I will always appreciate a massive swing for the conceptual fences from an established franchise. Star Trek doing a lighthearted comedy about endangered space whales for its fourth big screen installment comes to mind. Another is Prey, which set a Predator movie in the 18th century. And because of that mentality, I certainly appreciate Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant for trying to turn the Alien franchise into more contemplative, more thoughtful treatises on existence. But sometimes, especially in this series’ case, a return to form is needed. Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus takes us back to the monster movie in space vibes, and it mostly delivers. Mostly.
I know Alien: Prometheus and Covenant have their defenders, and from a visual and design standpoint, they are unmatched. But often, it felt like the xenomorphs themselves got in the way of a heady discussion of what it means to be human. And the characters were abysmally stupid, which is never that fun to watch. Alvarez, known for the Evil Dead reboot in 2013 and Don’t Breathe in 2016, is a horror director and so smartly took the franchise away from Scott’s ponderousness in favor of a new riff on monsters versus people on a derelict spacecraft. Sheer simplicity.
Alien: Romulus follows Rain (Cailee Spaeny), a young colonist on a dismal mining planet who desperately wants off. Her only family is Andy (David Jonsson), the early generation Weyland Yutani synthetic who raised her after her parents died. The company, always the bastard, keeps raising the work requirements for relocation. Her only chance comes from a group of old friends (Archie Renaux, Isabella Merced, Aileen Wu, Spike Fearn). They plan to raid an adrift space station for its resources and need Andy’s access codes to do it.
Upon arriving on the station—with its two halves, Romulus and Remus—the group finds evidence of something nasty and very quickly the familiar trappings of xenomorph shenanigans appear. Now Rain and her friends have a ticking clock. They need to get what they came for and get off the station before the aliens, the company, or gravity itself kills them.
Alien: Romulus has a lot to love. Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues set the action after 1979’s Alien but before Aliens, and they absolutely capture the grungy futurism from the original. Additionally, they use what we know about the xenomorphs’ life cycle to create some excellent scares early on, from facehuggers to acid blood. When we finally see the fully grown xenomorph, it effectively stalks and hides and could be behind any corner, or in every ceiling duct. It’s a joy.
I won’t spoil anything, but while I was enjoying myself during most of the movie, it was the final act that really kicked it up a notch. Alvarez stages some action set pieces we’ve genuinely never seen before that left me breathless. He also gives us a final Alien: Romulus confrontation that was scary in a way the series often hinted at, even attempted, but never pulled off until now. Giger would be proud.
I also want to specifically call out Benjamin Wallfisch’s score. It’s a big, sweeping, orchestral soundscape that actively calls back Jerry Goldsmith’s score from Alien. Many sci-fi/horrors use synthwave scoring, which I love and am definitely here for. But in keeping with the aesthetic of the 1970s-style of futurism, a full orchestra and leitmotifs really add an air of classiness. It’s a standout, for sure.
So with all of these things to praise, you might expect me to give this movie full marks. Not quite so. I mentioned earlier that Alien: Romulus smartly goes back to basics. That’s true, but it also plays it safe in a way that we’ve seen before. It’s not as egregious as something like Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That is literally just A New Hope again but with references and Easter eggs galore. Here, the setup is familiar, which is fine, but a few, I think, needless references and callouts (and especially digital recreations of things) nearly spoiled the whole thing. I understand why a couple of them are there, thought another one was pretty clever, and one was so groan-worthy I wanted to tear my eyes out. All told, I wish they hadn’t done them.
The characters are also pretty thin. Andy is the only character with any kind of interesting arc—synthetic humans are always the most memorable of these movies—and while Spaeny is a capable and compelling heroine, Rain is only barely deep. The other four people are as two-dimensional as it gets. I will say, at the very least, they aren’t obnoxiously stupid. They’re young people who don’t know what they’re dealing with and make wrong decisions. They aren’t scientists who act moronic or who don’t know how to run perpendicular to a falling object.
Ultimately I was happy with Alien: Romulus, both from a visual and a tension standpoint. I think it delivers the back-to-basics thrill ride that many fans have wanted. While it never fully escapes the continuity of the earlier saga, it also doesn’t feel bogged down by it. And that third act has maybe the most fun and wild Alien stuff in decades. See it large, see it loud, revel in the screams.
Alien: Romulus hits theaters August 16.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.