Alien Romulus
Alien Romulus is currently the third-highest scored Alien movie of all time with an 81% rating. There is some debate among fans about whether this or Prometheus is better, but I’m going to say Romulus, with director Fede Álvarez besting Ridley Scott for that one, at least.
Alien: Romulus goes back to basics, Aliens, in a space station, picking off people one by one. Only this time it’s a group of runaway teens attempting to escape a doomed life on a mining planet. Attempting to snag cryo pods from the station so they can actually make the nine-year journey to a much better planet, they run into some…issues, as you might imagine, given what’s being stored there.
The film features absolutely excellent performances from its two leads, Rain’s Cailee Spaeny and Andy’s David Jonsson’s. It’s easy to see how Spaeny is a rising star in Hollywood, previous just seen in Civil War and headed toward the Emmy-winning Beef next season. She turns from reluctant escapee to steeled survivor by the end, and it’s a compelling transformation.
Alien Romulus
But circling back to who is undoubtedly the standout performer of Romulus, David Jonsson, he plays a Synthetic who Rain views as a brother. He’s damaged, needing to be led around by Rain, but doing everything possible that’s in her best interest, as is his prime directive. But Jonsson eventually has to switch his performance entirely in a way I will not spoil here, but that’s when you’ll say “oh, this guy is good.”
The film takes a bit long to spool up, but the “stalking” phase is excellent, as is the discovery of some things directly tied to the other films later on. And the finale of this film, much-hyped by those who seen it, and Isabela Merced said there was a scene so gross that crew members had to turn away while they filmed it. That is…understandable, and not an exaggeration. You will know exactly what scene that is, and it begins a truly insane finale that is one of the series’ best.
There is a flaw in Alien: Romulus in that it feels like it was attempting to channel the originals a bit too much with homages and even duplicated lines. The overall structure is extremely similar to the first movie which, fine, that’s okay to return to your roots. There are mirrored scenes especially with Rain’s Ripley-like transformation by the end. Sure.
Alien Romulus
But when the film starts quoting multiple lines from Alien and Aliens, directly, that’s where things go too far. It…doesn’t make sense in the context of the movie as these moments are directly winks at the audience. Not even winks, waves with both hands going “look, look! Remember this?” It’s like if in Gladiator 2 Maximus’ son started yelling “Are you not entertained??” after a fight. It’s goofy, and takes the connection to the other films into a meta place that doesn’t work.
It’s an excellent film, otherwise. You can debate its place in the grand list of Alien films, but it’s certainly near the top, anchored by stellar performances and excellent use of practical effects blended with CG from director Alvarez. Even though I haven’t cared about an Alien movie in a decade, this was certainly worth the trip to the theater.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
