Fede Álvarez’s “Alien: Romulus”
Alien: Romulus - Fede Álvarez, United States
“Alien: Romulus gets a lot right and is good, but the adherance to the formula… holds it back”
★★★★
Treading over familiar ground, this feels tonally closer to Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens eschewing CGI for practical effects(on the whole) but doesn’t stray from the formula. I’ve been with the franchise since its start having lived through the disappointment of the installments that followed Aliens. Alien 3 was a hot mess. Alien: Resurrection was let down by the choice to use CG but I felt Jeunet brought something fresh to the series. Prometheus was interesting and Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw is my favourite character after Ripley in the series. Alien: Covenant was poorly paced with a third act that never took the time to build suspense or make use of the Alien.
Alien: Romulus gets a lot right and is good, but the adherance to the formula (Naive people stumble across aliens, people slaughtered, countdown finale) holds it back. The practical effects really give proceedings a tactile groundedness that is great. The cast is strong particularly David Jonsson as the android Andy. Pacing is good and the suspense works well though the choice to reveal our protagonists have a limited time early could have been revealed much later as a setback. Think back to Aliens when already in a terrible situation, it’s revealed a reactor is going to go critical. That works because it’s revealed at a point where things are already hopeless and that effectively underlines that. Also, Cailee Spaeny is good as Rain(essentially the Ripley stand in) but as with Civil War, she lacks the physical presence. She was fantastic in Priscilla but here, once can’t help but make comparisons to Sigourney Weaver whose Ripley felt world weary and spoiling for a fight.
Another thing that’s distracting is the on the nose callbacks to other films in the series which makes it feel even more like a retread of what we’ve seen before, a best-of compilation that drops regularly throughout. They lack any subtlety and I felt the entire audience became that meme with Leonardo Di Caprio pointing and whistling constantly. In the meta-universe of Deadpool that might work, but here, it’s distracting. Saying that, it is impressive how Alvarez has firmly placed this in the universe created by all six of its predecessors.
Finally, the decision to make use of CGI to ressurect an actor who has passed on is an odd one considering all the work that’s gone into the practical effects and the end result is jarring and unconvincing. Recasting or even using a practical effects mask would have been an improvement over what we get.
Overall it’s an enjoyable enough ride, but if the franchise is going to have a future, it’s going to need to take risks and try new things.
