uses the quiet enormity of outer space to an intense advantage. The second half transitions into Cameron’s take on the series. Things become elaborately bombastic and breathlessly paced, never offering the characters or the audience a moment of peace or rest. In its scariest moments, Alien: Romulus is absolutely terrifying beyond words, and in terms of overall scope and design, Alvarez has made jaw dropping use of every resource at his disposal. In the opening scenes set on the mining planet, Alvarez seamlessly blends old school practical effects and sets with picture perfect CGI, giving viewers an early look into the ambitious nature of everything to come.
True to his early roots as a DIY filmmaker, Alvarez has crafted an ultra-violent bit of fan service that still has enough personality and style to stand on its own as an accomplished and respectful pastiche. Alien: Romulus boasts a healthy amount of gore and dripping acid blood, but Alvarez knows how to mount a sequence that can push the boundaries of “good taste” before things go too far, leaving the viewer to conjure up the worst parts of images that never make it to the screen. Similarly, Alvarez understands that fans love cool references to their favourite films, but with the glaring exception of some dodgy CGI used to resurrect a returning character and a line of dialogue that should never have been near this thing, most of those nods are reserved for subtler, story based purposes that make logical sense. Alien: Romulus is an absolute visual feast and an effective thrill ride precisely because Alvarez knows the formula so well.
The choice to focus on younger characters this time out also offers a bit of timeliness to Alvarez and Sayagues’ pronouncedly bleak material. The world of Alien: Romulus and its brutalist design makes this story of desperate people in an even worse situation impactful enough on its own. But it’s also easy to sympathize with young people who have been forced into a meaningless future via events that happened before they were old enough to speak up, even when those characters are often rather paper thin. There’s the hunky leader (Renaux), the hothead (Spike Fearn), the pregnant one (Isabela Merced), and the tech genius (Aileen Wu), all of whom serve their purpose to the story but are mostly there to inform and alter the arcs of Rain and Andy.
Everyone in the cast is good, but Spaeny and Jonsson are its two brightest shining stars. Spaeny brings exactly the kind of balance of fear and heroism exhibited by Sigourney Weaver in the franchise’s finest moments throughout Alien: Romulus, while Jonsson continues in the series tradition of making an android one of the most fascinating and humane characters. Spaeny and Jonsson bring a considerable amount of empathy and heart that Alien: Romulus needs to remain engaging and worthy of viewer investment.
Perhaps most importantly, Alien: Romulus has the ability to raise viewer’s tensions to a fever pitch and keep them that way once the set pieces start to pile up. Alvarez captures the viewer’s attention through sheer force of will and refuses to let go for almost two full hours. Considering the wide range of quality within the Alien franchise, it’s a pleasant, borderline shocking surprise that Alien: Romulus has turned out to be this great, and not in a disposable, fast-food sort of way. But that initial shock and awe will be replaced rather quickly by goosebumps and a racing heartbeat once viewers get caught up in the ride. It’s a wonderful way to end a suitably strong summer movie season.
Alien: Romulus opens in theatres everywhere on Friday, August 16, 2024.
