In space, no one can hear you scream. In the theater, you may hear screams of joy because after many attempts, we finally have another legit Alien movie.
Alien: Romulus, from Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe and 2013’s Evil Dead), returns to the franchise’s roots with a claustrophobic and lean-to-the-bone thriller, a shift away from Ridley Scott’s bold but flawed Prometheus movies.
Prometheus, of course, wasn’t really an Alien movie–or it at least wasn’t the movie many expected. While it’s far from perfect, there are a lot of great components to it; Scott deserves credit for thinking outside the spaceship and expanding upon the cold universe he originated. Alien: Covenant brought back the xenomorphs fans theoretically demanded, but despite more compelling elements–mostly surrounding Michael Fassbender’s David–it was a pretty big letdown.
Alien: Romulus strips away most of the universe-building and profound questions about the origins of life in favor of straight-up alien carnage and terror. Alvarez patiently sets the scene by introducing several young characters, led by Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and Andy (David Jonsson), as well as a downtrodden human colony on a remote planet. The visual effects are terrific, the pulsing score enthralling, and the acting very good.
For a while I was completely captivated.
It’s only when Alvarez starts to pull in pieces from other Alien movies that the film loses its shine. Or grit. The tie-ins to the broader franchise, including Prometheus, are clever, but some of them feel more like fan service than legitimate components that propel the story forward. It’s around the time these things start stacking up that Romulus staggers–not tremendously, but enough for you to realize this is no second coming of Alien/Aliens.
Spaeny (Civil War, Priscilla) is an excellent casting choice. Comparing her to Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley isn’t fair, but the third act doesn’t entirely establish her as the badass protagonist you can tell Alverez is shooting for. Again, there’s just something slightly askew later in the moment that feels off–in the writing and the way everything comes together. You can basically see the studio meddling in real time.
Despite its flaws, Alien: Romulus is still a satisfying Alien movie. It may not be as bold as Scott’s most recent entries, and it doesn’t quite capture the paranoid terror of the original or the breathtaking action of its equally loved sequel, but Alvarez has given us the most complete Alien picture of the last several decades.
That’s worth a scream of joy. Even if no one can hear you.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.