#REVIEW: “ALIEN: ROMULUS”

Review by Nicholas Porteous for Mr. Will Wong

In a distant and terrible future, a ragtag team of space outcasts board an abandoned ship to scavenge sleep pods so they can chart a course to the nearest, supposedly much more habitable planet. But in the process, they awaken the suckiest, speediest facehuggers since Aliens. This is Alien: Romulus, a back-to-basics Creature Feature that positions itself smack dab in between the events of beloved Sci-Fi masterpieces Alien and Aliens, borrowing heavily from both, and more-or-less avoiding the intense mythologizing of the last few entries in the Alien series–Prometheus and Covenant.

In many ways, Alien: Romulus is just what the doctor ordered. The alien is one of the greatest monsters in Cinema, and it doesn’t need to be shrouded in an endless, vague backstory to delight and terrify an audience. It just works as a giant, drooling, multi-mouthed, acid blood-gushing beast of death. Fede Álvarez is largely content with simply letting the creature and the established universe do most of the work. He knows just how to mix effects and point the camera in a way that feels evocative of that old-school, slimy, cold, textured feel of the original classics, while mixing in a healthy dose of modern tech. He does misstep with a few gratuitous shots of Aliens darting their mini mouths in and out–blunting their power by showing too much. That aside, half the joy of Romulus is in its gorgeously grimy visual and sonic atmosphere. In that regard, it’s a slam dunk. IMAX is a must for this one.

Romulus‘ stated goal–invoking the original Alien font right off the bat, and borrowing a cue from Alien³ even before the first shot–is not to reinvent the wheel. It’s a greatest hits concert, with a couple new songs thrown in to keep the proceedings fresh. I would argue roughly half of these new songs are good. On one hand, there’s a compelling new android in town: Andy. On the other, he’s part of an unfortunate trend in the series: the robot is the most interesting character on screen and it’s not even close. Cailee Spaeny and the rest of the cast do an admirable job with a basically anonymous group of screaming victims ready to be led to the slaughterhouse, but they simply don’t have much to work with. There’s no Ellen Ripley, Hicks or even a Private Hudson to be found amongst these shapeless space people. Certainly no original-feeling humans. There is a surprise supporting appearance from a legacy character, and it pains me to say they’re relegated to a series of clumsy exposition dumps. Romulus features some solid contributions to core Alien concepts. What if you had to deal with Alien blood in zero-g? Can one abort an alien in the post-face hugging cocoon stage? Unfortunately, there are also cheats. There has never been a faster facehugger pregnancy, it’s an essential building block of Romulus‘ entire story, and it runs counter to everything we understand about how the creature works without so much as an attempt to explain how it’s possible. Romulus has a bad habit of bending over backwards to recreate iconic moments from the first two films, at the expense of something truly fresh and exciting that builds on top of what we already know and love–a tricky balance that often feels just out of reach. There’s also a decent amount of lame action choreography in which characters do dumb things just so they can either die or be thrust into worse situations. Trying to maintain the appearance that no one wants to get hurt would be nice.

At this point in the review, it might sound like I didn’t enjoy Romulus, and that’s not the case. There is a lot to criticize, and it’s tough to see a movie get so close to being the best entry in the series since Aliens, coming up short for frustratingly avoidable reasons, but I do think this new, old-school entry does a great job doing what it sets out to do. The Xenomorph is back, and it really wants to stab you and envelop your body in its gross, probably smelly organic wallpaper. Forgive its missteps, see it on the biggest screen you can, and you’re in for a good ol’ Chiller Diller Thriller.

20th Century Studios Canada release ALIEN: ROMULUS  in theatres August 16, 2024.