A young group of workers trapped on a Weyland-Yutani mining colony, locked into almost inescapable work contracts, look to escape their torment by salvaging the necessary equipment from a derelict ship caught in their planet's orbit. They just need Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her brother, Andy (David Jonsson) to gain access. Unfortunately, what looks to be a quick and easy job proves to be anything but when the ship's true purpose is revealed, and the scavengers discover they are not alone.
There is something odd about Fede Alvarez's entry into the Alien franchise, and that is how beautiful he and his team have been able to make this miserable looking future. If nothing else does - and that is entirely possible - the visuals will blow your mind. This of course extends to the Xenomorphs and their Facehugger friends. The latter of which get to be even more terrifying this time around. Even the sunless 'Jackson's Star' mining colony is a sight to behold in its grimy, oppressive, sunless despondency. But there is still something decidedly Alien about it - although that's not always a good thing.
Romulus fits perfectly into its slot between Alien and Aliens, combining the winning elements of both. While not as action-packed as James Cameron's Colonial Marine romp, and certainly not as fear-inducing as Ridley Scott's horrifying, blue-collar initial encounter with the Xenomorph - none of us can ever truly experience that more than once - Romulus finds this sort of happy medium. It'll certainly make you jump, a lot, and it sizzles with tension. There's a great scene involving zero gravity, and some new revelations about Facehuggers make traversing the ship delightfully more perilous. That sense of peril is amplified by a real time aspect that has been applied to a considerable chunk of the movie. You can almost feel time running out for this plucky band.
Interestingly, it's a slightly younger cast driving this story. So in a way, it feels like these characters are the kids who simply inherited this shithole of a galaxy from those that made it, which adds something I don't think we've seen in this franchise before. There's a degree of sympathy or compassion that comes with seeing these kids trying to escape this hell-hole existence. Even the arsehole character - every horror movie has one - is a victim of circumstance, making his demeanour understandable to say the least.
Sure, with everything she endured through her battles with both the aliens and the strikingly more evil corporation, we've undoubtedly felt sorry for Ripley before. But whereas she's become more of just a movie character through the course of the films, these new characters feel more human, somehow. And it's easy to become invested in their plight. It certainly helps that all of the performances are fantastic, especially that of David Jonsson, who is phenomenal as the rather troubled and multifaceted Andy.
There is something rather irritating about Romulus however, in that after establishing a new and interesting but equally miserable corner of the galaxy, Alvarez falls back on elements from the other movies to fill the time. There are so many, in fact, that whilst watching you could sit there with a list of famous lines, scenes and moments from the franchise, ticking them off as they happen. And while a certain 'sort of' cameo - which may or may not prove to be controversial - does work, the way in which the the Xenomorph is introduced feels more like you're typical monster movie cheating. We're talking Alien 3 levels of "oh, by the way". That sense of 'been there, done that' also applies to the ending, which if you've seen at least one Alien movie you'll have an idea of what we're talking about, and even the revelation at its heart - the thing the movie has been building toward - is nothing we haven't seen before.
As well as being visually stunning, Alien: Romulus proves to be a tense and terrifying dance between some great new characters and the dreaded Xenomorph. It's just too bad it also happens to be a string of recycled elements from the previous movies. So much so that it actually becomes annoying.
6/10
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One of my writers, Kevin, who is a member of the Denver's Critic Society, and a real pro, did not care for AR so much. Other than the first two magnificent Alien movies, the rest have not fared so well with the critics. I have the original Alien as the top horror movie ever made.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the first two are vastly superior to everything that followed. Aliens is one of my all time favourite movies - the director’s cut, that is. As for Romulus, I found a lot to like, but was frustrated by the reliance on callbacks to the other movies. It was damn near relentless, ruining what could have been an excellent movie.
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