Xenomorph in a scene from "Alien: Romulus." (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios)
“Alien: Romulus,” the latest entry in the science fiction franchise that put director Ridley Scott and star Sigourney Weaver on the map 45 years ago, is not the smartest film in the series, and it's certainly not the most ambitious. Perhaps more than its predecessors, it is the one most aware that, if you strip away the lofty thematic pursuits and philosophical ruminations, these movies are slasher films at their core. Transporting, atmospheric, intricately designed space monster yarns where the boogeyman is spine-chilling nightmare fuel with two sets of jaws and acid for blood.
How much you enjoy this seventh “Alien” film, or ninth if you count the “Alien vs. Predator” movies from the 2000s, will largely depend on whether or not you're on board with the back-to-basics approach from its director, Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Alvarez. More importantly, it will also depend on how you feel about his obsession with recreating the industrial landscapes and panic-inducing sound design of the older, less divisive films. For a movie intent on bringing the future to life, “Romulus” is thoroughly fascinated with the past, or at least the way a previous generation of visual storytellers viewed the world of tomorrow.
Archie Renaux as Tyler and Cailee Spaney as Rain Carradine in a scene from "Alien: Romulus." (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios)
This taut legacy sequel is less interested in saying something new than in distilling the prior films, particularly the first two 1979's “Alien” and 1986's “Aliens” through its director's genrelicious sensibility. It's the movie equivalent of that Japanese sedan that is so influenced by European or American manufacturers that the designers didn't really bother to add much creative input beyond technical expertise. In this case, the nuts-and-bolts prowess is enough to give this aging franchise the juice it needs to restart.
Sandwiched between “Alien” and “Aliens,” “Romulus” is set in the year 2142, 20 years after the former and 37 years before the latter. Our protagonist/final girl contender is Rain Carradine (“Priscilla's” Cailee Spaeny), a young space colonist who is beyond ready to leave Jackson's Star, the mining colony she calls home, only to hit the brick wall of the bureaucracy that will keep on throwing red tape her way until she gives up the fight.
David Jonsson as Andy in a scene from "Alien: Romulus." (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios)
We're talking about a 22nd century variation on the coal mines, a soul-crushing, dystopian hellhole designed to dehumanize and turn these people into cogs in the wheel of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. (Booo! Hiss!) After she learns her contract is being extended against her will, Rain contemplates a proposal by Tyler (Archie Renaux), a strapping young man with whom she shares a romantic history, and a circle of friends who are on the same boat as she is. Tyler wants them to break into a derelict ship that is orbiting their sunlight-deprived planet so they can take cryogenic stasis chambers that would enable them to survive a voyage to a remote planet where the promise of a better life hangs above them like the ultimate carrot.
The key to their scavenging mission's success lies in Andy (David Jonsson), a soft-spoken, stuttering android that was found in a scrap heap by Rain's late father and reprogrammed to be her surrogate sibling, or, as Rain calls him, simply her brother. Because he's an android, Tyler points out, Andy can communicate with the ship's computer systems and help them gain access to the fancy hibernating pods they're looking for. Before you can yell some sense into these driven twentysomethings, Rain reluctantly agrees.
Cailee Spaney as Rain Carradine in a scene from "Alien: Romulus." (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios)
Beyond how much younger this cast looks when compared to other “Alien” films (“these are children,” I scribbled on my notebook) what really stands out in the early scenes of “Romulus” is the remarkably detailed production design by Naaman Marshall, which brings this godforsaken world to life with bracing immediacy. It's tactile in the way too many recent genre undertakings don't get to be because of their overreliance on CGI. “Romulus” might not quite feel completely analog, but its inclusion of practical effects and sets makes it easy to lose yourself in this grim future.
It's safe to say that what follows once this brave group makes it aboard the abandoned spacecraft doesn't reinvent the wheel, but Alvarez, whose previous work struck me as overly mechanical and storyboarded to death, generates empathy for these young adventurers. He also doesn't shy away from depicting the troubles of a working class that's struggling under the thumb of a greedy corporation. It's tempting to view “Romulus” as an allegory of labor strife, echoing in part the first “Alien,” with its blue-collar workforce. (Tom Skerritt! John Hurt!)
Isabela Merced as Kay in a scene from "Alien: Romulus." (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios)
But it's clear Alvarez is considerably more interested in giving you goose bumps and grossing you out, and here's where “Romulus” delivers the nasty goods. There is certainly credence to Alvarez's reputation as a hack who favors atmosphere over character growth, but the “Don't Breathe” director steps up to the plate and unleashes one expertly staged setpiece after another. There are no real surprises here, but some well-timed jump-scares and a fair number of sequences engineered to quicken your pulse take care of business all the same.
For most of its running time, “Romulus,” whose title is a name plucked from Roman mythology, hums along like a well-oiled machine. It is not, however, without its pitfalls. Take Andy, for instance. Jonsson, so good in the English rom-com “Rye Lane,” gives the film's best performance, but he also embodies the character with the most problematic baggage. By casting a (very talented) Black actor as a character with a subservient role, the film skirts uncomfortably close to the magical Negro trope. Andy's arc ends up subverting this stereotype, but the bad taste in my mouth lingers.
Cailee Spaney as Rain Carradine and David Jonsson as Andy in a scene from "Alien: Romulus." (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios)
And, as the film nears the home stretch, Alvarez hits the overkill button, filling the screen with freaky imagery that feels closer to his own past work than an “Alien” movie. It makes sense to give the material one's own imprint, but he throws the less-is-more m.o. that had served the movie so well out the window in favor of shock value.
In addition to the eleventh-hour excess, the filmmaker doubles down on the visual and aural callbacks to “Romulus'” predecessors. Some of them are thrilling, such as the moment when a backlit Spaeny, a wind machine blowing her hair, is made to look like Weaver's Ellen Ripley near the end of “Aliens,” for my money, still James Cameron's best movie. But too often, these callbacks feel like unnecessary fan service in a film that is already comprised of spare parts from better sci-fi films.
Xenomorph in a scene from "Alien: Romulus." (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios)
Still, my low expectations were met and in some places exceeded. Now that he has crafted his own cover-band tribute to the mythos born from H.R. Giger's inspired xenomorph design, it's time for Alvarez to show what else he has to offer, apart from valiantly taking on a well-regarded intellectual property ... and the decades' worth of space debris it carries.
“Alien: Romulus” is now playing in theaters in wide release, including IMAX engagements at Regal South Beach, AMC Aventura, AMC Sunset Place, CMX Cinemas Dolphin 19 and the AutoNation IMAX at the Museum of Discovery and Science in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
