A One Mann’s Movies review of “Alien: Romulus” (2024).
The Alien franchise has had a rocky history with fans. The original Ridley Scott classic from 1979 has never been beaten, but James Cameron’s “Aliens” changed the genre and did well. Both David Fincher’s “Alien 3” and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Alien Resurrection” had some fans. But Ridley Scott’s prequels – “Alien: Prometheus” in 2012 and “Alien: Covenant” in 2017 were met with some derision (though I didn’t mind either of them). Now, seven years later, we get a new film – “Alien: Romulus” – and a new director – Fede Alvarez.
Given that this film is set in the period between “Alien” and “Aliens”, it is very much the “Rogue One” of the Alien franchise. But – just like that film did for Star Wars – it is a return to a world that makes you remember why you appreciated the original 1979 classic so much. For here, we return to the claustrophobic and menacing nature of the original film, as set onboard the “Nostromo”.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Orphan Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her semi-disabled brother Andy (David Jonsson) are desperate to complete their contract and escape the distant, perpetually dark, mining colony where they were born. An opportunity presents itself when her friends discover an abandoned Weyland Corporation vessel in orbit around the planet. On it, they surmise, will be the necessary cryo-chambers that will let them hypersleep for the nine years it will take them to reach their target off-world colony. But there are nasty surprises awaiting them on the circling space station.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong horror, gore, language”).
Talent:
Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu.
Directed by: Fede Alvarez.
Written by: Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues. (Based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon & Ronald Shusett).
Running Time: 1h 59m.
“Alien: Romulus” Summary:
Positives:
- The first half of the film builds a good story and captures the terror of the Alien unknown.
- Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson deliver terrific performances.
- Some memorable ‘kills’.
- Fabulous production design and special effects.
Negatives:
- The final act over-reaches and stretches all credibility.
- Physics!
- The valley is still unnaturally uncanny.
Review of “Alien: Romulus”:
The first half of the film rocks.
I really enjoyed the opening of the film. The story, of Rain’s desperate attempts to escape her life, ring true and you spend enough time with her rag-tag group of friends to get to like some of them (and want others on the menu). Once we get onto the Romulus & Remus space station (not sure why it had two ‘halves’!) we get treated to some tense scenes as the Alien hoard gets reenergised. Of course, YOU know what is about to happen, but you can share in their sense of confusion and dread.
All of this is nicely complemented by the score of Benjamin Wallfisch, which contains more than a few nods to the classic scores of Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner.
The Spaeny and Jonsson show.
Anchoring the film are two solid performances from the two leads.
Cailee Spaeny has had a splendid year already with the two hits of “Priscilla” and “Civil War” under her young belt. This will be another one. The 26-year-old has an endearing quality of playing very much younger than her age and, combined with the Ripley-style poses she gets to adopt and a well-placed wind machine, it makes for some memorable and dramatic scenes.
Even better, and deserving of awards consideration in my view (though this type of film will never get it) is David Jonsson (so disarmingly good in “Rye Lane“). As Rain’s brother, with both disabilities and special powers, he is key to the plot and delivers an absolutely superb and nuanced performance that is spot-on. Some of his ‘dad jokes’ are also pretty funny!
Kills aplenty.
Of course, a lot of Alien fans go along for the kills, and there are same good ones in this. For the first time, the acidic qualities of alien blood are properly utilised in the film. It is good for more than just melting holes in hulls! And a sequence similar to Catherine Zeta-Jones’s balletic ‘laser-beam’ segment in “Entrapment” is novel and thrilling.
Easter-eggs for Alien fans.
There are a host of throwbacks to other films in the series, including a diversion at one point into uncanny valley that shows how far the VFX technology still has to go! Many will take against this… I rather enjoyed it. Some of the other references are quite sly and clever. Others, like directly lifted lines of dialogue from other films, are cheesy and clunky and you wish they weren’t in there.
A well-crafted world.
In the technical department, production design, costume design, hair and make-up and special effects are all extremely well done. Filmed in the Origo Studios in Budapest, both the planet-bound and the Romulus-based scenes are really impressive. Everything feels ‘chunky’, grimy and real-world, as in the original “Alien”.
But… and there’s always a but.
The film has issues that – because I was having a good time – I rather chose to overlook:
- Time: one of the joys of the original Alien was the way in which the alien’s life-cycle was steady and thoughtful. When the face-hugger did its business with Kane (John Hurt), Kane clearly spent time recovering and only some time later did they have a bite to eat and things got messy. Similarly, we go through an extended period of the film with the alien growing and shedding multiple different skins before it matures to the giant bitch creature we know and love. In “Romulus”, things happen almost in the blink of an eye: we go from egg to alien faster than you can say “oh no, my chest is hurting”; and (with a countdown to certain doom running in the minutes) we go from little critter to big critter quicker than it takes them to run down a corridor.
- Physics: I was actually, initially, impressed that here was a film that seemed to properly handle sound in space (or the absence thereof) correctly. The opening scene, of a mining vessel plowing through some familiar wreckage, is totally silent until we get inside where there is some air to transmit the sound. But then it goes and throws it all away with some anti-gravity McGuffin which must “purge itself” (no, me neither) every so often. Now, the source of the gravity field is never explained (“2001: A Space Odyssey” actually did it so much better in having something that would work). But when the gravity goes off, a dead rat suspended in mid-air comes crashing to the floor. Fair enough. But when the gravity comes back on again, if floats back to its original position. No! There is now no force acting on the rat… it should stay where it is on the floor! Ditto all the other gubbins floating around the lab.
- Spinning: When docking with the space station, the pilot Navarro (Aileen Wu) sends the ship into a spin to allow it to dock with the spinning station. (So far, so “2001”). We see the planet and the planet’s rings spinning around nicely. But in the docking shot, the planet and the rings are suddenly still again! Did they run out of effects budget?!
- The PhD in space station tech: Given these were a bunch of young nerds, and some hadn’t even been into space before, they had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the space station that (I don’t think?) they weren’t even aware WAS a space station before they saw it. They had the whole geography of the place off pat, knew all about detachable cargo bays, and accidently (and blindly!) managed to crash land their ship into a transport bay. (What are the odds!?)
Boldly going too far.
For me, the film over-stretched itself in its final act. We go somewhere very ghoulish (which was fine with me) but then – with ridiculously acceleration – it becomes a different sort of monster movie that is just plain silly. There is then a set of totally unsurvivable events where I have no idea what happened and why. As readers of this blog will know, I like my action to be on just the right side of ‘vaguely believable’ and the finale here just wasn’t.
Summary Thoughts on “Alien: Romulus”
I mean, if I was being rude I’d point out that this film is basically a remake of Fede Alverez’s feature “Don’t Breathe“. A group of kids break into somewhere to steal something and find a dangerous lurking presence there that they were not expecting. But, that would be rude!
With all my technical quibbles and objections to the third act, you may be thinking that 4 stars is being a bit generous. But I’ll stick with that rating since overall I had a really fun time at the cinema with this one. It’s not perfect (and it’s certainly not bloody Shakespeare) but if you like your gory action space operas then this one is well worth catching on the big screen.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Alien: Romulus”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTNMt84KT0k .
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