2nd Review: ALIEN: ROMULUS

Alien: Romulus makes us ask where we are at with this whole Alien thing at this point?

Alien is a benchmark film. Aliens achieved the impossible by building on it. Producers mania hobbled Alien 3. The rot spread into Alien: Resurrection. Then came the Predator crossovers to desecrate the corpse further. Eventually, Ridley Scott rode out of the sunrise like Gandalf to rescue the franchise, but his two additional entries undercut the entire mythos, lovely as they were visually.

Meanwhile, Dark Horse Comics took the Alien (I refuse to call it the Xenomorph) into a multitude of different directions. Batman even battled the beastie, for goodness sake.

All of that oversaturation began the process of the concept collapsing under its own weight. The horror of the Alien is how alien it appeared. What is it exactly? What does it look like exactly? Are those metal teeth? Where did it come from? What does it want? Does it want anything? Is it intelligent or a shark-like death machine running on instinct and appetite?

The more answers we got, the less interesting the concept became until Ridley’s final futile attempt to surprise us by revealing the Alien is — dun dun dun — us.

Now we get Alien: Romulus. Where is there left to go? Let’s take a mostly spoiler-free look.

Alien: Romulus

Alien: Romulus is a standalone movie set between the events of Alien and Aliens. It was originally scheduled to be released on Hulu but got a theater release instead. It is about a group of young space minors who run into an Alien while seeking a better life.

Heading up Alien: Romulus is Fede Alvarez. Alvares is no stranger to established franchises, working on entries in the Evil Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies. Alvares is also the man behind the Don’t Breathe series. Joining Alvarez is his writing partner Rodo Sayagues.

Alvarez and Sayagues go back to basics while juggling the different ideas the franchise has explored. Gone is the overt Chariots-of-the-Gods stuff from Scott. No baroque bleakness of Alien 3 exists, nor Alien: Resurrection’s vain attempt at being…whatever it was trying to be exactly. Surprisingly, the accelerated life cycle from the first Alien vs. Predator movie is maintained, however.

Of course, Alien: Romulus cannot match the visceral fear of Alien, nor can it match the visceral thrill of Aliens. Yet, it is a decent attempt. It contains the expected elements of an Alien film: small group battling an alien in a spaceship, facehuggers, acid blood, Weland-Yutani, synthetics, etc.

For years I’ve thought the franchise should mine the Dark Horse Comics from 1990s. Lo and behold Alien: Romulus is a fair imitation of a Dark Horse Comic from the 1990s. It is also said to take inspiration from the Alien: Isolation (2014) video game. For my money, it took inspiration from the video game Dead Space (2008), as well, in its aesthetic, while still maintaining the analog look of Alien.

Which look do you prefer?

Cast

My greatest concern going into Alien: Romulus was the cast. An Alien movie should have a cast of world-weary adults. Skerrit, Weaver, Kotto, Cartwright, Stanton, Hurt and Holm all looked like real people trying to make a living in a harsh world. They were scraggly, tired and trying to stay calm in a survival situation where they were clearly overmatched.

Alien: Romulus is filled with fairly fresh-faced twenty-somethings. They all look too well-coiffed and fed to be the desperate souls they are supposed to portray. Their foray into escape looks like something they decided to do in between college classes for a lark, rather than a life-or-death decision.

Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabella Merced, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu. Most of them disappear into the background. Yet, as the movie goes on, Spaeny grows on the viewer as the Ripley character. Likewise, her synthetic friend, played by Jonsson, also does a decent job. It is possible to invest in them when all is said and done.

One thing that stood out was Alien: Romulus attempts to play heart strings within this relationship. That is probably a misstep. Part of what makes Alien work is that the characters repress emotion for the sake of the mission. Likewise, little warmth exists among the characters in Aliens. They are there to do a job and survive. Yet, glimpses of their humanity are seen, which makes such things precious.

Alien: Romulus doesn’t give glimpses. It overplays its hand on that sort of stuff.

Alien: Results

The story of Alien: Romulus works pretty well. The stakes are clear. It has action beats here and there to keep momentum going. It has characters to pick off. Goals are spread throughout, much like a video game, which is another reason it brought to mind Dead Space.

The special effects are mostly good. Space and spaceships lend themselves very well to CGI, as does the Alien. On the other hand, the facial replacement in Alien: Romulus is quite poor. Still, the movie only had an $80-million budget, which is paltry in this day and age. It is almost like Hollywood is learning a lesson. For a movie with that budget, Alien: Romulus does a solid job.

Alvarez and Sayagues also deserve credit for peppering in ideas from the other movies without ruining anything that came before it (although, some may say that the ideas in question already ruined things). One reason I can’t stand Star Wars: Rogue One is because it makes the iconic opening of Star Wars redundant. Alien: Romulus avoids doing anything like that.

Where Does It Fit?

Alien: Romulus is a decent entry in the series. It is in the pocket but doesn’t really distinguish itself beyond that. It shouldn’t cause the arguments of Prometheus and Covenant because it isn’t striving to be anything more than a basic Alien movie. Likewise, it shouldn’t cause the groans of parts three and four because it isn’t being pulled in multiple directions by the egos of producers or stars. Alvarez knows what he wants to do and is left to do it while hitting familiar beats.

Perhaps, the beats are too familiar in certain instances. It would have been nice to see a few zags rather than the standard zig at various points.

As for where Alien: Romulus fits in ranking among the other films, that is a good question. Frankly, it is almost like it doesn’t belong. It’s its own little thing. Frank Darabont once said that one of his ideas for The Walking Dead was to explore tangential stories to the main narrative. For example, he wanted to do an episode that showed how Sam Witwer ended up in the tank.

That is how Alien: Romulus feels. It’s an Alien story outside the main narrative. People will either dig that detachment or lament that it isn’t as controversial as something like Prometheus.

Finally, some scuttlebutt exists about the ending either working or not working for people. I went into Alien: Romulus blind, so such a thing did not register with me. I thought the ending was the only time the movie reached a somewhat creepy level before falling back into a well-worn groove.

Plus, it is nice to see Robert Bobroczkyi get work since basketball isn’t panning out. Seems like a nice kid.

Alien: Romulus Summary

Romulus was the founder and first king of Rome. He established many of Rome’s institutions. I’m still trying to figure out what that has to do with Alien: Romulus. Maybe it just sounds cool. Romulus also had a brother: Remus. Perhaps, we are looking at a sequel titled Alien: Remus then.

A better title for this one would have been Alien: Greatest Hits. Dan O’Bannon said the idea of Alien was played out after Alien and Cameron did about the only thing possible to craft a decent follow up. That may explain why figuring out the sequels was so difficult.

Whether or not that is true requires way more thinking than Alien: Romulus inspires. Alvarez and Sayagues did about as good a job as they could and threw in a couple of neat ideas. Alien: Romulus is an Alien popcorn flick. You will either wish for more butter and salt…or admire that purity.

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