Alien: Romulus does the impossible job of creating new characters who can stand next to the likes of Ripley, Newt and Hudson, although the movie suffers whenever the story turns into fan service, even going so far as ripping off previous instalments.

Another issue is Romulus’s disjointed pacing. The movie starts with the original Xenomorph being recovered onto the Renaissance space station. The scene shows painstaking attention to detail to recreate a universe under the Weyland-Yutani Corporation’s dominance. It’s a quick scene that doesn’t amount to much other than paying homage to the feeling, textures, and even typeface font of the original Alien, which could easily be incorporated into one of Rook’s (Daniel Betts) monologues. This opening shot does more for the prologue of the Alien: Romulus comic than it does the movie.

Rain (Cailee Spaney) dreams of leaving the mining planet of Jackson’s Star. Her petition for passage to Yvaga III is denied once the Weyland-Yutani Corporation raises all worker work hours and quotas. Tyler’s (Archie Renaux) crew Kay (Isabela Merced), Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Navarro (Aileen Wu) have a plan to break into an abandoned outpost to steal the hypersleep chambers needed to make the 9-year journey to Yvaga III. The group needs Andy (David Jonsson) a decommissioned synthetic to gain access to the lab thus creating the reason for Rain and Co. to go headlong into a situation that will go from bad to worse.

One of Romulus’s strengths is Rain and Andy’s tender relationship, despite Andy being an android. His outdated technology affects his ability to communicate resulting in a stutter, and thanks to Jonsson’s amazing performance, Andy goes from naive and childlike to cold and calculating as the scene demands it.  Spaney is also terrific as Rain. Sure, the third act is a blatant rip off Alien’s ending, but she handles the action and dramatic elements so well that she easily earns her place as the new face of the franchise.

The decision to go back to practical effects is felt all throughout the movie. Whether it’s the slums of Jackson’s Star or the rundown technology of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Alien: Romulus looks and feels right at home between Alien and Aliens. The Facehuggers have never been as terrifying as they are in Romulus, and the idea that they’re manufactured adds level of realism. The Facehuggers aren’t birthed from an egg this time around but are printed. Director Fede Alvarez even adds a new chrysalis form to the Xenomorph’s evolution. However, it’s the Offspring that is the movie’s biggest surprise. I don’t want to spoil too much for those who haven’t seen the movie, but the way Romulus integrates Prometheus’s lore is effective, paying off with the creation of a new monster.

However, with all that said, Romulus does collapse a little once the group reaches the lower levels of the Romulus beta lab. There’s a sequence that haphazardly uses CGI to create an obstacle for the characters that I’m sure would be included as a frustrating level for a tie-in video game (if tie-in video games were still a thing). The sequence ends when a character makes a glaring movie reference to a movie that has yet to happen (chronologically speaking). Not to mention the film’s additional inexplicable story elements such as number of Xenomorophs that randomly appear as having nested in the lower levels the whole time or that their acidic blood only affects the hull of the station but not the elevator platform.

Since the movie’s release, there has been a lot of chatter about the CGI restoration of the late Ian Holm as Rook. While the quality does vary from shot to shot, the overall look is effective since the character is literally falling apart.

Overall, Alien: Romulus is a return to form for the franchise and succeeds far more often than it fails. Hopefully, director Alvarez hears the screams of love and criticism for this movie because most audiences are excited to either see Rain’s next adventure or the director’s next outing in this franchise.

Rating: 4/5.

Alien: Romulus Invades Digital Retailers on October 15 and Terrorizes on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and DVD on December 3. At the time of writing Alien: Romulus will be available to stream on Hulu 11-21-2024.

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The writer of this piece is: Laurence Almalvez
Laurence tweets from @IL1511

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