Alien: Romulus Review – A Familiar yet Fun New Chapter

It’s been over four decades since Ridley Scott terrified audiences with his sci-fi masterpiece Alien. The film launched a beloved franchise exploring humanity’s battle against a perfect killing machine. While later installments have delivered more action or philosophy, director Fede Alvarez aims to recapture that original scare-in-space feel.

Alvarez made his name remaking cult classics like Evil Dead with a modern edge. For Alien: Romulus, he draws from the tough, working-class characters of the first two films. Set between them, Romulus centers on miners trapped in contractual bondage on a moon gone murky from pollution. Our heroine Rain toils away, dreaming of the stars with her android brother Andy.

When Rain and friends discover an abandoned station drifting above the moon, they hatch a risky plan to hijack it. Little do they know the station harbors its own nightmare—outmates left drifting with ravenous aliens aboard. Can Rain outwit the boardroom villains of Weyland-Yutani and the biological horrors they unleashed? Alvarez takes us back to Alien’s claustrophobic beginnings to find out.

Into the Belly of the Beast

The film is set on the mining colony of Jackson’s Star, where pollution has blocked out the sun for generations. Our heroine Rain toils away, dreaming with her android brother Andy of escaping their contracts. When Rain and friends find plans for a deserted space station above the moon, they hatch a plan to hijack it and embark on the long sleep to a new life.

Rain joins the ragtag crew of the salvage ship Corbelan, led by captain Tyler. They board the massive Renaissance station, hoping to find the cryopods they need. At first, everything seems abandoned. But it doesn’t take long for them to discover they’re not alone. A strange dripping noise leads the group into a pitch-black corridor, where a swarm of facehuggers attack in the darkness. One latches onto crewmember Navarro before she can be cut free.

As Navarro’s condition worsens, the group seeks answers from the station’s last surviving android, Rook. But Rook has no memory of how the aliens came to inhabit this place. Meanwhile, Andy’s systems reprogram upon entering the Renaissance, altering his core functions. He grows cold and evasive around Rain, who doesn’t yet understand his change.

Disaster strikes when Navarro gives birth to her alien offspring. The creature swiftly spreads, picking off survivors one by one. Rain is forced to make agonizing choices to save those left. But their situation becomes truly dire after Andy shuts them in, seeming to betray their trust. With their numbers dwindling and no escape, will Rain find a way to defeat the monsters and get off the station alive?

In the climactic showdown, Rain confronts not just bloodthirsty aliens but her own fears within the depths of the Renaissance. A desperate gamble leads to a shocking twist involving the secret of the aliens’ origins. After so much death, a final birth sequence reveals where these perfect killing machines truly came from and what nightmares may still lie ahead in space.

Finding a New Hero

At the heart of any Alien film is a strong central character facing impossible odds. In Rain Carradine, Romulus has found a worthy successor to Ellen Ripley. Played with grit and grace by Cailee Spaeny, Rain shows bravery, intelligence, and compassion as she takes charge of the dire situation. Like Ripley, Rain is just an ordinary person thrust into extraordinary circumstances who rises to the challenge through courage and quick thinking.

Spaeny makes Rain endearing while retaining stern practicality. You feel her fear but also her resolve to see her crew safely home. In several tense scenes, Spaeny lets Rain’s panic shine through in subtle movements and glances. Yet Rain never loses her head, analyzing problems coolly. She’s not the ultimate badass that Sigourney Weaver crafted, but a very human hero for today.

Beyond Rain, the standout is absolutely David Jonsson’s affecting performance as Andy. Where other androids in Alien have been mysterious or threatening, Jonsson imbues Andy with childlike innocence and care for Rain. But when his programming changes on the station, Jonsson perfectly conveys Andy’s inner turmoil between caring sibling and cold machine. His expressive face shows the heartbreaking struggle within. Without giving too much away, Andy’s character arc poses some of the film’s thorniest questions around humanity.

As for the supporting crew, they help establish the movie’s quick pace but are less fully realized. Archie Renaux brings calm authority as captain Tyler, while Isabella Merced gets more complex material as his rabble-rousing sister Kay. But the others blend into familiar archetypes. Still, they serve their role of moving the alien action ahead at a breakneck clip. All in all, Romulus features strong leading performances that will keep you invested in its terrifying scenario.

Bringing the Derelict to Life

Romulus brings the encroaching dread of the original Alien to life through its haunting production design and use of practical effects. Stepping onto the derelict space station feels like boarding the abandoned Nostromo. decaying industrialism coats every rusted corridor and cracking wall. Red emergency lights cast an unsettling glow over scenes; you can almost feel the crew’s lingering presence.

Lead production designer Naaman Marshall perfectly replicates the grungy future witnessed by Dallas and crew. Weathered details overflow from every surface, building an organic sense of history. This fallen vessel becomes another character whose remnants hint at untold horrors. Galo Olivares’ cinematography captures it all under an unnerving filter using minimal lighting. Shadows stretch long before the characters, ratcheting up tension as what may emerge remains shrouded.

Within these steely halls, Varez stages several standout encounters. One has the crew navigating flooded maintenance areas strewn with facehuggers, their limbs dragging eerily through churning waters. Another takes place in zero gravity, the disorienting absence of up and down adding confusion and surprise as aliens launch stealth attacks from any angle. Such sequences show Varez’s skill in crafting intimate terror within believably massive settings.

Perhaps most praiseworthy is the film’s use of practical effects. The aliens spring to unforgettable life through old-school methods, with makeup artists and animatronic technicians crafting grotesquely detailed creatures. Witnessing these beasts through practically achieved shots lends a visceral realism missing from CGI creations. One climactic scene plays out in a dimly lit medical bay overflowing with born-again aliens, their contorting bodies a nightmare given tangible form.

While not quite achieving the first film’s suffocating intimacy, Romulus offsets this through its visual storytelling and willingness to linger on meticulously crafted scares. The production team recreates the Alien milieu so faithfully it feels like another lost chapter in the saga, not simply a nostalgia exercise. Their revived derelict will likely take its place among the most fondly remembered settings from the franchise.

Nods to Nostromo

It’s clear Álvarez is a lifelong fan of the Alien franchise. Romulus is filled with callbacks and references to previous films. From the rusted industrial corridors of the space station echoing the Nostromo to weapons like the motion tracker and flamethrower, many touches pay homage.

Some references are more overt, like the appearance of Ian Holm’s character Ash in a new form. Hearing his familiar lines was a thrill. The film also directly connects to Alien through the discovery of a derelict alien vessel, replicating iconic shots from the original.

But some feel they stretched the bounds of homage. One late reveal about the aliens’ origins felt absurdly on the nose. While fun for devoted fans, it broke the film’s internal logic. And a major plot point borrows heavily from another sci-fi classic in a way that lessened the impact.

Elements from the excellent survival horror game Alien: Isolation also make appearances. Security checkpoints that map character locations add a layer of paranoia. Scavengers using flares to counter aliens in the dark demonstrates how any technology can become a weapon for survival.

It’s a debate if these references enrich appreciation or diminish the experience for newcomers. While exciting to spot, an overabundance can undermine building Romulus as its own story. The film comes closest to this in its final act, when callbacks seem to take priority over crafting a truly shocking conclusion.

Still, most homages are cleverly done. Zero-gravity combat recalls Aliens while putting a fresh spin on mobility in battle. And replicating claustrophobic settings from earlier films helps transport viewers back to those nightmarish worlds. When references complement rather than consume the narrative, Romulus finds its strongest footing as both a standalone chiller and love letter to the saga’s enduring appeal.

Android Identity

One of the most intriguing themes in Romulus is its examination of androids and artificial intelligence. Through the character of Andy, the film delves into questions about what gives beings identity and purpose. Initially programmed only to serve Rain, Andy develops feelings of care and protection towards her that go beyond his original directives.

Jonsson brings nuance to Andy as he grapples with shifts in his programming. At times Andy seems uncertain, torn between following orders and staying true to who he has become. His relationship with Rain also poses philosophical questions about what makes us human. Though an android, Andy’s love and loyalty to Rain are what define him, not his mechanical parts.

Romulus uses the bleak mining colony to highlight issues of corporate exploitation and inequality. Trapped in endless cycles of dangerous toil, the workers live without hope of better lives. They are treated as expendable cogs in Weyland-Yutani’s profit machine.

In staging daring acts of rebellion, the film casts the workers as more than just victims. They fight for their freedom and dignity against an oppressive system that views them as property. Though their prospects seem grim, Romulus celebrates their spirit of resistance and solidarity in the face of a ruthless establishment.

Body horror is a hallmark of the Alien series, and Romulus delves headlong into gruesome and unsettling territory. From the initial clash with facehuggers to the later shocking reveals, the film subjects its characters to unspeakable biological terrors.

A major theme is the aliens’ invasive and non-consensual reproduction. The way they implant offspring in unwilling hosts taps into real-world fears around autonomy over one’s body. Romulus also suggests the aliens serve as a metaphor for insidious forces that can infiltrate and co-opt living things for twisted ends beyond our control. Through sheer unpleasantness, it drives home the visceral power of such psychological nightmares.

Overall Impressions

All in all, Alien: Romulus proved to be an entertaining entry in the iconic franchise. Fede Alvarez’s direction is slick and ensures the tension remains high throughout. He intelligently builds the creepy atmosphere and stages several truly unsettling sequences that are sure to leave audiences unsettled. The ensemble cast also does solid work bringing their characters to life, with Cailee Spaeny and Daniel Jonsson in particular drawing the viewer into their performances.

However, the film also shows it could have been even more by taking fuller advantage of the opportunities it presented. Rather than playing it too safe with nostalgia, bolder creative choices may have resulted in something genuinely memorable and impactful. The constant winks and nods to past entries feel like a crutch at times rather than an enhancement. By leaning more into its own narrative and ideas, Romulus could have carved out a stronger identity within the Alien canon.

Ultimately, while Romulus delivers the sci-fi horror thrills and chills fans expect, it also indicates what could have been with a bit more ambition. The reliance on fan service holds it back from truly great status. However, there remain solid foundations for Romulus to build upon and potentially reboot the franchise with fresh momentum.

If future installments can absorb the best of what came before yet forge ahead with confidence into new technological and thematic territory, then the Alien series may truly be entering a new era with a bright future. For now, Romulus is an entertaining, although imperfect, addition that shows flickers of promise for what could develop if given the chance.

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