Alien: Romulus (2024)
Is Alien: Romulus a reboot, or a remake, or something in between? I’m not sure, but what I do know is I came out of the theater feeling mildly entertained and resoundingly nonplussed. Hours later, I was still leaning towards nonplussed.
The movie doesn’t start out badly, although it looks more like Blade Runner than an Alien movie, not that there’s anything wrong with that given the history of the original film and its director, Ridley Scott.
It’s a dystopian future, and Rain is trying to get a transfer to the planet, Yvaga, where life is apparently great. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have enough hours to qualify, which leaves she and her brother, synthetic human Andy high and dry while Rain plans her next career move.
Instead, they sign on to help a group of bounty hunters, which includes Rain’s ex-boyfriend, Tyler, retrieve a group of pods from USCSS Nostromo, so they can get to Yvalda anyway. After a bit of poking around they find the pods and pull them on board their ship.
They also accidentally let lose a bunch of face huggers while in the cryo chamber. It doesn’t end well, and Rain has to make some decisions. Fortunately or unfortunately, in addition to the face huggers the group accidentally finds and resurrects the body of another synthetic human who will be very familiar to those who have seen the original 1979 movie, but that’s as far as I’ll go in that regard.
Again, I’m pretty mixed about this movie. It didn’t exactly keep me on the edge of my seat, but it didn’t let up for a minute, either. It’s a pretty cool homage to have the characters poking around the ship from the first movie, which is portrayed very convincingly. I like that there was a conscious effort to use practical effects instead of CGI, because it gives the movie a tactile feel.
That said, the movie lacks the tension of the original Alien. Sure, it’s going to be pretty hard to top anyway, but one of the things that made the original work so well was the way it made you see the Xenomorph without seeing the Xenomorph. Somehow it’s just scary enough for the creature to go whizzing past through the ventilation shafts, so when it finally does come out and start helping itself to the crew, it feels as if the creature’s moments of leaning in and slobbering feel earned.
In Romulus, we don’t get any of that. For one thing, the movie gives itself away before anything really happens. While on the way to the Nostromo, Tyler literally says, “The way I see it, we’re never coming back.”
Gee, thanks, dude. What is it with movies nowadays going too heavy with the foreshadowing? Would it kill anyone to keep the future innocently ambiguous so that whatever follows doesn’t lose its punch? No, it definitely wouldn’t, and it would leave us audience members much happier. Fans of the original movie may love every part of it. As it is, I felt spoon-fed and slightly cheated.
Comparing Romulus to the original Alien is like comparing Jaws to any of the copycat shark movies that followed. The original movie, and possibly Jaws 2, knew when to blow. The other movies, not so much. Romulus isn’t terrible, and it has plenty of scary moments, but I couldn’t help wondering, “So what?” when all was said and done.
Alien: Romulus is currently in theaters. Rated R.
My grade: B
Principal Cast: Caille Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu, Rosie Ede, Soma Simon, Bence Okeke, Viktor Orizu, Robert Bobroczkyi, Trevor Newlin, Annemarie Griggs, Ian Holm, Daniel Betts.
Directed by Fede Alvarez.
Written by Fede Alvarez and Royo Sayagues.