Alien: Romulus (2024)

Cinema Visit of 2024 - 28

Alien Romulus is one of those films that seems to have attracted a mixed reaction which given how bad Covenant was is perhaps a win. The film is set 20 years after Alien with a line dropped that the company is still looking for Ripley. The Xenomorph from the first film that gets sucked out of the airlock ends up in a meteorite and they mine it for something to seemingly create a new breed of human. Meanwhile we meet Rain who along with her ‘brother’ Andy are trying to get off a planet with no daylight along with the Artful Dodger and his band of misfits who are trying to get stuff from a decommissioned space station but things quickly go wrong.

THE GOOD

The poster should tell you that the facehuggers are going to feature quite heavily and for the first part of the film they do in a way that they haven’t been before. They are an effective monster and keep the action going until the Xenomorphs appear. 

I also thought that Cailee Spaeny was really good as Rain. She was this film's Ripley and her character arc is similar to Ripley’s in the first alien film with her being a normal person just wanting to get off a planet cause it sucks and then becomes the hero. I last saw her in ‘Civil War’ and thought that this was definitely the better performance. I liked David Johansson who I last saw in ‘Rye Lane’ and I thought that he did a good job of playing two versions of Andy. He is perhaps the most likeable Android that the franchise has come up with although I don’t know if he’s as good as Lance Henrickson or Michael Fassbender.

The appearance of Ian Holm’s Ash was a surprise and after a bumpy few scenes the CGI worked and he became the menace of the story similar to in Alien which this film follows in chronological terms. I thought that he was just going to be in it for a brief moment or two but he was in it for at least 30 minutes. He is just as loathsome as he was in Alien. 

The scene where Kay gives birth is perhaps one of the most disgusting things I have seen for quite sometime if not ever. It’s done so well that I found myself looking away from the cinema screen. It wasn't on screen for an excessive amount of time but long enough to be uncomfortable.
They seem to have pulled off the Xenomorph hybrid that they messed up on in Alien Resurrection. With the advancement in special effects since 1997 it works much better. The film’s effects are very good. The space station’s interior is at times claustrophobic and  even though it seems vast from the outside it manages to feel quite small on the inside and Fede Alvarez manages to make us forget that the station is larger than we think it is.

I also thought that the film was the perfect running length. It's just short of two hours and I was never bored or felt like they were padding things out. It’s a rare thing in films nowadays that directors and producers seem unable to know when things should end and its builds things up perfectly and ends in the right way at the right time.

THE BAD

Bjorn was really annoying. In fact I don't think I have hate a character quite so much in a very long time. Not sure why every british character has to say f**k ever other line. Bjorn seems to say it to the point that it adds to the annoyance. Everytime he seemed to open his mouth it seemed to be angry at something that was quite over the top. When his death came I was relieved because I could enjoy the action.

The CGI Ian Holm belongs in the good section but the first few moments were quite rocky because it was a case of uncanny valley. Thankfully this quickly gave way to more reliable CGI. In the context of the series it might not make sense given that its been 45 years since Alien but in the timeline of the series, it works and it's always good to see and hear Ian Holm even though its been about 4 years since he passed away.

The nods to previous Alien films were plenty in Romulus but there was only one that didn’t work and it's when Andy says “Stay away from her….”. It was the only time that the references didn’t quite work. Everything else felt like fans of the series would get the references but it would make those unfamiliar with the references confused. 

Kay (Isabella Merced) does not have much to do for the first three quarters of the film because her importance doesn't show itself until for some reason she injects herself with the needle that has something that turns her baby into what was similar to the engineers in Prometheus. It’s a shame that she doesn't contribute anything until the very end because by that point it was late in the film and there wasn't enough time for me to be invested in her character.

OVERALL

I really enjoyed this film. It’s not as good as Alien or Aliens or even Alien 3. It definitely a huge step up from Covenant and definitely better than Prometheus so it's sort of in the middle in terms of quality. I don’t understand why people don’t seem to like this film. Yes it perhaps leans towards nostalgia a bit too much but I enjoyed this film and thought that it was the perfect running time. Fede Alvarez has done a good job of making an entertaining if slightly unoriginal Alien film. I do hope that we get more Alien films but perhaps lean less of recognisable references. We wouldn’t want this film to be turned into Jurassic World: Dominion.