By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Starring Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson and Archie Renaux
Directed by Fede Alvarez
Written by Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues
20th Century Studios
ALIEN: ROMULUS is a movie that harks back in many ways to a major film that first saw release on Memorial Day weekend, 1979. I’m talking, of course, about BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, in which a group of characters trek to and inside the remains of a deserted vessel to loot its contents, only to face perils and become embroiled in situations very similar to those seen in the original movie. Nine entries into the xenomorph saga (if you count the ALIEN VS. PREDATORs), it would seem to be a given to take ROMULUS into fresh territory, yet although it occasionally does so, the film slowly degenerates into another fan-service sequel. As well-crafted and sometimes scary as it is, it can’t escape the shadow of the franchise’s first two classics, and at a certain point it just stops trying.
The opening certainly evokes pleasant tingles of nostalgia, as scene-setting shots in the dark silence of space, with title graphics harking back to Ridley Scott’s original, are accompanied by Benjamin Wallfisch’s very Jerry Goldsmith score. We’re then introduced to a younger crew of protagonists than previously seen in these movies, toiling for that omnipresent Weyland-Yutani corporation at the Jackson’s Star Mining Colony, many light years from Earth, where the sun never shines. Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her friends are anxious to escape their drudgery in a place where they still carry canaries into the mines, and they see a chance when a derelict spaceship falls into their planet’s orbit. Since no one else has apparently noticed it or had the same idea, the group take what they think will be a quick jaunt to this craft to salvage some cryopods they need to travel to another world where a better life beckons.
From details (another appearance of the dippy bird first seen in ALIEN) to situations (a rapid launch into space that’s a reverse of the “one-way express elevator to hell” in ALIENS), writer/director Fede Alvarez and co-scripter Rodo Sayagues make it clear that ALIEN: ROMULUS, which is set in the time period between the first two movies, will closely follow their playbook. They successfully recapture the dreadful feeling of venturing into the dark, dank, unfamiliar abandoned ship (divided into two sections named Romulus and Remus), where we know that terrors they can’t imagine await them. Cinematographer Galo Olivares (GRETEL & HANSEL) and production designer Naaman Marshall (UNDERWATER) immerse the youths and us in a gloomy, dripping milieu where something awful seems to be lurking around every corner. Alvarez takes his time springing the horrors, though, not pandering to short attention spans; it’s a good 40 minutes of creepy scene-setting before the first creatures–a whole pack of facehuggers–revive to go after the interlopers.
Making the facehuggers extra active, scuttling down corridors and leaping on victims like oversized spiders, is a fresh touch and, not coincidentally, results in ROMULUS’ best frights. Alvarez demonstrates a gratifying commitment to practical effects, and the Legacy Effects team (including series veteran Alec Gillis) and Weta Workshop contribute tactile critters to get both the characters and the audience squeaming. It’s not long before the friends are trapped with monsters of multiple kinds coming after them, with extra urgency added by a ticking clock with an occasional vocal countdown familiar from the past films.
In fact, as ALIEN: ROMULUS continues, a lot of it–too much–is familiar. Letting us settle into a recognizable scenario, and then taking some sharp turns, might have been a better gambit, but the longer the movie goes on, the more beholden it becomes to recycling key scenes and even dialogue from the previous entries, to diminishing returns. (When one of the franchise’s most famous lines is respoken late in ROMULUS, it’s delivered in a manner suggesting the character saw that scene a while back, and is having a little trouble remembering it.) There are a few original setpieces here and there, most notably one involving the Romulus’ antigravity function, but largely a growing sense of been there, seen that. Even when the movie takes a truly berserk turn in the final act, it lands as more of a variation on a theme than a striking departure.
The people making their way through these too-recognizable circumstances are a mixed bag as well. As Rain, Spaeny proves to be a solid heir to Sigourney Weaver–sympathetic and vulnerable, yet able to rally a fierce survival instinct when her and her friends’ lives are at stake. Among that group, Rain is closest to her “brother” Andy (David Jonsson), a synthetic–though of course he reminds at one point that he prefers the term “artificial person.” He starts off as an innocent whose primary function seems to be telling dad jokes, before undergoing a transformation that results in some of ROMULUS’ best dramatic moments, and Jonsson impressively handles the varied facets of the role. The others are Rain’s ex-boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux), his sister Kay (Isabela Merced), his hotheaded friend Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and Bjorn’s adopted sister Navarro (Aileen Wu), and though the performances are all good, their parts are thinly sketched and not terribly interesting. They pale in comparison to the vivid personalities enacted by the blue-collar team in ALIEN and the gung-ho Marines in ALIENS.
There’s one more character in ALIEN: ROMULUS whose particulars won’t be revealed here, other than to say that they provide one of the strongest links back to its predecessors–for better and worse. ALIEN: ROMULUS illustrates the pitfalls of legacy sequels, in which giving the fans more of what they love can negate the possibility of the thrill of surprise. Alvarez’s love of the franchise is clear in every frame, and ROMULUS’ rich look justifies the decision to pull the film from its originally intended Hulu berth and put it out on big screens. But all you have to do is look at an entry from a related space-creature franchise that was sadly relegated to streaming–the PREDATOR spinoff PREY, from a couple of years back–to see how a change of scenery and emphasis can truly add new vigor and excitement to a long-running series. ALIEN: ROMULUS, on the other hand, risks demonstrating that in space, no one can hear viewers scream if you’re showing them stuff they’ve already seen.
