Written and directed by Fede Álvarez, Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny as Rain, an orphaned young woman trapped on a sunless mining colony planet run by the all-powerful Weyland-Yutani Corporation. She and her reconditioned android brother Andy (David Jonsson) team up with Tyler (Archie Renaux), his sister Kay (Isabela Merced), their cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and his pilot girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu) for a desperate heist in the cold of space.
A Weyland-Yutani science vessel called the Romulus floats in orbit above them, and the crew plan to steal its cryo-stasis pods to use to escape light years away and far from the company’s reach. But the station harbours dark secrets of xenomorph experimentation, plunging the group into inescapable and unimaginable horror.
Fede Álvarez approaches this, the ninth instalment in the 45-year-old Alien franchise, with much of the same energy that fuelled his 2013 remake-reboot of Evil Dead. Both films have their original directors on as producers (Ridley Scott and Sam Raimi, respectively), and Álvarez and his co-writer Rodo Sayagues have sought to cherry-pick the best of the first two movies from each franchise for their new works.
Romulus begins with the slow-burn tension and white-knuckle horror of Ridley Scott’s Alien, and then builds to the all-out gun-ho one-liner action blowout of James Cameron’s Aliens. For the most part, this works.
The action and horror sequences are slick and thrillingly shot by Galo Olivares and edited by Jake Roberts, with one breathtaking sequence involving zero-G acid blood becoming a new franchise highlight. Every character at some point gets covered in sweat, coolant, android fluid, blood, acid, or goo, and this visceral viscosity enhances your sense of genuine terror.
Cailee Spaeny in the lead proves once again why she is one of the most promising and versatile young actors today, perfectly balancing Rain’s caring and protective nature with a formidable action presence. Isabela Merced is also commendably sympathetic and makes the audience absolutely dread the danger she faces, but the film is ultimately stolen away by David Jonsson as the new android Andy.
Androids in Alien movies are always the showstoppers, the scene-stealers, and Jonsson’s Andy is no exception; a terrific double act of a kind and timid little brother switched out for a cold and calculating synthetic (sorry, artificial person). Alien: Romulus sets out to challenge these promising performers, and they shine through in fine form.
On one hand, you can enjoy how much love and care has clearly been poured into this new Alien movie. Álvarez and his team have prioritised practical animatronics and puppetry for the xenomorphs and facehuggers, all to astonishing effect. The sound and set design evokes the iconic productions of the first two films, and there are dozens of franchise references, great and small, packed into the runtime. The worldbuilding as well, showing a Weyland-Yutani colony as a bleak and hopeless nightmare built on indentured servitude, is vivid and fascinating, though this is relegated to just the first third.
On the other hand, Alien: Romulus falls into some dangerous traps of franchise instalments and nostalgic fan-service that end up costing the movie its soul.
Without getting into spoilers, there’s a reappearance of a particular actor’s likeness that at first could have been done respectfully, but immediately feels wrong. The character, named “Rook”, is a hard turn into “uncanny valley” A.I.-powered deepfakery that instantly makes you feel more uncomfortable than having an alien gestating in your chest. All could be forgiven if Rook was in one scene, slightly obscured, but just like Rogue One’s Grand Moff Tarkin, his consistent presence just pulls you out of the narrative, confounded as to how anyone thought this was a good idea.
Beyond that egregious inclusion, Alien: Romulus has structural issues that no amount of well-made terror could fix. In the process of blending the horror of Alien with the action of Aliens, this new movie doesn’t seem to have anything new up its sleeve. It’s mostly a box-ticking exercise hitting the same beats you expect of an Alien movie, with no characters’ fates being a surprise, and the word-for-word repeating of iconic lines feeling like cheap pandering this franchise should be allergic to.
To the film’s credit, the third act is a shocking swing for the fences in terms of what an Alien audience is game for. Fede Álvarez is no stranger to an extreme finale, after the chainsaw massacre of Evil Dead and “turkey baster” in Don’t Breathe, and this one is right up there for making audiences squirm and grimace. But, to me, it stunk of a lame and unsatisfying mutation of the Prometheus/Covenant lore with Alien: Resurrection, so not even the big new idea is that big or new.
Alien: Romulus could very well be the best Alien film since James Cameron’s game-changing 1986 sequel, a solid experience in unsettling tension and creeping dread, elevated by strong performances and sumptuous visual direction. Playing like a greatest hits of the franchise may work for those in for something dependable and familiar, but Alien: Romulus still struggles to feel wholly distinctive, and its blatant fan-service leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
See also my Curb review for the 2022 Predator movie PREY.
Director: Fede Álvarez
Writers: Fede Álvarez & Rodo Sayagues (based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon & Ronald Shusett)
Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu
