Alien: Romulus Review

Alien: Romulus Review

We’ve headed back to the place where they can’t hear you scream with Alien: Romulus. The ninth film in the Alien franchise. This is one that going into the year, wasn’t on my most anticipated list. Because I hadn’t seen an Alien movie before this year, I watched all of them leading up to this movie. I was curious to check it out to see if my watch through of the good and bad of the Alien franchise was warranted. How is this movie? Is it any good? Let’s talk about it!

The Good

What I thought this movie did best was return to what made the franchise great in the first place, simplicity. The origin film is a straight up haunted house horror movie set in space. The second one adds action into the mix, but still sort of a haunted house movie.. I thought this movie did a nice job of being a return to form for the Alien franchise. Where the setup for the movie is very simple, a group of teenagers go up to an abandoned ship and things get crazy from there. It fits very nicely into the middle of Alien and Aliens, where the tone of this movie fits very nicely between those two movies. One of the problems with the Ridley Scott prequel films was that he went too complex with the ideas. The lore and exploration as to how the Xenomorphs came to be, was so complex that it became confusing. I think those movies hurt greatly because of it. It’s refreshing to get an Alien movie, that's living the simple yet effective experience you’d expect from this franchise. 

Along those same lines, the director Fede Alvarez just did a fantastic job directing this movie and directing tense sequences. One of the things he’s great is, is making the environment and atmosphere feel terrifying. I haven’t seen his past movies, but that’s one of the things that people were talking about. He’s great at creating these creepy environments, he’s great with the tension. All throughout this movie, you feel this sense of dread and tension. You know that at any moment, an alien can pop out or a character can die so you’re constantly on the edge of your seat. There’s several great sequences in this movie that provide a lot of tension. This movie makes the face huggers the scariest they’ve been in the franchise. Where there’s a few sequences in this movie, where our characters are running from the face huggers, once you think it’s done, it keeps on going. When the face huggers are first introduced, the way they’re introduced you feel the tension. You know that something bad is about to happen, because the audience has seen the other Alien movies. I would even argue that this is the most horror focused film in the franchise since the original. Aliens certainly has its moments, but this one goes right there with the original as being the scariest of the franchise. I hope Alvarez either does another Alien movie or he gets to do more horror movies, because he did a great job with this movie. 

Another thing I think this movie does great is having a script that perfectly sets up a bunch of little details that have payoff in the third act. In 2023 and 2024, there’s been a few examples of Checkov’s gun used poorly. Where Checkov’s gun is a movie term that says if you show a gun in the first act, you shoot it in the third act. Basically, if you set up something in the first act you better pay it off in the third act. I think this movie uses Checkov’s gun really well. The first act of the movie establishes temperature change, gravity, weapons, all of these things that when they’re introduced, you know they’re going to come into play later on, but you don’t know how. What’s really great about the way it’s done in this movie, it’s not predictable. You know that gravity and acid blood and all of the things are going to come back, but you don’t know how. You realize that gravity is going to come into play at the exact time the character does. That’s when Checkov’s gun is done right, it shows good direction and writing from Fede Alvarez. He doesn’t need to over explain things or remind you too much of things, he does it just enough so you know when it’s going to happen and it pays off so well. 

Also, I think the film has a great set of characters that you care about. For this type of movie, you need an ensemble of characters that you care about and you root for. Very early on, they make you care about these characters. They set up details about the characters that you know are going to come into play later on. Lines of dialogue establish certain dynamics amongst the characters. There’s certain characters that are acting very unlikable, but you quickly understand why they’re unlikable and the reason makes for interesting dynamics and builds tension later on in the movie. The two leads of the movies are Rain and Andy, who have this brother/sister dynamic. They really are the two standouts of the movie, both of them give great performances and their characters you care about. Rain is played by Cailee Spaeny who was in Civil War earlier this year, she’ll also be in Knives Out 3 next year. I love that she’s getting a lot of work, I think she’s great in everything I’ve seen her in. Her character is somewhat similar to Ripley, but also a very different character. Where both of them are the unlikely heroes, they’re not setting out or designed to be action heroes. But because of the direction the movie goes, they’re forced into action roles. But their character arcs are very different and the nature of the characters are different. Andy is an android and they do some very interesting stuff with him. I don’t wanna say too much because of spoilers, but Andy was a great character that fits into the story nicely and the way he’s used provides for some interesting moments. But honestly, everybody in this movie is quite good, everybody is giving a great performance. 

Finally, on a production level and CGI level this movie is great. The first 10-15 minutes of this movie are on this planet and the production design of the planet is great. It feels like the production of the first two movies, that’s why I said earlier that this movie fits nicely in between the first two movies. They say lines of dialogue that talk about the status of the planet and you believe it because the production design is great. Even when it needs to use CGI, I think it’s done well. With this movie, it’s not entirely clear how much was CGI and how much was practical. Because in interviews, Fede Alvarez talked about how he used as many practical props as he could. So the Xenomorphs and face huggers were practical. There’s CGI in this movie with the space and with things they do, but regardless what is practical and what’s CGI, you can’t tell which is which. 

The Bad

I know that I just praised the CGI and production of the film, I absolutely stand by that. But, I think there are a few things in this movie where the CGI doesn’t look great. It’s really just one thing, it’s kind of a spoiler so I don’t wanna talk about it. But if you’ve seen the movie, you know exactly what I’m talking about. They tried to do something with the CGI that I don’t know if technology has caught up with them. Beyond that, I don’t think the idea of what they were going for with this specific thing worked. Again, I don’t wanna talk about spoilers so it’s hard to talk about it. But this thing I keep on mentioning, is very important to the movie. It's a reference to the other movies and I don’t know if it actually works. I feel like they could have easily done something a bit different. That whole thing felt a bit too fan service for me and I don’t know if it fully worked. 

Another thing I wanted to talk about with the film was the final 10-15 minutes of the movie. This seems to be one of the more polarizing aspects of the movie, early reviews were talking about the finale. It does some things in there that some people are going to love and some people aren’t. Since I was late to see the film, I didn’t know what was coming but I knew things got weird in the finale. Honestly, I don’t have too big of an opinion on it. I think it’s clever in the way it’s used, is it the direction I would have taken things in the third act, no. I think there were different ways they could have executed the third act of this movie to make it better. For lack of a better word, the first 90% of this movie is safe and almost grounded. Grounded is the wrong word to use when discussing a film in this franchise, but it’s not super over the top. The stuff in the third act feels a bit out of place with the rest of the movie. Also, the third act went on for a bit too long. I wish they trimmed some things a little bit, not a whole just a little bit though. 

Final Thoughts: Alien: Romulus is a very solid addition to the Alien franchise. I was excited for the movie, but I wasn’t over the moon with excitement the way other people were. Fede Alvarez did a great job with the environment building and creating this tension from beginning to end. The vibe and tone of the movie are great, I loved the characters. There’s a few things the movie does with the CGI and the third that aren’t the best. But if you love this franchise, if you were curious in checking this movie out…you have to watch it!

The Score: 8.7/10 (B+)