Alien: Romulus

Fede Alvarez's entry in the franchise is an entertaining if unmemorable flick

Despite going on 45 years as a franchise, the Alien films have not devolved into a slog that has bogged the likes of Terminator and Star Wars. Ridley Scott attempted to revive the franchise in the 2010s with the more philosophical Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), however, fans yearned the classic survivalist horror. Enter, Fede Alvarez of Don’t Breathe (2016) fame.

Alien: Romulus (2024) takes place between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), following a group of young space miners, led by Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her android “brother” Andy (David Jonsson), as they attempt to escape exploitative work conditions of their dark planet by hijacking equipment from an abandoned space station. Their lack of curiosity as to why the station had been abandoned, however, might be their doom.

Romulus takes the Alien franchise back to basics, both utilizing the production design, sound, and visual look of the 1979 sci-fi film, as well as paring down its plot to a survivalist story. As with any slasher, we have side-characters that are clear meat to be cleaved by the Xenomorph or Face-hugger aliens, whilst the likes of Rain and Andy are given more depth to their arcs. Albeit, with Andy, a spoiler-induced switch to his persona during much of the second act freezes his development and as such his relationship with Rain, leaving their promising bond feeling shallow by the film’s end.

Alvarez tries to juggle the return to survivalist horror with acknowledging the lore of the recent Scott films. This is done with a rather crude CGI cameo that delivers one of the most shameless exposition dumps on film this year. However, once Alvarez shakes off the shakier storytelling elements and focuses on the horror sequences, Romulus finds its feet. Romulus features some of the most inventive and tense sequences in any Alien films since the first two. One sequence featuring the dodging swirling acid in zero gravity is a true highlight. In other respects, Romulus falls into tired sequel tropes of featuring more of what was in previous films. We get a barrage of face huggers, xenomorphs, and the cramming of famous franchise lines to boot.

Romulus is a film that keeps its scale small to focus on the basics of horror. This contrasts with the Scott films in both good and bad ways. It allows Alvarez more room to maneuver without fear of upsetting lore, but it also diminishes this story within the Alien franchise. The small scale and inconsequential elements of the story make Romulus feel more like a fan-film than a true franchise entry. If one reduces both its narrative scale without indagating much into characters or plot, it makes the resulting film feel fleetingly entertaining and nostalgic if unmemorable.

6.8/10