ALIEN: ROMULUS: Not Quite Stellar

Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) have been amongst my all-time favorite horror/sci-fi films ever since I was in middle school. Their expertly staged suspense, action, themes, and memorable characters grabbed me from frame one and still stick with me to date. Not to mention that Ellen Ripley instantly became one of my top horror heroines. In regards to Alien: Romulus (2024), I adore director Fede Álvarez’s first two features, Evil Dead (2013) and Don’t Breathe (2016). However, having been disappointed by his movie The Girl in the Spider’s Web (2018), and having been equally as dissatisfied by the past several Alien sequels and prequels (outside of the Alien vs. Predator pictures, which I’ve not seen), I found myself trepidatious when I first heard this new installment was coming out. Would this turn out to be as dull and frustrating as its predecessors, or would it be a surprising blast like Prey (2022)?

The Setup

In this latest entry, a young woman named Rain (Cailee Spaeny) struggles to get by slaving away for Weyland Corporation, with the assistance and moral support of her adopted, android brother Andy (David Jonsson). One day, fellow workers Kay (Isabela Merced), Tyler (Archie Renaux), Navarro (Aileen Wu), and Bjorn (Spike Fearn) convince Rain and Andy to join them in what seems like a solid plan to get rich by scavenging an abandoned space station. Ever as before, once their scheme gets underway, they encounter Facehuggers, Xenomorphs, and their mission devolves into a fight for survival.

The Good

As demonstrated in Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe, Álvarez once again shows his skill at building/sustaining tension and suspense here. The danger and stakes of the characters’ collective journey are set up concisely enough that you easily get into the story, and feel a little more afraid when things go south for the winter. I’ll also give credit that the jump scares are well-staged, to the point where I actually jumped in my seat a couple times. This is hard to achieve with me, I assure you.

source: 20th Century Studios

I’ll also say that I enjoyed following Rain as a heroine. In addition to Cailee Spaeny‘s heartfelt performance, the script by Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues gives her just enough meat to work with in order to create a compelling lead. Her relationship with Andy is also rather believable. Despite Andy not being human, you still feel the long-running connection between these two, with their rapport feeling authentic, lively, and vulnerable.

Jake Robert‘s editing also keeps the action moving at just the right pace, never lagging a sequence drag on too long or fly by too quickly. Not only that, but he always knows just which shot size to emphasize the terror or heart of each moment. Following his exemplary work on movies like Brooklyn (2015) and Men (2022), he once again displays his mastery at helping the momentum of the story, and the characters, take form.

The Bad, and the Outright Dull

Unfortunately, Alien: Romulus once again continues the post-Aliens tradition of containing mostly dull-as-dishwater characters. Despite there being a solidly captivating relationship between Rain and Andy, the other personalities here fail to stand out. I struggle to remember a single person’s name. The only standout is a cameo appearance from Ash (the late, great Ian Holm), via recreative CGI and vocals. This is the bad kind of standout, though, where the CGI is so distracting it’s hard to even focus on all the exposition he’s given to spew. Even when this sequel began adding some new lore about Weyland and its larger mission regarding experimenting with these most terrifying life forms, I was already checked out because most of the characters and ideas prior were underwhelming and recycled.

source: 20th Century Studios

That brings me to the biggest problem with the movie. I’m all for some occasional homages or tributes to previous installments in a franchise, but Romulus feels so stuck in the past that it doesn’t try much of anything new in its storytelling or scares. Even with all the effort put into the filmmaking and performances, the lack of surprise holds back what could’ve been a potentially outstanding Alien film, and restricts it to merely okay territory.

In Conclusion

Will you be satisfied by this movie if you’re a die-hard fanatic? Judging by the sharply divided audience reactions, I don’t know. Will you be converted if you weren’t a fan before? That I can say isn’t about to happen. Is it as bad as Alien 3 (1992) or Alien: Resurrection (1997)? Absolutely not. But I can tell you this is one interstellar journey I’m not coming back to anytime soon.

Alien: Romulus is in theaters now.