Films for Breakfast

The Alien franchise has seen some massive highs and lows, and where exactly those highs and lows are will vary from which fan you speak to. For my money, the only bad Alien film thus far has been Resurrection back in 1997, simply due to it feeling like it had no justifiable story to tell or reason to bring Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley back. That film aside, I find value in even the more frowned upon entries like Alien 3 or Alien: Covenant, and straight-up adore Prometheus for all its inherent weirdness. Where Covenant and Prometheus were met with a bit of a mixed response due to Ridley Scott’s ambitious outline for the story, Alien: Romulus tries to play to all audiences; getting back to the simplicity of terror in space. It certainly acknowledges and builds upon all of the established lore and doesn’t hide from the other entries, but it also feels very comfortable being its own thing.

The film follows a group of young space colonizers who are scavenging an abandoned and broken space station, looking for a nice payday. However, it’s not long before they come into contact with the most terrifying life forms in the universe. Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) leads the ensemble greatly as Rain, a strong yet traumatized protagonist who is simply trying to get herself and her brother Andy (David Jonsson) off the slummy planet they’ve been residing on since their parents died. The chemistry between Spaeny and Jonsson, as well as their individual performances, is the glue that holds the entire emotional core of the film together. From the moment you meet the pair, Alvarez paints their situation and relationship so empathetically that you immediately gravitate towards their plight and situation.

The rest of the ensemble hold their own as well, from Isabela Merced, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu all delivering great performances and sharing nice chemistry with one another. An early scene in the film establishes the crews relationship with Rain and Andy, and it’s such efficient character development as it creates a bond between all of them immediately. This sense of tight-knit kinship between the crew is arguably the film’s biggest strength, as it makes all of the terror and thrills all the more effective when the xenomorphs and their friends begin to attack; you can make it as gnarly and visually impressive as you want, but genuine stakes go such a long way.

Fede Alvarez feels like a perfect fit for this franchise, as he has successfully tackled another horror franchise reboot in the past with 2013’s Evil Dead, and 2016’s Don’t Breathe was a fantastic exercise in thrills, chills, and pure filmmaking talents. Alien: Romulus feels like a perfect culmination between Fede’s sense of style, patience in building up dread, his particular eye for gnarly gore and everything that the Alien franchise is known for – compelling characters, deep lore, and tense body horror. It also feels like this is Fede’s best directed movie to date, as there are genuinely a handful of individual set pieces that blew me away with their staging, creativity, and sheer entertainment value. For a film set in such a closed location, it has a wonderful sense of scale and makes the best use of its proximity.

The action in the film is truly top-notch and is so genuinely exciting, as it feels like it incorporates the best elements of the action of Aliens or even the video game Alien: Isolation, which took the franchise into a first person shooter perspective with the xenomorphs. Fede also utilized a great sense of quietness, dread, and isn’t afraid to let the film slowly build up its characters and escalate the situation before everything hits the fan. All of these elements, to me, feel like a perfect blend between Alien and Aliens. However, I could see some feeling like Alien: Romulus is simply playing the greatest hits of the franchise as well. There is one particular creative decision made halfway through the film that I could see dividing the fanbase as a hollow nostalgia play, but I found it to be a solid use of established lore and all felt in-tune logically with where the film was heading.

Could Alien: Romulus have been even more original and featured less call backs to previous films? Sure. But for my money, Fede Alvarez’s direction more than makes up for any small misgivings or moments of cheap fan service; we know he has a massively impressive eye for horror and dread, yet he proves his worth even more here with some enthralling and massive action sequences that truly hit. When you compile the top notch scares, excitement and spectacle with a truly solid emotional core and compelling lead performances.. it’s hard to not love Alien: Romulus for being a great kick starter that the franchise sorely needed after a seven-year absence.

4/5