Title: Alien – Romulus
Director(s): Fede Alvarez
Screenwriter(s): Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues
Studio: Scott Free Productions & Brandywine Productions
Released: 2024
Runtime: 1h 59m
Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu
Set some years after Alien (1979) but before its sequel Aliens (1986), Weyland-Yutani finds the remains of the xenomorph that Ellen Ripley blew out of the airlock…
The plot follows Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her adopted brother Andy (David Jonsson), an obsolete synthetic who had been reprogrammed to protect her. They live and work in the mining colony Jackson’s Star which has a population of over two thousand.
After the Company extends her contract by doubling the initial quota hours that she had just met, thereby preventing her from leaving, she is offered a way out from Tyler (Archie Renaux). Apparently, there is a derelict spacecraft in orbit that has the cryo tubes that will allow them to make the nine-year trip to the planet Yvaga. All they have to do is quietly grab them and leave. Andy is necessary for the salvage because of his ability as a Weyland-Yutani synthetic to unlock doors.
This is rather convenient as it is not clear how the derelict spacecraft got there. One would also think the Company would have detected it already and done something about it. Either way, accepting that as the premise, Rain agrees with Tyler’s plan.
For a colony that restricts travelling, it’s not explained why Tyler’s ship is permitted to just take off. But it is a mining colony so one has to assume that it is normal for Tyler to be seemingly making cargo runs with his ship.
Also part of the crew is Tyler’s sister Kay (Isabela Merced), his cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and pilot Navarro (Aileen Wu), who are the minor characters that one knows will be fodder.
When they get into orbit, the derelict spacecraft conveniently turns out to be the station Romulus and Remus which, of course, was where Weyland-Yutani did their experiments with the xenomorph sample. This obviously means mayhem occurred and more to follow.
The way it is set up, the group encounters facehuggers first which is fine for dramatic purposes. However, it is rather convenient that they don’t encounter the fully grown ones sooner. One knows they are on the station so there is no reason not to.
Nevertheless, the plot progression is measured, and with the usual motivation-and-obstacle cycle, our heroes go from point A to B and so on with the occasional exposition.
The other convenience is that the incubation time after implantation seems to be much shorter than in the first two films. To be fair, this is not something introduced by Romulus, the previous films have done that. A possible explanation is that this could be due to whatever experimentation Weyland-Yutani conducted but this is not explained.
Visually, it looks good. The set design of the station is consistent to what is shown in the first two films. There are a lot of details in the sets and most shots take advantage of this.
It is nicely lit, shot and edited. There are a variety of shots with quite a few wider, slow-tracking shots that are essential to this sub-genre. There is a good balance of still and steady-cam or handheld shots, there is no overuse of one or the other. Perhaps a mild surprise is that Dutch angles are not employed more often but that is not a criticism.
Many shots are a near-replication of the ones seen in the previous films, particularly the first two films. These visual homages are littered throughout. Some may consider it excessive fan service but it is mostly well-executed.
In addition, both the visuals and action take some inspiration from the excellent game Alien – Isolation (2014) which is also set on a station. So there are a couple of new moves or tricks not previously seen in the films.
The one glaring weakness, in terms of visuals and plot, is [Minor Spoiler] the use of the Ash model synthetic. CG Ian Holm is not that convincing and he reveals too much when he has no reason to.
More generally, visual references and homages are fine but repeating lines don’t always work. Although this is not excessive, beyond the one or two lines that do work, the others are simply unnecessary.
The score composed by Benjamin Wallfisch is very much in the spirit of the first two films—it’s not merely sparse percussive-like effects, the full orchestra is utilized at times.
Given there are six previous Alien films (excluding the two AvP films), it is an achievement to have any tension and suspense. It unfortunately doesn’t add much to the worldbuilding. The minor characters are too simple and not particularly memorable; for example, Tyler’s cousin is just the mean guy who doesn’t like synthetics.
Given the genre and the runtime, it’s fine that the characters are relatively simple. In Aliens, most of the marines are minor characters that follow a certain template but they are memorable because of the action and lines that bring out their personalities. This is missing in Romulus.
That being so, the performances are solid given what is written, especially David Jonsson as Andy who conveys the pathos well. Along with the strong visuals, they somewhat mitigate all the abovementioned weaknesses. In short, it may not be a great film, but it is still a good effort and it is entertaining.
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