If you ask five different Alien fans which films they like best from the series and why they love them, you’ll probably get five different answers. But it goes without saying that each subsequent entry in the series is judged by its similarity to one of two films: Ridley Scott’s 1979 original and James Cameron’s 1986 sequel. Aliens. In Alien: Romulusthe latest installment in the series, screenwriter and director Fede Álvarez and his frequent co-writer Rodo Sayagues (Don’t breathe) display their love for Scott and Cameron’s films with the same pride as any fan of the franchise would, but this is to the detriment of the film’s visual quality and storytelling.
20 years after the events of ForeignerThe focus of Álvarez’s film is Rain Carradine (Civil WarRain (Cailee Spaeny) is an orphan living on Jackson’s Star, a mining colony light-years from Earth enveloped in a never-ending dark storm. Her mother and father are dead; her only companion is Andy (David Jonsson), a dysfunctional synthetic android she cares for like a surrogate sibling. Desperate to find a way to escape the colony—and the clutches of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the true main villain of the Alien series—Rain agrees to join a group of friends who break into an abandoned station drifted into their planet’s orbit. What they find on board is not salvation, but a threat beyond their wildest imagination.
“Is it as good as Foreigner or Aliens?” is the obvious question fans of the franchise are asking themselves when considering whether Alien: Romulus. Álvarez and Sayagues seem to have been uncomfortably aware of this question. They have anticipated these five different answers to the question of what Alien fans love about the previous films and have tried to resolve the differences between all of them and more. Like the Romulus and Remus stations that serve as the film’s setting, Alien: Romulus consists of roughly two parts: a haunted house story in space à la Foreignerand a popular horror action spectacle like Aliens. The first element is stronger than the second in this case, and the imbalance is one of the reasons Alien: Romulus feels more like a schematic rendition of the franchise it defines than the invigorating impact it so desperately needs.
Image: 20th Century Studios
This film has positive aspects: Alien: Romulus‘ Set and production design make it one of the most visually impressive science fiction films of the year, which Cassette Futurism and feel of Scott’s original film, while introducing “new” technology that still feels like it fits into the environment. Benjamin Wallfisch’s score is another highlight, reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic orchestral score from Foreigner and adds disharmonious, scratchy tones to the industrial sound when the shit hits the fan.
Spaeny and Jonsson undoubtedly deliver the strongest performances in the film’s ensemble. Rain is obviously coded as Alien: Romulus‘ answer to Ellen Ripley, though she’s far from a one-to-one copy of Sigourney Weaver’s character. Rain isn’t a hardened space trucker with a survivalist mindset, but a frightened young woman trying to fight her way out of the crushing burden of corporate debt.
As her love for Andy squares off against her chance to leave Jackson’s Star, she must weigh the consequences of that fateful decision, along with the moment-to-moment choices that will mean the difference between her survival and certain death. She tries to make the best of a shitty situation that only gets worse as more of her friends die. And the only way out of hell is to live through it and come out the other side.
Image: 20th Century Studios
Jonsson’s performance as Andy is one of the most moving performances in the entire film. Andy is not Alien: Romulus‘ Reply to Ash, the First Foreigner‘s android science officer became the antagonist. He is more of a mirror image of Michael Fassbender’s David from Prometheus And Alien: Covenantif anyone had ever taken the trouble to teach him love – or anythingapart from the reverence for his creator and the goals of Weyland-Yutani.
Just as Rain must decide whether to leave without Andy, he is faced with the choice of abandoning Rain and her friends in the service of the Company’s interests in the Xenomorph, or fighting for their survival, knowing they may not do the same for him. The answer he comes up with, while predictable, speaks volumes about his resolve and strength of character in the face of both the overwhelming terror and the internal moral battle raging between his good angels and his Company programming.
How do you make the Xenomorph scary again after so many movies that all copy the original two films? In the case of Alien: Romulusthe answer is simple: you don’t. Álvarez never quite manages to make the aliens that dominate the franchise seem threatening in a way that moviegoers haven’t already experienced over the past 40 years. Despite some evolutionary trickery between the species in the film’s final act, Alien: Romulus
Image: 20th Century Studios
For those who are concerned that Alien: Romulus could go around the psychosexual imagery the franchise’s earliest entries were known for it, don’t worry; it’s present here, albeit in scant quantity. We literally see a character jab a stun gun into what is clearly a vaginal cocoon before being confronted by what can only be described as a clitoral claw. Later, as acid oozes from a cocoon’s mouth onto a victim’s writhing body, a Xenomorph stirs from its pregnancy, shedding its amniotic shell like an erect penis protruding from the folds of its foreskin. Don’t look at me like that: This is another film by HR Gigerfinally.
Fede Álvarez and Co. have combined DNA from the original ForeignerCameron’s sequel, and Scott’s more recent prequel films, to see if anything new could come out of it – but they don’t introduce any new genetic material of their own. The result is a technically impressive but narratively stubborn horror thriller that takes every opportunity to ape its forebearers while, oddly, contributing very little of its own to that legacy. That’s fine if you want to relive some of your favorite old horrors with a brand new coat of paint. But for everyone else: Alien: Romulus is a serviceable, if disappointing, entry in a franchise otherwise known for its relentless evolution.
Alien: Romulus will be in theaters on August 16th.
