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If you read my first impressions of this film, you’ll know that I went in only seeing the first trailer and knowing very little about the film. In fact, the only thing I knew about it was that it takes place between ALIEN and the sequel ALIENS. The trailer made it seem like we were going to be in for a wild ride the whole way through…and we were.
First off, you don’t really have to have seen the other ALIEN movies to understand this one. Although I don’t see why you wouldn’t because they’re all so good. But in terms of story, it’s not really necessary. However, there are a lot of nods to the first ALIEN film that you would miss but have no real impact to anything other than a cool feature. For context, ALIEN: Romulus takes place around 20 years after the first ALIEN film and roughly 37 or so years before ALIENS. Yup…a big time gap. But this film isn’t just made for the fans with special Easter egg nods, this film actually fits within the ALIEN anthology.
ALIEN: Romulus shows us that the Xenomorph from ALIEN actually survived the airlock blow initiated by Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver). The Xenomorph gets recovered from space and is brought over to Weyland-Yutani’s Research station for experimentation. Thus setting up the horror to come later. To put it simply, a group of young individuals are looking for a way out of a mining planet and find that a old ship (Romulus) is drifting above their planet with cryo chambers enough for them all to hypersleep while they set off to their new destination. Once they connect to the ship, it’s all downhill from there as they discover things have gone horribly wrong. Remember that Xenomorph I mentioned earlier that they recovered and experimented on? Well, it got loose and murdered the crew, laid facehugger eggs and made a massive Xenomorph hive, if you will, aboard the ship.
David Jonsson in 'Alien: Romulus'. PHOTO: EVERETT
Not going to lie, the face huggers steal the show here. There's a scene in particular where you're on the edge of your seat the entire time and the way they do this brings a new scare to a classic monster. As for the other scares, I actually wish they were done better. I was really hoping for some hardcore alien carnage in all its gorified self but, sadly, I felt this lacked that. There’s a few good scenes but nothing like the original and coming from the director of Evil Dead, we should definitely have seen more. They marketed this movie as the scariest movie of the year. Not sure I agree with that. It’s not really scary as it is more suspenseful.
In terms of characters, there's great performances all around. The standout being David Jonsson who plays the android "Andy". Absolutly tremendous performance from him. The main character we follow is "Rain" played by Cailee Spaeny. After learning that she hasn't actually met her working hours in the mining colony, she heads towards her group of friends who eventually find a way out of the planet and into their impending doom. Her performance is actually pretty well throughout the film mimicking a young Sigourney Weaver, figuratively speaking. Another actress, who's role came prominent in the third act, was Dora the Explorer herself, Isabella Merced, who played "Kay". Despite being quiet for the most of the first and second act, she ultimately becomes responsible for the half human/half alien xenamorph at the end. This is as every bit as frightening as it sounds.
How about that Cameo?
No, not Sigourney Weaver. We're talking about the late Ian Holm, who is reprised as "Rook" from the original ALIEN through facial and vocal reference. Some would say the visual effects used to re-create him were just "okay". I thought they did a tremendous job on the matter. Just goes to how you how far technology has come (for better or for worse). His character plays a pivotal role as he ends up giving Andy a new directive which ultimately leads to him sacrificing others in the group "for the good of the company". I honestly think his character was not needed in this film. If they had taken his part out, they could've easily had made a new storyline where they all eventually die. I, personally, think filmmakers bringing back deceased actors is starting to become a money grab. Not every time though. Sometimes, it's necessary but most of the time, it's for the fans.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is, yet, another great installment to the Alien anthology. While these characters are fresh, the environment is not. The movie action is predictable, of course, but there's actually a few new ways they delivered the suspense and scares here and I was all for it. As I said before, the facehuggers stole the show, which is probably why they're featured on most of the posters for this film. I wish we would've gotten more xenamorph carnage but I'll take this. There's definitely some gore to this film, as expected. One scene will make you probably squint your eyes a bit but that's the beauty of these films. Is it the scariest movie of the year? Nah. But it definitely will take you on a ride. Definitely worth a watch.
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