‘Alien: Romulus’ Review – Facehuggin’ The Franchise

The Alien franchise has had many highs and lows over the years, but most of the films have something enjoyable about them. I’m a rare instance of someone rating Aliens over Alien. Alien is still a superb film, but Aliens is one of the first films I remember obsessing over and watching repeatedly.

Alien: Romulus takes place between Alien and Aliens. On Jackson Star, a mining colony 65 million light years from Earth, Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny, Civil War) plans to leave with her adopted brother Andy (David Jonsson); he is a malfunctioning android that was reprogrammed by Rain’s late father. Rain dreams of going to a planet called Ivaga where she can wake up to sunlight every morning.

But Rain’s work contract is unexpectedly extended and a way out looks impossible for at least five years. And it will take nine years to fly to Ivaga. Rain’s ex, Tyler (Archie Renaux, Morbius), has discovered an abandoned spacecraft where he and his crew plan on salvaging the spacecraft’s cryonic stasis chambers, which would assist in the long journey to Ivaga.

Tyler’s crew consists of his pregnant sister Kay (Isabela Merced, Madame Web), Tyler and Kay’s cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn, The Batman), and their pilot/Bjorn’s girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu). They need Andy to communicate with the computer system aboard the spacecraft, which is called MU / TH / UR.

But the spacecraft is a space station divided into two parts called Romulus and Remus. Unbeknownst to Tyler and his friends, a cluster of frozen facehuggers guard the cryogenic fuel needed to power the chambers long enough to get to Ivaga.

Say what you will about Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, but at least Ridley Scott returned to the Alien franchise to give fans something different. The aura of the Alien films was there, but it was mostly a new experience. Even the Xenomorph had evolved (or devolved) and at least the potential for future films felt refreshing. Hell, even the Alien vs. Predator films had the Predalien.

Co-writer and director Fede Alvarez did wonders with his Evil Dead remake from 2013, so it makes you wonder what happened with Alien: Romulus. All of the characters in the film feel disposable. Kay has little when it comes to offering anything worthwhile. Without spoiling too much, she’s pregnant for a reason. Meanwhile, Tyler, Bjorn, and Navarro are forgettable. Most of these characters are inserted into the film to die gruesomely, but the problem is it’s all stuff you’ve seen in previous Alien films.

Rain is like a young poser version of Ripley. Every Alien film that doesn’t include Sigourney Weaver has tried to make someone as memorable as Ripley and it never works out. Spaeny’s performance is passable, but it’s as if she lacks enough charisma to be memorable.

David Jonsson is the only person in the cast worth a damn. As Andy, his malfunction is a constant stutter or he took too much of an edible: lying on the ground with body convulsions and white goo dripping from his ears. However, Andy gets an upgrade in the film that makes him confident, calculated, and scary despite his distinguished British accent. He gets to play a glorified villain and the bumbling hero in the same film.

The set design, cinematography, and creature effects are all top-notch. Visual effects in the film were done by Industrial Light and Magic and Weta FX, but many effects were done practically. Legacy Effects (formerly Stan Winston Studios) and Studio Gillis (formerly Amalgamated Dynamics) worked on Aliens, Alien³, Alien: Resurrection, and the two AVP films. They utilized physical sets, practical creatures, and miniatures to make things look as genuine to the franchise as possible.

While there are some gloriously intense moments in the film, they’re suffocated within a story that feels all too familiar. Given Romulus’ setting, you’re bound to get some similarities, but drowning the audience in nostalgia isn’t an excuse to make a new film. We don’t need dead characters resurrected with CGI, Ripley’s “Get away from her, you bitch,” quote utilized yet again, an artificial human in every film, or a go-to chest-bursting scene.

Romulus tries at times. The X-ray element during the chest burst sequence is cool (yet spoiled in the film’s two trailers) and the zero gravity sequence with the Xenomorphs is quite possibly the film’s most clever moment. Every positive review I’ve read or watched is praising the “crazy” ending. The ending is decent, but it doesn’t do anything that Prometheus gave us over a decade ago.

I adore the Alien franchise and I’ll see any film with the Xenomorph in it. Visually, Alien: Romulus is nearly perfect. There’s nothing like an Alien film with practical effects. But the film feels like a checklist of cliché Alien and Prometheus moments, which is incredibly disheartening. The film is a nostalgic wet dream to the films that came before it, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it hinders Alien: Romulus as an okay film rather than a great one.