Alien is a sacred franchise.
Yeah, there have been ups and downs, and below the ground, sewer-infested, rotten piles of trash (*cough* Alien Covenant *cough cough* AVP2: Requiem *cough*), but you cannot deny a franchise lasting 45 years is not just by fluke. The Xenomorph is an iconic monster in film history if not a villain. I mean, it’s an animal at the end of the day, so who’s to say what it does is evil when it’s just its natural instincts?
With all that said, when I heard about Fede Alvarez’s new entry, Alien: Romulus, I approached it with a fair amount of caution. The trailers depicted a grimy, atmospheric affair which seemed to take the series back to its roots, fully kitted out with facehuggers, scary aliens, and empty space (where nobody can hear you scream, you might say). But we’ve seen all of these tricks before, and the finished product has ended up being a disappointment.
Not this time. Although there are problems with Alien: Romulus, I’m here to tell you it’s the best entry in the franchise since Aliens 38 years ago.
SPOILER WARNING
Alien: Romulus is set between Alien and Aliens, in the time after the destruction of the Nostromo and before Ripley and Jonesy (the cat) are discovered drifting through space. Having the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the evil company at the center of all of the Xenomorph weirdness, find the alien we all thought was dead at the hands of Ripley was great. It also added extra, never-before-experienced lore to the already hyper-dangerous alien. They can survive the freezing temperatures of space without AIR?! What the absolute F*@K!!!
This cast was brought to life with some memorable characters. Special mention has to go to Rain (Cailee Spaeny), a deceptively smart young farmer, and Andy (David Jonsson), the autistic-coded android “brother” of Rain. Through these two, we learn much more about the evil-doings of the “Company” to normal folk. It seems like everyone has to work for the Company, and true to form, they’re assholes about it.
Andy, in particular, a discarded piece of tech that Rain’s former-scientist-now-deceased father managed to fix up enough to become a valued member of the family (if not actually welcomed into society), was enigmatic. This franchise has had ups and downs with androids over the years, and Andy is no different. Jonsson plays the part so ambiguously that it brings into question whether Andy is on Rain’s side or whether the Company has its hooks in him. Is he going to save everyone or kill everyone to further W-Y plans? He’s excellent.
The atmosphere. Ooooooo baby, the atmosphere. I’ve not felt this tense in an Alien film since Aliens. Yeah, there have been nail-biting scenes in other films, but they are fleeting. This was intense from the moment the team set foot on Romulus station. There are tons of great scenes, from the re-introduction of the facehuggers in the thawing-out cryo room to the long, silent walk down a hallway filled with them. That is before we even talk about the ever-scary Xenomorph itself!
What makes this film even better is that these young adults have no combat training and no knowledge of what they are facing. Ever since the first entry, Ripley has been our guiding light. She has had a history with these creatures, witnessing their abilities first-hand. These kids are going in blind, save for an eventual info dump from an android found aboard the station. Rain, Tyler (Archie Renaux), and the gang are not military, nor are they scientists. Their apparent ineptitude makes things scarier!
What I loved about this movie most of all was the added context to the Weyland-Yutani corporation. Rain’s mistreatment at the colony, adding years to her work requirement without warning, shows what the Company is capable of outside of being evil scientists. Furthermore, having them experimenting with Xenomorphs and their facehugging larvae 37 years before the events of Aliens means that they knew Hadley’s Hope colony was doomed to begin with. They sent the colonists there to be guinea pigs!
EVIL!!!!
Ok, so I’ve talked this film up a bunch, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There are some striking flaws.
Take the timeline, for example. This takes place 37 years before the events of Hadley’s Hope. However, the guns used at the Romulus station seem more advanced than that used by Hudson and Hicks of the Colonial Marines. Rain uses the F44AA Pulse Rifle, which has aim-assist functionality, allowing her to mow down aliens at will with no training. The Marines used the M41A Pulse Rifle, which had no aim-assist but it did have the grenade launcher attachment. There are three possible explanations:
Choose your poison. And this is only one of the potential timeline breaks from the movie.
Romulus can also be kinda ridiculous in places. As previously said, Rain manages to take out around a dozen Xenomorphs with her auto-aim rifle. By the end, in zero gravity, she has to traverse a hallway with acid swirling around it. Somehow, Rain becomes G.I. Jane in that moment, barely breaking a sweat. There are also a couple of cringe lines to remind us what franchise we’re in when there was no need. It was a “he said THE THING” moment too far, and it felt out of place.
Lastly, the ending. The ending was such a missed opportunity. I don’t need a hybrid alien to have a final showdown with Rain. Xenomorphs are, by definition, the perfect predator, so I don’t need the equivalent of Bigger Jaws to show up in the endgame. The perfect ending was already there! Let everyone go into cryo-sleep in the knowledge that, when they wake up, sh*t’s gonna go down. The absence of seeing is scarier than what Alvarez gave us, and I’m disappointed.
*sigh*
However, despite these issues, I affirm that Romulus is still the best film in the franchise since Aliens.
Ok, so I don’t know if I’m in the majority or the minority here. Our very own Lily K reviewed this for the site and provided a very different, bleaker outlook on the film. After watching it, however, I’m of the opinion that Alien: Romulus is the third-best film in the franchise.
It has the atmosphere of Alien, but not quite as tense as that made you feel. It has some of the action scenes of Aliens, but not quite as explosive. But, compared to Alien 3, a perfectly fine film that does its best with a cast of ne’er-do-wells as the guys you’re trying to root for, and Alien Resurrection, a film which most people agreed isn’t the best thing since sliced bread, it’s a marked improvement.
And, although Prometheus tries its best, it’s tainted by its Covenant legacy. I mean, seriously, does anybody actually care about these Engineers? They’re big, dumb and meh, adjectives that have been used to describe myself at one time or another. Would I watch or be scared of myself out of choice? Nah. Anyway, Romulus goes over both of those movies.
It has its issues, but the world-building, atmosphere, and characters are fantastic. Romulus is an excellent addition to the franchise. In fact, Alien: Romulus is the best film in the franchise since Aliens.
Tell me how I’m lying!
