ALIEN: ROMULUS

Alien: Romulus effortlessly captures the aesthetics of the franchise but director Fede Alvarez riffs too much on fan favourite tropes, before venturing off into a bonkers direction that I truly hated.

Perhaps better than any other movie in the series since the seminal 1979 original Alien: Romulus opens with a scene that masterfully shows that in space no one can hear you scream. The tone, the build-up, the sound and production design subsequently reveal a picture that has every intent of creating an exciting new, nerve-shredding adventure within the Alien universe. And yet somehow, along the way, the movie trips, stumbles and falls flat on its face.

The narrative isn’t the problem. On the contrary: the premise of half a dozen twentysomethings climbing aboard an abandoned spacecraft in orbit around the mining planet they long to leave behind, gives Alien: Romulus an intriguing heist vibe. It’s a fresh idea that writer-director Fede Alvarez gets some decent mileage out of. Unfortunately about forty minutes in he decides to forego the new path in order to link the film needlessly overtly to a character from the 1979 movie.

I will not spoil the surprise for you – and surprise you it will, that is all but certain – but this plot element immediately breaks the film’s spell. To me, Alvaraz here blatantly crosses the delicate line between fan fiction and actual in-universe coherence, not helped by the CGI-enhanced execution, which borders on the disturbing.

From this point on, ever more fan-pleasing references creep into Alien: Romulus, as the focus shifts from a heist narrative to an out-and-out horror film. Despite the best efforts of Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson – the two standouts in the cast – the picture steamrolls towards an entertaining but unimpressive blood- and-guts finale that has one final trick on its sleeve.

That final act twist – a true gobsmacking gamechanger for the franchise – will either delight you or make you scream in annoyed agony. For me it was the latter, as in a series that has seen its fair share of left turns the final sequence of events in Alien: Romulus is its biggest ‘jump the shark’ moment by some distance.

release: 2024

director: Fede Alvarez

starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Isabela Merced, Aileen Wu