Stop trying to make “engineers” happen. It’s not going to happen.
Fede Alvarez’ name might be on the director’s chair but make no mistake, producer Ridley Scott’s fingerprints are everywhere in Alien: Romulus, his DNA the dominant strain in this latest instalment of the sci-fi horror hybrid franchise.
Rain (Cailee Spaeny), an orphan, works with her adoptive brother Andy (David Jonsson), a reprogrammed synthetic human, on the Weyland Yutani colony world Jackson’s Star. When her attempt to end her indentured servitude contract is thwarted, she reluctantly joins an expedition to an orbiting derelict spacecraft to retrieve cryostasis chambers which will allow Rain and her friends—Tyler (Archie Renaux), his pregnant sister Kay (Isabela Merced), cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Bjorn’s girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu)—to escape to the company and settle on the free world of Yvaga. But the derelict spacecraft is, in fact, the twin research facility named after the Roman legend of Romulus and Remus – a research facility that had been conducting experiments on biological salvage from the wreckage of the Nostromo and the attempt to salvage the station’s stasis chambers inadvertently revives the frozen product of the doomed vessel’s research.
The teaser that opens the film, of a salvage operation looking for something very specific in the wreckage of the Nostromo, tips Ridley Scott’s overarching ambition right from the start of this serviceable if derivative Alien sidequel. By inserting Alien: Romulus, like a crowbar, in between his own Alien and its superior sequel Aliens, he sets in motion a storyline that all but excises James Cameron’s contribution from the canon (and, by extension, David Fincher’s and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s contributions too, although in the latter’s case not so much, as there’s nothing Alien: Romulus resembles so much as it does Alien Resurrection). Instead, he’s seeking to draw a direct line from Prometheus to Alien to Romulus although he’s wise enough to leave Alien: Covenant as the dead loss it is. Even the opening planet-bound scenes feel more like part of Scott’s Blade Runner universe than that of the xenomorphs.
That’s not to say Alvarez is simply along for a ride, a trojan horse to let Scott get his hands back on the franchise after Covenant would have convinced any sane studio to keep him away from it at all costs. He skilfully blends his modern, more bloody horror sensibilities with the classic tropery of the franchise to great effect and his judicious use of his trademark breakneck pacing does a good job of distracting us from the signature Ridley Scott motifs of contrived stupid character decisions and gaping plot holes.
Its decision to focus more on face huggers rather than the xenomorphs themselves does at least bring a fresh sense of horror to a franchise which has noticeably struggled to find new ground beyond its first two movies, but the rapidity in which the cast is thinned down as well as the increasingly killable nature of the xenomorphs acts as something of a drag factor. The unexpected reappearance of a key character from Alien (albeit in slightly disconnected form) feels a little heavy-handed in terms of callbacks and a little uncanny-valley in its execution. It does, however, give rise to the film’s strongest moments, the character arc of Andy, powered by a tremendous performance from David Jonsson. He’s the absolute heart and soul of this film, with the other characters largely interchangeable fodder around him. That includes Cailee Spaeny, the film’s obvious final girl, albeit one that hues far closer to Kathryn Waterston’s Daniels than Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley.
While Alien: Romulus wisely dispenses with many of the irritating and stupidest characters with admirable efficiency, it does fritter away the talents of the likes of Isabela Merced in a pivotal but underdeveloped and underexposed role, reducing her to a third-act MacGuffin that coincides with the wheels coming off this cover band prequel altogether.
In theme, setting and even set-pieces, Alien: Romulus is an astonishingly faithful homage to Alien Resurrection right down to the concept of the alien/human hybrid which this time – as befits the Not-So-Great-Scott masterplan – resembles an emaciated, elongated engineer. It’s confirmation, as if we haven’t had enough evidence already, that there were really only two stories to tell in the Alien universe: one (Alien) and many (Aliens). Beyond that, you’re forced to either remix one or both of those themes or introduce so many new elements that it’s not recognisable anymore (Prometheus, Covenant).
Alien: Romulus is a solid if unremarkable entry in the storied saga that started decades ago with an unscheduled landing on LV-426. It doesn’t add anything new but does what it does well enough to entertain for its two-hour runtime. I’m just not sure there’s anywhere interesting for this franchise left to go.
