Alien: Romulus (2024) – Film Review

Director: Fede Alvarez
Cast: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux
Certificate: 15

By Roger Crow

When you’ve been a hardcore Alien fan for 45 years, the prospect of a new entry in the genre is a double-edged sword. The problem is there have been more misses than hits over the years, starting on a couple of highs with Ridley Scott’s sublime original movie in 1979, and James Cameron’s equally brilliant sequel in 1986. Then there was the miserable Alien 3 in 1992, and Sigourney Weaver’s swansong, Alien Resurrection in 1997, which I liked but most people loathed.

All of the above had a set style: space truckers vs alien; soldiers vs aliens; prisoners vs alien, and space pirates and military vs aliens. Inevitably there were a couple of smackdown movies – Alien vs Predator, and the truly horrendous Aliens vs Predator: Requiem.

By 2012, fans, like me, were beside themselves as Ridley’s top secret prequel Prometheus examined where the space jockey in film one had come from, but that was a muddled let down with delusions of grandeur, as was the sequel, Alien Covenant.

All of which preamble brings us to Alien: Romulus. Set between the events of Alien and Aliens, it wisely cherry-picks the best from those two movies and fuses them together.

Though the key protagonists look like the cast of Hollyoaks consigned to a miserable sun-free, rain-lashed mining planet, there is instant empathy between the young Rain and her ‘brother’ Andy, a cyborg programmed by Rain’s late father to look after her. The dynamic between Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson is the beating heart of the movie, a Rain Man-style relationship if you like which achieves more in five minutes than some of the movies managed in a collective five hours. We actually care about these two.

“Duplicitous android”

Locked in a goalpost-shifting contract by the evil Weyland-Yutani company, whose logo adorns just about everything, Rain realises she’s trapped on a sun-free world. But then she gets an offer to go into space and salvage/steal cryopods from an orbiting derelict craft so she and her friends can head off to a sunny alternative.

Of course the Romulus and Remus space station has hidden secrets, and when they dock, it’s not long before they’re fighting for their lives. Thrown into the mix is a face from the first Alien movie, which proved contentious for many, but I actually liked it.

(A running chess theme throughout the saga – Queen, Bishop, and now Rook makes you wonder if there will be a Knight or Pawn waiting in the wings).

The duplicitous android has been a staple of the saga since film one, and Andy is torn between loyalty to Rain and the Company when an upgrade kicks in.

Co-writer/director Fede Alvarez, the Uruguayan film maker who did a good job with an Evil Dead reboot, pulls off some master strokes with the assorted set pieces. There is genuine tension here, as well as that much-needed empathy, so when zero gravity gags are employed, we laugh at the funny bits and hold our breath at the right moments; this is from the guy who made Don’t Breathe after all.

What’s really interesting is the quarantine scene from film one is rehashed, but after years of Covid, now feels more relevant than ever.

“Something fresh”

The cast do a fine job of sustaining the attention throughout, and while the saga may skew towards the teenage audience, that’s not a problem either. Commercially it makes perfect sense obviously, and while Rain may be compared to the young Ripley, at time she’s more like Rey from the Star Wars reboot.

One of the running gags throughout the movie is Andy telling a series of bad jokes, which pays off when Rain is inspired enough to tackle the evil ETs. And yes, like the plot line, we’ve heard these gags before, but the punchline is everything, and in this case Alvarez pulls off a haunting, weird, thrilling and bizarre third act which is as eerie as it is scary.

Obviously there are AI programmes which can take elements of the Alien saga and make their own movie or screenplay. I’ve no idea whether that was employed here, but if it was, full marks for distilling the essence of the Alien saga into something fresh. Yet Romulus is also an offering which feels at home in the beloved saga as a comfy pair of slippers. That production design and the mostly practical effects, like the first two movies, are outstanding. Full marks too for the score; Benjamin Wallfisch does a terrific job following in the footsteps of maestro Jerry Goldsmith’s original Alien.

I’m already looking forward to watching the movie again to spot any in-jokes I missed first time around.

It’s clear Fox want to breathe new life into one of their most lucrative sci-fi horror franchises, and on the strength of this, a sequel, preferably from Alvarez, would be hugely welcome.