By T. Jayani, JadeTimes News
Since the iconic first two films in the 1980s, the Alien franchise has had its ups and downs, but the latest installment, Alien Romulus, returns to the series' roots, delivering a superbly terrifying monster movie.
There have been eight Alien films to date, including two Alien vs Predator spin offs, but the number of genuinely great films in the series is much smaller. The franchise has been plagued by sequels and prequels marred by creative conflicts and studio meddling. Even the last two films, Prometheus and Alien, Covenant, directed by Ridley Scott, who helmed the original 1979 classic, ended up being convoluted and pretentious, despite their potential.
Now, however, the list of truly excellent Alien films has grown by one. Fede Álvarez, the Uruguayan director behind Don't Breathe and the 2013 Evil Dead remake, has crafted a clever, gripping, and at times awe inspiring sci fi thriller that brings the series back to its nerve wracking, monster movie origins while infusing it with fresh energy think of it as injecting new acid blood into the franchise.
Álvarez has set Alien, Romulus between the events of Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens, carefully recreating the retro futuristic atmosphere of those films. He faithfully adheres to their worn industrial aesthetic, complete with low lighting, steam jets, and dented machinery that seems prone to constant malfunction making it a wonder that anyone from Earth ever made it beyond the Moon. The film also revives the anti corporate undertones and features characters who feel like ordinary people, not preordained action heroes. Álvarez and his co-writer, Rodo Sayagues, have crafted a fast paced, mostly logical plot, refreshingly free of the "why are they doing that?" moments that marred Prometheus and Covenant. Wisely, Álvarez avoids shoehorning in Sigourney Weaver, though a surprise cameo by a character from an earlier Alien film will thrill some fans while perhaps unsettling others.
The main cast consists of a group of twentysomething colonists stuck in dead end mining jobs on a bleak, sunless planet. The ensemble includes Archie Renaux, Isabella Merced, Aileen Wu, and Spike Fearn, but the standout characters are the orphaned Rain, played with steely grace by Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), and her awkward adoptive brother Andy, portrayed with exquisite nuance by David Jonsson (Rye Lane). These downtrodden workers face years of toil before they can hope to reach the verdant planet Rain dreams of. However, one of them hatches a bold plan, they’ve detected an abandoned spaceship orbiting above them, and if they can reach it, they might be able to salvage its cryogenic pods, put themselves into suspended animation, and escape to their dreamworld before the colony authorities catch them.
Once they embark on their mission, the rebels quickly discover that the "abandoned spaceship" is actually a space station and it's not empty by chance. Its crew was decimated by the series' infamous spiky tailed, long clawed xenomorphs. Soon, Rain finds herself fleeing down metal corridors, not just from the creatures, but also from dwindling fuel supplies, law enforcement, and the looming threat of the space station drifting into an asteroid belt that could destroy it within hours. Like all great ticking clock thrillers, the characters have a limited amount of time to complete their mission only to find that time rapidly running out.
Álvarez relies on practical effects rather than digital ones, making the xenomorphs as terrifying as ever. He wisely keeps the creatures mostly hidden, building suspense with muffled noises and shadowy glimpses, but when the monsters do emerge, he fully exploits the series' trademark grotesque slime and disturbing, birth related imagery. The result is a film that delivers as a creepy, haunted house in space experience, with clever twists, heart pounding tension, and plenty of scares.
The film does miss an opportunity by not having the creatures wreak havoc in the colony itself, given how expansive and detailed that setting is. However, Alien, Romulus excels as a suspenseful sci fi chiller. My main critique is that the aliens don’t appear enough, Álvarez's homage to previous Alien films includes so many concepts and plot threads that the iconic xenomorphs feel slightly underutilized. Additionally, it can be challenging to keep track of which characters are still alive, where they are, and the rules governing room temperature and artificial gravity. The stripped down simplicity of Scott's original Alien film remains unmatched by any of its sequels, including those directed by Scott himself.
Nevertheless, Alien, Romulus stands out among its peers. Although it may be slightly overstuffed, it comes closer to perfection than any Alien entry since Aliens in 1986.
