Directed by: Fede Álvarez
Distributed by: 20th Century Pictures
Written by Taylor Baker
30/100
It’s 2024, and the Star Wars, Predator, Avatar, Planet of the Apes, and Alien franchises launched in the last 50 or so years are no longer synonymous with Fox; under the 20th Century Fox banner, now they all belong to the all-consuming corporate conglomerate that is Disney. You, like me, might have thought that a horror filmmaker coming in to give a “fresh” rendition of the franchise could be invigorating. Especially with an up-and-coming performer like Cailee Spaeny in the lead. Unfortunately, “Alien: Romulus” is a middling and neutered affair—both an oversimplification and a gratuitous genre exercise. Oh no, we’ve never seen a young woman running down dark hallways, making questionable choices to protect characters that are more vulnerable than her while bad guys are in pursuit! How original!
Álvarez’s film oversimplifies the mechanics and plot machinations of the Alien universe; his interpretation of the breeding and eating behaviors reads like someone who had one clear vision of doing a single action or event in a film rather than focusing on how his choices set a tone that builds on itself and incorporates a threat or the feeling of dread. He’s more or less a gimmick filmmaker, demonstrated most clearly when repurposing “Dead Space” game mechanics or presenting Giger’s artistic influence in an overly pornographic and unsexual way. For a movie with pregnancy, phallic heads, multiple romances, and xenomorph mouths punching through human flesh, it is oddly neutered.
From the start, “Romulus” seems false. The film opens with Cailee Spaeny’s Rain and David Jonnson’s Andy on the mining colony Jackson’s Star, a place of desperation, with its citizenry shackled by indentured servitude under the crushing heel of the invisible “empire” and dreams of a lovely earth-like planet with foliage and a sun. You could place these mechanics before last year’s “The Creator,” at the beginning of “Star Wars: Rogue One,” or in a future adaptation of an off-world Blade Runner film. That’s not to say these narrative mechanics are inexcusable. In the right hands, they’re actually very effective tools. The hollowness and the going through the motions of their depiction compromises “Romulus.” Whether it’s the lack of ingratiating this meager lifestyle while being forced to work in a mining colony to the characters convincingly over the two hours, or Spaeny’s Rain delivering an imbecilic line about how she had been to Yvaga–pause for dramatic effect–in her dreams, Álvarez demonstrates a lack of tonal control or consistency. He’s an ebb-and-flow filmmaker, building to plot dumps or jump scares but failing to emblazon and enrich what’s between those moments.
For some sci-fi lovers, Álvarez’s work will read as an abomination. It has the parts of some of the best narratives in space but without the balance, cohesiveness, and precise execution that has made them timeless. It’s a failure as a film, even if it’s not a flop. As a bit of profitable early marketing for 20th Century Studios as they build to television creator Noah Hawley’s (“Fargo” and “Legion”) next television series, “Alien: Earth,” it’s not a bad marketing stunt. We’re all under the boot of an all-consuming empire, indeed. If only this finished product didn’t remind one quite so much of its final villain.
“Alien: Romulus” Trailer
You can follow more of Taylor’s thoughts on film on Letterboxd, Twitter, and Rotten Tomatoes.