Not many cinematic franchises have taken the kind of wild stylistic swings throughout their existence as the Alien series. Starting with 1979's eponymous original, the films have shifted gears from visceral horror to action-oriented sci-fi and on to cyberpunk, and explored concepts like cloning and genetic experimentation, tossing in a bit of philosophical and religious discourse along the way. Acclaimed directors such as Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet have put their stamp on the series, some more successfully than others. Throughout all of its iterations, those menacing (and very agile) xenomorphs have loomed large in the center of the Alien universe. Alien: Romulus, the latest entry in the saga, takes a deep dive into the body horror and weird science angles of the franchise. The movie also features quite a few homages and callbacks to previous films in the series.
Directed and co-written by Fede Alvarez, Alien: Romulus tells the story of a young woman named Rain, who's stuck in a dead-end job on a mining colony. When the Weyland-Yutani Corporation (remember them?) unfairly extends her work contract, she gets involved with a group of co-workers who have hatched a plan to salvage cryogenic pods from a derelict ship in orbit around their planet. The idea is to use the pods to put themselves in cryo-sleep, and travel to a planet where they have a chance at a better life. Rain brings along her adopted brother Andy, who’s an android the group will need to interface with the ship's computer systems. There are just a couple of obstacles standing (or slithering) in their way. The ship, whose orbit is decaying, turns out to be a space station, and it’s infested with some deadly (and very familiar) creatures. There's also an artificial crew-member aboard the station who clearly doesn't have the group's best interests in mind.
Alvarez proved with his Evil Dead remake and the offbeat thriller Don't Breathe that he knows how to build suspense and amp up the onscreen tension. He and co-writer Rodo Sayaguez have created a story that leans heavily into the body horror aspects of the series, and they do introduce a couple of cool ideas into the mythology. Alien: Romulus features several exciting set pieces, but there's a sense of deja vu to the movie, as some of these sequences echo things we’ve seen in earlier entries in the series. There’s also a CGI recreation of a character from the original film that some viewers may find distracting. On the plus side, the movie is undeniably well-crafted, and the cinematography, production design and the special effects (many of which were achieved in old school practical fashion) are quite impressive.
Cailee Spenny as Rain and David Jonsson as Andy are quite good, but the rest of the cast doesn’t get to make much of an impression in their roles before they’re killed by the aliens. Alien: Romulus is exciting and well-produced, and in addition to the visual callbacks to other films, the score by Benjamin Wallfisch does an excellent job of quoting some of the musical motifs from previous composers such as Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner. The movie, which takes place between the first and second films in the series, is worth checking out, though it doesn’t quite propel the saga as far forward into new territory as it could have. The next chapter of the Alien story will be Alien: Earth, a TV show from Noah Hawley, the guiding light of the Fargo TV series. Here’s the trailer for Alien: Romulus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzY2r2JXsDM.
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