Alien Romulus - Movie Review

Critics Score - 8 of 10

General Audience Score - 9 of 10

This summer has been chock full of films from already established IP’s. Despicable Me 4, Inside Out 2, Twisters, Deadpool and the list goes on and on. Some of these films were serviceable and provided some entertainment value in their own right. Others were an absolute slog to get through with very few of them being creatively executed. Furiosa probably being the one solid exception. Well we finally got an interesting prequel-sequel, depending on which aspect of the franchise you approach it from, with the new Alien Romulus film. It utilizes many of the elements from the franchise in new and inventive ways that was not only tension inducing but also felt very fresh and original. Where most of these other summer films seemed very copy and paste in their approach to telling their story, Romulus seemed more interested in reinventing itself, even with the overall narrative being not too dissimilar from the OG Alien film. The director Fede Alvarez wasn’t content to give us a formulaic, calculated and contrived story. Now, that’s not to say that it didn’t have a sequence involving a throw back character from the OG film that gave me the ick as soon as I saw it, as the kids say. But setting that minor issue I had with the film aside, there was plenty more this film did right and I had an absolute blast watching it. Critics and general audiences especially will have a hard time finding a better summer blockbuster, so don’t be an Alien to the movie theater and go catch Romulus.

SYNOPSIS - Observing the black infinite void of space is where we start this voyage, in a throwback to the original Alien film, we stare into the abyss of darkness save a speckling of stars staring right back at us. After a few moments a dark ship emerges into view, the camera shot cruising over the deck of the spacecraft until it finally settles outside a window looking into what we must assume to be the cockpit. The shot changes to inside the retro looking computerized cockpit, we see a monitor come to life, the utter silence is broken by a loud and very dated sound of a computer booting up and a screen shines red with some white letters reading Echo Probe 203. As the system continues to come online until the small room is filled with tiny lights and noises, eventually the crafts exterior lights turn on and illuminate what’s caused the awakening. We see debris from what looks to be a ship, twisted chunks of metal and shrapnel spinning in space, the word Nostromos partially visible on one on them. This unmanned probe has been sent to the remnants of the ship from the original film, but for what? We soon find out as the craft locates a large mysterious black rock that looks like maybe a cocoon of some kind, secures it in a hanger and we see the words “Target Secured” and “Return Protocol Initiated” appear on a monitor. The ship takes off and brings the rock back to a hanger that is very under illuminated except for a dim red light, as the poster suggests, a color staple for the film. Four black chains lower the object down to where men in hazmat suits begin to work on it. A large red laser that resembles the eye from 2001: A Space Odyssey cuts into the it until finally the completely obscured and suited up men wheel a cart out of the room. As the camera begins to twist us back around, following the detailed imprints on the object until finally the camera pans out and we see one half of this “shell”. The curled up body and long unmistakable head of an alien, or xenomorph as they’re also called, molded onto one half of what must have been a black cocoon.

After our title screen slowly appears in Alien fashion, a shot appears of Rain (Cailee Spaeny), we see only her back at first as she sits in a grassy area on a mountainside and looks out over a sunset falling behind the hills in the far off distance. As the camera creeps up on her, it turns for us to see her face, her eyes are closed as sunlight illuminates her. The scene cuts and we see her eyes open as she wakes up in her bed, illuminated by a soft red light, it was just a dream. She sits up on the edge of her bed, artificial light coming in as something passes by her rain covered window. The Blade Runner vibes hitting full gear as we hear a speaker outside blaring something like, “proceed to the medical bay”. We’re next taken to Rain sitting down to eat when Andy (David Jonsson) sits down across from her and makes an old dad joke about being on a seafood diet, he sees food and eats it. By the following scene we’ve clued into the fact that Andy is an android right off, he’s a robot disguised as a human. Next up a tracking shot of the two, we’re following them around outside this blackened world as some onscreen text informs us they’re at a mining colony on a planet far from Earth. After years of work on this world of darkness, Rain has completed her required hours and is now looking to be transferred to a different location where she can see the sun. But a sudden change in the system requirements indicates she won’t be able to leave like she thought. Our main protagonist duo, Rain and Andy, with the help of Rain’s boyfriend of sorts Tyler (Archie Renaux), her pregnant friend Kay (Isabela Merced) as well as some other ruffians she hangs out with, decide to commandeer a decommissioned ship floating in the atmosphere just off the planet they’re on. But once onboard the craft, as they try and reactivate it to take it someplace warm and sunny, they find something is terribly wrong with this abandoned spacecraft. Surprise surprise, there was a reason it’s floating in space devoid of life . . . mostly. As the wild ride of a film turns it’s corners of suspense and stress inducing scenarios aplenty, the ingenuity of this script will leave you gripping your armrests and giggling with delight until the curtain falls.

Let’s start a breakdown of Romulus with one of the aspects that the film did well, the screenplay. For any existing IP, to reinvigorate the franchise with creativity is a challenge, like I outlined at the outset. But to take the foundational pieces from a franchise and build on what we know and love about it, creatively using its strengths in new ways that are engaging and fun is where Romulus really shines. Think what Jurassic World did for that tired series. We’re not going to discuss Fallen Kingdom or Dominion here today. But boiled down, World follows basically the same premise as the original Jurassic Park, the script cleverly tweaking different elements to deliver an experience that “feels” original and authentic. Romulus does the exact same thing, maybe even a little better than World did. The director, Fede Alvarez, who also has the primary screenwriting credit, harkens us back to the original Ridley Scott film, but spins it in a way that pulls us in and keeps us on our toes. In my opinion, Alvarez takes a misstep is in his use of one particular “element” from the original film, one of the characters is reimagined and brought into this film in a way that didn’t feel authentic, but instead calculated and manipulative, trying to play the nostalgic track one too many times. I’ve heard many critics take beef with this same issue and I must agree it doesn’t feel right when the character is revealed. Even though it’s rationalized and it makes sense contextually, I just didn’t care for it, but ultimately forgave the grievance. The film is well crafted visually with lots of interesting camera work to help keep things fluid, also it’s red lighting work maintains a harmonious but also very tonally dark and ominous aesthetic. Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson are both very well cast and play very well together onscreen, their friendship and connection feels genuine and added to the investment we’re able to make in watching these characters try and survive the harshest of alien crawling environments. I did notice the runtime as it does drag a bit through the first act. As the film goes about setting up its Blade Runner-esque world, the pacing does drag slightly on its way to a two hour run. But the original score is some solid work from Benjamin Wallfisch of electronic screeches, upbeat tempo and ominous drumming, which is slightly reminiscent of some work from the original film at times. All in all this isn’t a perfect film by any means, but I was highly entertained and found it’s creative aspects made for the most enjoyable experience of all the big summer blockbuster films I’ve seen this year.

SUMMARY - The blockbuster season is behind us and the fall film festival door is opening to the wide world of smaller arthouse dramas and cinephile films. But for a heart thumping and Alien chest exploding good time at the theatre, Romulus is as good of a film as any that you can still check out at your local cinema.