‘Alien: Romulus’ movie review: AI and Xenomorph evolution make for the best ‘Alien’ movie in decades
In the cinematic age of reboots, remakes and “reimaginings”, the truth is that no one needed or wanted another Alien movie, especially considering the utterly average prequel entries that unwitting franchise creator Ridley Scott delivered in the 2010s. However, Uruguayan horror director Fede Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues couldn’t help themselves from issuing the seventh Alien movie, Alien: Romulus, one that sits chronologically between Scott’s 1979 original and James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens.
Thankfully, though, Alien: Romulus is an impressive science fiction horror film that returns to the claustrophobic tendencies of the original, owing mainly to a vibrant young cast, a relatively straightforward story, remarkable production and, naturally, bundles of fan service that titillates long-serving Alien audiences without leaning too heavily into its lore so as to, well, alienate newcomers.
Narratively, we follow a rag-tag band of young space colonists who long to break free from the oppressive Weyland-Yutani corporation. From an aesthetically Blade Runner-indebted mining planet, Cailee Spaenee’s Rain and her android “brother”, David Jonsson’s Andy, programmed by her late father to keep her safe at all times, team up with a gang of rebels and pilots (Archie Renaux, Isabella Merced et al.) to nab the cryo-freeze equipment from an orbiting spacecraft and escape to a non-corporation distant planet.
Alien: Romulus doesn’t muck about with any more exposition than is necessary. Before you’re too far into your popcorn, we’re off into space, onto the space station and into sci-fi horror territory. As the inescapable blackness of space arrives, it’s clear that Alvarez, known for his work on the 2013 Evil Dead remake and 2016’s Don’t Breathe, was the right man for the job, with some of the most terrifying moments (though admittedly mostly jump scares) arriving in full force. Naturally, this spacecraft is littered with a swarm of Face Huggers, so queue the thoroughly expected “impregnation” moment and subsequent birth of the Chest Burster.
Tapping into the Alien cinematic canon, impressively even to the video game Alien: Isolation, the standard issue journey through the spacecraft to get the fuel and get the hell out of there ensues. Sure, there are a handful of illogical moments, like the arrival of more fully formed Xenomorphs than seems possible, but Alien: Romulus is a thoroughly exciting entry into the franchise, one that makes you laugh, scream, put your hands up to cover your eyes and leave your mouth agape.
Alvarez and Sayagues, though, are comfortable in bringing their own ideas into the fold, not only with the evolutionary possibilities of the Xenomorph – with one particularly striking moment being reminiscent of the Orphan of Kos from Hidetaki Miyazaki’s Bloodborne – but also in its themes. Alien: Romulus is deeply concerned with the ethics of Artificial Intelligence, which, yes, the Alien franchise always has, but here, it seems to take on a new significance as the 2020s rage on at an alarming, almost accelerationist pace.
Can one genuinely love a synthetic entity? Can that same entity love at all? These are the kinds of questions that Alien: Romulus asks, and the significant inclusion of what must be presumed to be an AI-likeness of a classic character from one of the previous movies further plays into the technological, ethical and entertainment considerations at play. As much as Romulus is a fun, scary and well-thought-out movie, it’s also credible in opening more comprehensive and contemporary sociopolitical and philosophical discussions, something which Scott had sought to do with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
As with those entries, there are bound to be detractors of Alvarez’s iteration, but one can’t escape from the fact that Romulus likely falls into the top three films in the franchise. Yes, there are a handful of negative points – stringed arrangements can border on the excessive, sometimes the voices are too quiet, and even one moment of Hollywood cheese is too much for the distant worlds of out space – but the truth is that Romulus is shit-scary, gorgeous to look at on the big screen, undoubtedly solid enough for the diehards, and substantial from an ethical standpoint. For those reasons, it’s an essential part of the series.
