Alien: Romulus
20th Century Studios
Since 2018, both Fede Alvarez and the Alien franchise have been put on ice. The former after his lukewarm franchise reboot of The Girl in the Spiders Web sequel to Fincher’s uncomfortable and riveting millennium remake of the same name. The latter of the series has unfortunately come to a standstill in terms of direction after Fox’s acquisition by Disney in Scott’s prequel series with Prometheus and Covenant that has found a lukewarm albeit steady following since its release in 2017, yet not strong enough to endorse a final film to close out Scott’s trilogy leading up to o his sophomore 1979 effort Alien. So that all said, it would be a match made in heaven to place a director of Alvarez’ calibre who has shone in both original and franchise IP in Don’t Breathe and Evil Dead, in 2016 and 2013 respectively, in charge of a soft reboot regarding a beloved franchise for them both to get back on track commercially and critically. Therein lies Alien Romulus, a project originally destined for HULU like its sister series Prey in the Predator franchise, when arriving is Ridley Scott and James Cameron-blessed production that stars rising actress Caille Spaeny – from Priscilla and Civil War – as Rain who, along with a group of destitute characters, find themselves escaping the better world of corporations Weyland-Utani only to find something even more terrifying and frightening in the shadows.
While the description of the aforementioned plot is vague, it is a better position to be in for both fans and average audiences to go in with as little information and descriptions as possible. Not only due to certain homages and characteristics Romulus entails but also due to how integral said aspects are to production. Getting to that slightly later, where does Romulus sit within this now seven-feature saga? Well, once again going into fine or direct detail in regard to plot or narrative, Romulus is best described as best-of from the franchise. A keen eye here will identify all four previous Alien ventures in similarities in regards to tone, production design or theme. It begins with echoes of Alien 3, slides into Alien then Aliens with a touch of Alien Resurrection added in for good measure. All little moments of franchise history hit quite well in regards to both homage and events contextually brought forward by Alvarez within the film itself. Small little callbacks or reworked set-pieces that keep things fresh while not straying too far away from pastures old. However, that does beg the question: if this is not only due to certain homages and characteristics that Romulus entails but also due to how integral these are, then what does Alvarez add to this canon Alien entry? As writer-director, it becomes apparent that Alvarez’s personality belongs in two distinctive categories: writing and production.
The writing, which is the most controversial and muddled of the two, makes it clear that Alvarez is already a fan of both Scott and the franchise in general. The writing of characters, set-pieces and lore throughout are endeavours that showcases a love, respect and passion for the material. He echoes and rhymes with a decent rhythm in his entry that slots quite neatly to honour those around it without causing too much confusion and emphasis on itself. The issue that arises is that Alvarez, with Romulus, arguably goes far too deep in bringing itself close to the 1979 work – to a point in which it purely feels like an overuse of fan service and connective tissue that, for some, will limit the experience to simply being an echo of the original. A secondary issue of this is not just in the context of writing but ultimately within narrative and plot. To say this is quite close to each and every entry before it may be an understatement. Granted, the narrative beats have been repeated and retooled in each entry, but characters meet alien and chaos ensues. All that said, it is ultimately a building project for the creatives to either elevate or subvert. Scott understood this with the foundations settled with both Prometheus and continued in Covenant by taking the conventions of the Alien franchise but evolving in narratively into deeper philosophical questioning of beginnings. The end result of success is up for debate but the conscious idea to evolve this franchise ultimately set the precedent. Romulus ultimately takes fans and audiences back to basics yet to a point in which it actually comes across as slight stagnation for those hoping that the direction would be forward but instead finds the audience planted without any movement. Granted, it works better for larger audiences getting back to its roots and plays quite well with the conventions it prescribes. Especially in how lukewarm Alien Covenant felt to a large amount of audiences both of fans and average audiences alike. Romulus essentially sets its sights on honouring what came before but using a considerable amount of narrative rhyming.
However, the question of predictability and mundanity begins in that every plot beat suffers from an almost assured anticlimactic result. Simply down to the fact that the viewer has seen it before and, ironically, Romulus causes an even greater divide between fans of this series and an average audience because it can not give them the same thing again which was the same thing again and creatively as well as narratively has to push the narrative boundary, which brings the irony into action because that was the whole thesis of both Prometheus and Covenant, which mass audiences seemingly rejected for mundanity and are now appreciating the conscious decision of Scott to evolve the series.
Alas, narrative aside, what does Alvarez bring to proceedings? Visually, an assured and accomplished craftsman who not only loved the series but understands the horror science fiction undertones that made such a terrific stance on the original two features. But equally a director who understood what world and moral fragility Fincher created in Alien 3 or the creatively distinct Alien Resurrection. How he implements these are the most ingenious as they flow and fly with ease into this world covered head to toe in shadows and darkness. Not just literally in the outstanding use of lighting or production but in the morality and ethical sense of how this universe pushes each character to the bring of cutting everyone off to survive and find the slither of principle in what is beaten out of each respective character. Where this comes to fruition of course is the age-old “company” directive of corporate greed and lust. However, the character trait of this series is given a great amount of depth to prosper. The writing, while not necessarily fresh, crafts a more earnest and rich complexity of where the viewer finds the moral compass of characters in this franchise, and thus the sacrifices and choices each character undertakes for their survival against each other. Granted, due to the nature of the beast and the one-by-one-bumped-off motif, it’s not a dramatically explosive or overly complex initiative in the writing but does still feel crafted to support further material in what has forced these characters to band together and thus what is the driving force of where they each see the individual needs outweigh the group.
Of course, this is further supported by the rather decent group performances, who have an array of consequences and engage by. Others are stronger than some but even if screen time and arcs are brief, death or decision causes divide and character motif to further thematic and narrative discourse. The two characters here are given the greatest amount of depth and of who create the most thrilling and engaging material are that of rising star Caille Spaeny and the scene-stealing outstanding performance of David Jonsson as Rain and Andy, respectively. Spaeny has the most action and emotional complexity of the two, as her character knows and understands her plan which doesn’t change. The way of her planet is where she comes into contact with the group of misfits and is a spectator to the terror, horror and destruction that unfolds, intensifying the viewers’ experience in that she plays the eyes and ears of the audience and that relationship is bonded with terrific effect in how well the actress commands the screen and grows. While Jonsson doesn’t consciously showcase a great deal of emotional complexity, the depth and creative force that the actor understates here in not only the catalyst for a great deal of moral ambiguity working as strong as it does, but is the constant tonal changes the performer evokes in utterly fabulous majestic prowess.
All that said, it does flow in regards to pacing to other terrific features in the franchise, purely due to the prologue and the need to examine its own character discourse to intensify the narrative that is to come. Yet not at one single second of this entire feature does it feel tiresome or boring. A little slow, yes. But never does it feel as if the viewer is watching paint dry on the screen, and while that might be an attribute of the aforementioned replicated creativity of the franchise’s past – or the eight-ten-year wait for another Alien feature – Romulus is never tiresome. Granted, Romulus isn’t without fault for certain CGI implementation that feels both morally and visually unappealing and the narrative repetition of constantly showing foreshadowing in almost each and every sequence that arises gives little spark or creativity left for the audience to devise. Again, it is a feature that still begs the question of what is next with a feature that has quite literally dried the well of creative water and must now stand on its own two feet, be that narratively or thematically, but as this franchise time and time again has stated both contextually and thematically, the feeling of the same thing happening again for financial greed are elements that don’t seem to want to go anyway
