I reviewed Prey a few years back, and didn’t return to Predator before watching it, but I won’t skimp out on an Alien or Aliens rewatch, before reviewing what looks like a retread of similar stuff, with a hope for a new angle. I like the Alien franchise a lot – I even like the concepts of Alienᶟ, even if its director does not, although David Fincher would know better than me … But you have to admit, that since then, the Alien franchise has gone in every which way to stay relevant, and now seems to be turning back to basics. The only difference between the Alien franchise and that of Terminator, is that the original director, Ridley Scott, has had a hand in some of the most recent sequels. Prometheus might’ve gone over our heads, which is why I’m excited horror director Fede Álvarez has been given the reigns to make this old pimple pop again. It must be an honour just to be allowed to play in the same playground as some of the greats before: Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, and Joss Whedon. And if there’s something that Álvarez’s previous best work had in spades, it was making the most of confined space and relative claustrophobia in Don’t Breathe, which should transfer well when there’s xenomorphs on the prowl.
A group of young miners, on the colony planet of LV-410, believe they’ve found a way off their rock, when an abandoned Weyland-Yutani spacecraft is hovering around orbit. To reactivate the ship, and cryo-sleep their way to happier horizons, they need the help of their friend Rain (Caliee Spaeny), and her brother Andy (David Jonnson). After some convincing, the crew are off. But, of course, there’s a reason why the spacecraft is deserted, and those xenomorph face-huggers might’ve found their next live incubators.
Okay, I feel I have so much to say about this. Firstly, Alien: Romulus is probably the best Alien movie to come after Aliens, so let’s get that out of the way. Structurally, Alien: Romulus is a creepy haunted house movie, taking place in space, so it is similar to Don’t Breathe in that respect, with just less jizzing on the carpets, minus a turkey baster. After a while, I realised that we’d gone a fair chunk of the runtime without the aliens being present, and the movie does a commendable job at straddling the line, in introducing its own themes and concepts before giving the customers what they came for. In the end, it might set up more depth than it needs – it goes heavy on Rain coming from a mining colony, where these guy’s lives are a dead-end, and where all the kids are in unison that they cannot repeat the cycle of their parents. And on top of that, it introduces an interesting dichotomy between humans and artificial persons, the prejudices and disrespect, which isn’t anything we mightn’t have seen before, but is still qualitative in its approach. Then, when the alien stuff begins, I honestly can’t envy this movie in finding some originality in the rinsed and repeated concrete concept that is the xenomorph. The xenomorph could be the best alien creature in filmic history – do we agree on that? But we’ve seen it. At least a movie like Life, which was one of many movies accused of being an Alien derivative, was able to create its own alien, and therefore, cook a sausage of a different flavour. But the xenomorph is the xenomorph, and all a movie can do is change the circumstance around it. So when the action kicks off, we get the same deaths via chest-burster, acid blood, mouth-punch, as if this movie is working down a checklist – and that’s not necessarily a knock on the movie, for if I were making Alien: Romulus, I’d feel obliged to include these moments too. A moviegoer might feel robbed without them.
What this movie does do for itself, is create tension in a room full of face-huggers, as our heroes must tiptoe through them. It has the chest-burster come through Navarro (Aileen Wu) very slowly, as if struggling to push a way out, so Alien: Romulus can linger on a familiar moment of disaster, with a heightened focused intimacy, akin to running sand through our fingers. These aren’t bad new suggestions, and the movie gets points in execution. But the fact remains, I still don’t think anything concerning xenomorphs is ever going to be as thrilling as first seeing a face-hugger sleekly pop out through its egg and attach itself to John Hurt’s face immediately. Then pop through his chest after the crew, and perhaps an audience, believe everything is fine 😮 You can’t recreate that tension – there’s no surprise in repetition. Then, a movie like this might also bend or stress established lore in pursuit of a new pressure point, and risk undoing the magic from the first place. For instance, what happened to the victim having no memory of a face-hugger attack? What happened to the xenomorph needing a queen to lay eggs? Perhaps a queen is on the Romulus, and we just don’t see her, and perhaps Navarro remembered her attack because the face-hugger was removed before it was finished; perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. Perhaps I missed something in my research too, because what’s with the chest-burster needing further incubation in a wall cocoon before becoming a black xenomorph? Was that always a thing? I thought they just shed their skin until they were fully formed 😕 Seems a bit redundant otherwise. But either way, whether I’m right or the movie is wrong, I don’t want to be questioning, or writing about splitting hairs.
But I must also say, the first ten minutes of this movie alone, lent me a lot of goodwill; I was thoroughly impressed. I’ve been saying this a lot recently, about movies really executing the first ten minutes well, and I guess the first ten minutes is the place where anything is still possible, so optimism is still a factor, but so long as a movie captures an investing tone, it’s winning. I was impressed by how this movie recaptures the original’s atmosphere, the quiet, and the ominous choir chords of space, where nobody can hear you scream. It made me think back to a movie like Twisters recently, and ask myself, why didn’t that movie decide to precisely capture the same aesthetic of its predecessor too? And I suppose every movie has a choice between whether it wants to be nostalgic or primarily modern. But also, a movie like Alien is drenched and entrenched for tonal accomplishment – how could I describe Twister as an action movie, other than “nineties”? I also really admire how Alien is quite obviously futuristic, yet everything is dingy, but also digital, and this movie perfectly adheres to recreating that aesthetic. This movie also gives us a great sense of the universe, through a big crowd scene at a colony, and I don’t remember any of the previous movies doing that. For that alone, I’m appreciative 👍 The only other movie that I can think of that really has such a prominent aesthetic similar to the Alien franchise is Blade Runner, and that really shouldn’t be a surprise with the unifying factor being a young Ridley Scott. Derr.
Cailee Spaeny – I’ve made a great deal out of how this is the third time I’ve been introduced to the young actress this year, following on from Priscilla and Civil War, and she’s at her least notable here, overawed by the action spectacle. If anyone is an acting standout, it’d be David Jonnson as the autistic robot that becomes posh. Ahead of time, I predicted that this movie might pull a switch-a-roo, somewhat like Alien, where we are following Rain for the entire runtime, until Kay (Isabela Merced) is the surprise sole survivor. Then when Andy wouldn’t open the door with Kay behind it, I turned into Dominic from The Banshees of Inisherin, sitting in the cinema solemnly singing, “well there goes that dream” 😔 But then when Kay is alive, in the alien nest and not yet impregnated, I became Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber – “so you’re saying there’s a chance” 🤩 Honestly, the biggest shock I had for the whole movie came when Kay fell off a balcony trying to run away from the xenomorph, and I really doubt that’s a compliment to the movie, that is filled with jump-scares, and moments sent to put me at unease. I don’t know why more horror movies don’t do that actually; have the death come from carelessness, trying to get away from the danger, instead of having the monster have to mow down everyone themselves. Indirect horror kills – that’s what I’ll be asking for, for Christmas … But I also felt a tension headache coming on at the moment Andy was going to inject Kay with the black goo at the behest of the Romulus’s chief medical officer, because if there’s something I really can’t stand in all movie’s it’s synthesized monster blood. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 should’ve been the last time we ever had to hear about monster blood, honestly. Didn’t Shane Black’s ill-fated The Predator have some sort’ve double-predator human-blood gimmick as well? Weird 😕 Anyway, Rain so rightly objects to the monster blood, saying it’s silly, thank goodness. Oh, but it doesn’t stop Kay falling on hard times and injecting herself minutes later anyway, leading to drastic consequences 😖 Let’s talk about the human-alien baby. Okay, for as far as the movies trying new things, I’ve seen a lot worse. I’ve seen a lot worse in Alien: Resurrection alone 😮 But still, my notes would be that this movie’s alien baby grows too quick, so every time we see it in frame it isn’t a spectacle, knowing that mere seconds later, it will change forms again. It also would’ve been sicklier if we saw it had a fondness for its mother who was terrified, but it chowed Kay down like the last chicken nugget! Ultimately, the “Offspring” is ugly, super thin, and barely human, so what the hell was the ship’s artificial person even on about, as this being the best idea for the rightful next step in human evolution? Another Weyland-Yutani fail.
And lastly, I think I’ve decided that I’m not okay with recreating the dead for sequels and prequels. Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarken, in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, started the conversation, and Ian Holm’s role in Alien: Romulus is where I plant my flag, ending it. This ship’s android could’ve easily had another face, and I’m sure Holm was only used to be recognisable from Alien… Speaking of fan service, when Andy says, “stay away from her, you bitch!”, I felt ill 🤢 Physically ill! That could be the worst callback I have ever heard in all of moviedom. Because there was no indication prior that Andy had an issue with swearing, or that the alien was a bitch – in no way was the reference baked into the narrative to hint that it could’ve occurred naturally. Awful. A pure pantomime, key-jangling moment.
Okay, I’ve spent a fair word count ragging on the negatives of this movie, but I did also say that Alien: Romulus is the best alien experience since the eighties. I like how this movie took an approach in how to beat the aliens, instead of characters just being terrified. The walk amongst the face-huggers, Rain twirling through acid blood in zero-gravity, and Rain blowing a hole in the bottom of her ship to hover over the atmosphere, were inspired moments, but that, then again, also felt like watching someone else play a really high quality video game. So I’ll just say, Alien: Romulus is a good, thrilling joyride, but it uses a lot of ugly to get there. I think this is exactly the rollercoaster experience that Martin Scorsese was referring to all those years ago, when he potted Marvel. And for me, as the credits started rolling, every cell in my body was surging in me to like this movie, but my brain is yelling not to be so easily deceived. But I doubt the regular movie fans are going to be as prickly as me. And I don’t know where else you can go for an outer space adventure that looks as incredible as this; and that’s not nothing. Once this movie is grandfathered in, and I listen to some other reviews, I can see my staunch position being open to manipulation.
3.5
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