ALIEN: ROMULUS (2024)
Starring Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu, Soma Simon, Bence Okeke, Viktor Orizu, Robert Bobroczkyi, Trevor Newlin and the voice of Annemarie Griggs.
Screenplay by Fede Álvarez & Rodo Sayagues.
Directed by Fede Álvarez.
Distributed by 20th Century Studios. 119 minutes. Rated R.
There have been nine Alien-based movies in the 45 years since the 1979 classic space horror film. (That is, if you are counting the two super-silly Alien vs. Predator movies, which I am.) That’s coming up on an average of a movie every five years for over four decades. The problem is that only the first film is a bonafide classic, and only the first sequel Aliens is also an above-average film. Since Aliens came out in 1986, that’s over 30 years of Alien movies which have essentially been sort of a disappointment.
In fairness, the Alien series has fallen apart simply because they were trying to change things up too much – advance the mythology of the creatures and build a world where they could exist. However, unless you are an absolute fanboy of the series, it all kind of got boring. (As much as I respect the original Alien, I would have been perfectly content if they finished the story there, or at the very least after Aliens.)
Thus, to me, there is really very little reason for Alien: Romulus to exist. It’s not exactly a good film, although it is one of the better Alien movies. However, it is simply fan service, some rather blah characters and a rather uninteresting storyline tossed in the midst of a gaggle of frothing aliens. Alien: Romulus feels more like you are watching someone play an Alien themed video game than experiencing an actual storyline, and yet this constant sense of motion does keep it exciting and scary.
Interestingly, unlike most of the other sequels, it stops trying to do something new and just goes back to the vibe of the original, with the volume and pace turned up to eleven. It’s actually because of this lack of ambition that Romulus kind of works. Alien: Romulus is like watching a tribute band cranking out energetic, if slightly detached, versions of a classic band’s greatest hits. It’s not seeing the real thing, but it’s a mostly pretty fun simulation.
Alien: Romulus takes place sometime between the first two films in the timeline of the series. It revolves around six miners on a permanently dark, dystopian planet whose lives are made miserable by the infamous Weyland-Yutani Corporation – which exploits their labor and holds them down and squashes their basic humanity (although one of them is a humanoid robot).
The leader of the group is Rain (Cailee Spaeny), a miner who felt she had earned her freedom only to have the corporation snatch it away from her, blithely doubling the time needed to be spent working to leave the planet. She has a robot friend Andy (David Jonsson), who seems almost like an autistic child, but he has become like a brother to Rain. The other characters are Rain’s boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux), Tyler’s pregnant sister Kay (Isabela Merced), their cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and Bjorn's girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu).
They decide to try to hijack a giant old spaceship which is hovering well above their world. They think they can commandeer the vessel and fly it away to a distant colony where they could be free. This idea would have to work, right? Because there is no bad reason why the corporation would just leave some massive piece of technology just floating like a cosmic ghost town. And it certainly wouldn’t be full of aliens, right?
With the exception of Spaeny and Jonsson’s characters, the people here are pretty one-dimensional alien bait. Spaeny comes as close to a Ripley (Sigourney Weaver’s character in the first episodes) type of hero as there is in the film, even though she looks like she’s about 14 years old. Jonsson’s conflicted android character is also inherently fascinating, although when his programming is changed to make him more of a corporate stooge, he becomes less intriguing as a character.
Honestly, the creepiest part of Alien: Romulus – and not in a good way – was the appearance of an AI-generated version of late actor Ian Holm in his android character from the original film. (Although the android was named Ash in Alien and Rook here, so maybe he’s just supposed to be just playing the same model of robots.) I suppose that it’s technically impressive that they could make a major supporting character using an actor who died in 2020, but honestly it always looked and sounded kind of fake and lifeless. (Granted, he is playing a robot.) I hope this isn’t the wave of the future unless the technology is greatly improved. Honestly, even if they figure out how to do it perfectly, it feels morally and artistically wrong, and honestly kind of ghoulish.
And, honestly, the climax references more from Promethius (the fifth film in the series) than the first two films, and that is a disappointing choice for the filmmakers. However, on the most basic level, Alien: Romulus does work – as a revved-up nostalgic funhouse version of the thrill ride of the first two Alien films. So, like I said, while there is no real reason for Alien: Romulus to exist other than greed, it does a pretty decent job of putting together a bright, shiny story stoking the hardcore fans, which is better than the last several entries in the series can say.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: August 16, 2024.
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