Movie Review: ‘Alien: Romulus’ | Moviephone
(L to R) Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine and David Johnson as Andy in 20th Century Studios’ Alien: Romulus. Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All rights reserved.
Opening in theaters on August 16th is ‘Alien: Romulus’, which is directed by Fede Alvarez and stars Cali Spaney, David Johnson, Archie Rennox, Isabella Merced, Spike Fern and Eileen Wu.
Related Article: ‘Alien: Romulus’ Brings Comic-Con Panel Footage and Facehuggers to Hall H
Initial thoughts
Twentieth Century Studios as Isabella Merced in ‘Alien: Romulus.’ Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All rights reserved.
The ‘Alien’ franchise has become particularly complex in the 21st century, with spinoffs (‘Alien vs. Predator’), origin stories (‘Prometheus’) and prequel sequels (‘Alien: Covenant’) bucking the trajectory of what began as something simple and elegant. Out: A haunted house movie set in space. Directed by Fede Alvarez, ‘Alien: Romulus’ works hard to bring the brand back to basics. And in many ways, Alvarez succeeds: Working from a script he co-wrote with Rodo Sayaguz, Alvarez creates a mostly tense, atmospheric and to-the-point monster movie — much like the first ‘Alien’ — based on a great central character.
But Alvarez also makes the mistake of leaning too much into nostalgia with ‘Alien: Romulus’ – especially in its second half – playing like the franchise equivalent of a greatest hits package and lacking imagination in its callbacks. The first ‘Alien’, but also ‘Alien’, ‘Alien: Resurrection’ and even the controversial ‘Prometheus’. And a creative choice in particular is not only incredibly confusing and disturbing, but also unethical – and a spoiler.
Story and direction
Director Fede Alvarez at the San Diego Comic-Con 2024 ‘Alien: Romulus’ panel. Image: Disney.
‘Alien: Romulus’, we learn fairly early on, is set about 20 years after the events of the first ‘Alien’. It opens on a mining colony in a brutal, storm-ravaged world where it’s hard enough for humans to survive, let alone function. Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) of course works for the ever-present Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and gets the bad news that her contract – more like indentured servitude – has been extended for another six years without her knowledge.
Devastated by the news that she and her child (because she’s been damaged in the past) android “brother” Andy (David Johnson) can’t get off the planet, Rain joins a group of four other young fellows who discover an abandoned spaceship drifting above the planet. the station Their plan: fly their own ship to the derelict, break it and load its cryoslip pods into their ship, and fly to the distant planet Evaga, where life is perhaps more pleasant and one can actually see the sunrise instead of the goal. – The clock is dark.
We already got a glimpse of that space station in a brief prologue, and it goes without saying that our young friends find out the hard way that even if there’s no crew, the spaceship is definitely inhabited. The initial plot of the story is brief, with six colonists boarding the station in relatively short order. The exploration of its dark, abandoned corridors is one of the film’s highlights and is most reminiscent of the original ‘Aliens’ and Space Marines’ expedition to the deserted colony on LV-426 in ‘Alien’ (although why not someone else sees this rather large space station floating above the colony? seems to be a mystery that the film never answers).
Xenomorph in 20th century studio ‘Alien: Romulus.’ Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All rights reserved.
The pace picks up as our friends make their first contact with the Xenomorphs in the form of facehuggers (come on, it’s all right in the trailer) ending in a bad way for one of their numbers. There are also more revelations to come, including how a xenomorph got on the station in the first place, what the station’s purpose was, and how the seemingly innocent Andy undergoes an upgrade that suddenly has Rain wondering if she can even be trusted to save her adopted mechanical sibling. his life
A lot of the exposition comes courtesy of a plot device that we won’t go into detail here, but it’s one that audiences – especially ‘Alien’ fans, but also sane people in general – might find hard to count. Yes, it’s what we mentioned above that is confusing and downright disgusting; We can only hope that the right people get paid well for it, but even then it could set a terrible precedent. This leaves Rain, Andy, and their decadent band trying to survive the Xenomorphs and the growing infestation of the station, which opens the floodgates for callbacks to various ‘Alien’ films, such as the time-honored ‘Alien’ tradition. See ‘Alien: Romulus’ in less than two hours.
Some of the homages are subtle and neat, such as references to events in ‘Prometheus’ that work in context. Others, however, approach ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ levels of insane and ultra-slavish fan service, while another climactic channel reveals the last plot twist you might expect from one of the series’ less popular entries.
In fairness, Alvarez – who’s covered such territory before with his 2013 underrated ‘Evil Dead’ remake – keeps the action moving, the shocks visceral, and the atmosphere gritty and dark, aided by Gallo Olivares’ excellent cinematography and Benjamin Walfisch’s score. . . Both effortlessly channel the vibe and tone of the early ‘Alien’ movies. In many ways, it’s the most intense and effective film in the series since the first two, which makes the decision to lean so hard into the extended nostalgia bait all the more jarring.
the cast
20th Century Studios’ ‘Alien: Romulus.’ Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All rights reserved.
Following her recent sterling work in ‘Priscilla’ and ‘Civil War’, Cali Spaney is a bit flat here as Rain. Like the rest of the cast, she seems a little too young to have labored under Wayland-Yutani for years, though future child labor laws may have her starting in the field at a young age. She was clearly meant to continue the time-honored ‘Alien’ tradition started by Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, but her character wasn’t given enough development early on and her line readings became monotonous. Spawny handles his eventual (and expected) transformation into an action-oriented fighter well, and he’s still an interesting screen presence.
Although Spaeny is top-billed, the movie stars David Johnson as Andy. It was also a feature of the film ‘Alien’ that its synthetic characters are among its best and follow the tradition set by Andy Ash, Bishop and David. But he’s his own unique creation: found “in the trash” by Ren’s late father and adopted as an intellectually disabled younger brother who must be cared for, Andy is the best, fully realized (and arguably only) character arc in the film. , an arc that creates its own narrative tension and forms the most interesting part of the story. Johnson handles Andy’s transformation with spectacle throughout, subtlety, mystery and a mixture of sympathy and uneasiness. It’s also interesting to see more of the ‘Alien’ universe here, how synthetics are realized and treated, which opens up all sorts of possibilities should the series continue.
David Johnson as Andy in 20th Century Studios’ ‘Alien: Romulus’. Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All rights reserved.
As for the rest of the small cast, they unfortunately follow a time-honored ‘Alien’ tradition of simply being Xenomorph fodder. But while previous installments were often peppered with seasoned character actors who could do anything (say hello to Harry Dean Stanton, Janet Goldstein, and more), this crew is largely forgettable, as hard as they try and as committed as they are.
On the other hand, special props should go to the actors and operators behind the practical and animatronic Xenomorph reveal – it’s refreshing to see Alvarez return to physical creation on set, which also puts ‘Romulus’ in line with the franchise’s early, classic entries.
final thought
Callie Spaney as Rain Carradine in 20th Century Studios’ ‘Alien: Romulus’. Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All rights reserved.
As we’ve said before, as many legacy sequels and franchises tend to do, Alvarez’s film feels the need to rely on obvious and even silly callbacks in the name of fan service. Like many filmmakers these days, he seems concerned that the fan base may not be perceptive enough to handle new ideas without assuring them that he’s not going too far. This, along with that one unstable element we mentioned earlier, hurts ‘Alien: Romulus’, but not fatally.
Yet the movie also has a lot to like; In a series that has had so many disappointments and wasted opportunities, it’s nice to see an entry made by a filmmaker clearly passionate about this mythology and legacy. ‘Alien: Romulus’ is an often exciting, suspenseful and terrifying crowd-pleaser that fits well into the existing canon and works hard – almost too hard – to recreate the experience of watching the best films in the story.
‘Alien: Romulus’ received 6.5 out of 10 stars.
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1 hour 59 minutes16th August, 2024
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“Alien: Romulus” takes the wildly successful “Alien” franchise back to its roots: While scouring the depths of an abandoned space station, a team of… Read Plot
What is the plot of ‘Alien: Romulus’?
A group of young space colonists plan to salvage technology from an abandoned space station and inadvertently encounter an incredibly dangerous life form that threatens all of their lives.
Who is in the cast of ‘Alien: Romulus’?
- Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine
- David Johnson as Andy
- Archie Rennox as Tyler
- Isabella Merced as Kay
- Spike Fear as Bjorn
- Eileen Wu as Navarro
20th Century Studios’ ‘Alien: Romulus.’ Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All rights reserved.
