Alien(s)

Alien: Romulus (2024) is yet another legacy sequel from Hollywood's Sequel Factory. That said, it generates genuine scares, has strong performances from its young cast, showcases well-crafted traditional animatronics, puppetry, makeup and prosthetics, and miniature effects, and leaves me wanting more. Forty-five years after the release of the 1979 original, Alien: Romulus feels like a return to basics while continuing to expand on its established universe, akin to how the franchise's first sequel Aliens did in 1986. Having recently watched the original two installments in the franchise, Ridley Scott's original Alien and James Cameron's Aliens back-to-back on Disney+/Hulu, I thought it more than appropriate to finally share my thoughts on not only the newest installment but on the original two.

Alien stands the test of time as a gritty, claustrophobic horror movie in space thanks to its nail-biting tension and atmosphere thanks to Ridley Scott's masterful direction and pacing, gripping performances, especially from Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, its graphic kills, Jerry Goldsmith's ominous musical themes and score, and H.R. Giger's immediately terrifying and iconic creature design that continues to inspire countless knock-offs to this day (10 out of 10).

Writer-director James Cameron's Aliens takes what worked in the original and not only ups the ante by throwing Ripley into accompanying and eventually leading a troupe of macho and ammo-heavy but emotionally unprepared soldiers into a human colony facility on the planet LV-426 crawling with xenomorphs, but Cameron adds a layer of emotional depth to this franchise through Ripley's newfound maternal relationship with the young human colonist survivor Newt (played by Carrie Henn) and expands upon the universe's lore with the nefarious Weyland-Yutani Corporation that exploits the xenomorphs for scientific research at the expense of human lives. Weaver's Oscar-nominated performance as a tough-as-nails yet emotionally vulnerable Ripley coupled with the state-of-the-art creature, animatronic, and puppetry effects as brought to life by the late Stan Winston and his special effects team at Stan Winston Studio, the Vietnam War metaphors in Cameron's tight script filled with punchy and memorable dialogue, and the late James Horner's propulsive action-oriented musical score make Aliens a worthy follow-up to an all-time horror classic, and a great test run for Cameron's own Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) (10 out of 10).

Several spoilers will be covered in this review, so this is your final warning. With all that out of the way, on with my review of the newest installment in the franchise, Alien: Romulus, which timeline-wise, is set in between the first two movies; a simultaneous spin-off and midquel that also references elements from every Alien film, if you will.

This film follows a young and orphaned human colonist named Rain Carradine (played by Cailee Spaeny) and Andy (played by David Jonsson), an android programmed by Rain's late father to serve as her adoptive brother, as they and a group of friends made up of Rain's ex-boyfriend Tyler Harrison (played by Archie Renaux), Kay Harrison, Tyler's pregnant sister (played by Isabela Merced), Bjorn, Tyler and Kay's cousin (played by Spike Fearn), and Navarro, a pilot and Bjorn's adopted sister (played by Aileen Wu) escape their work contract with the Weyland-Yutani Corporation on the planet LV-410 by boarding and taking a ship called the Corbelan IV to access and scavenge a seemingly abandoned Weyland-Yutani station called Renaissance split into two sections, Romulus and Remus, to help them embark on a multi-year journey to the far-off and idyllic planet Yvaga III. However, dark and horrifying surprises await them inside...

Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson shine as Rain and Andy, respectively. Spaeny brings a similar and equally memorable young vulnerability to Rain as she gave to Priscilla Presley in last year's Priscilla. Simultaneously, she exudes such a strong screen presence, emotional range, and physical agility during the action sequences that she fits right in with the larger Alien universe. I cannot wait to see more of her character alongside Andy in this franchise, for their arcs are about as compelling as Ellen Ripley's. Also, since it is sacrilegious to awaken Ripley from cryosleep in between movies without disrupting the overall timeline for nostalgia's sake, any further adventures with Rain and Andy will be a perfect substitute.

Speaking of whom, Jonsson's Andy is the perfect companion to Rain for he is incredibly likable, sympathetic, and loyal to a fault, especially when he gets picked on by Bjorn, who has a bad history with androids. However, upon encountering the Romulus station's acid-blood-damaged android science officer Rook (played by a digitally resurrected Ian Holm, more on him later), and receiving Rook's control chip and upgrade in intelligence to gain further information about the space station, Andy becomes virtually reprogrammed to act like any other android working for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation; intelligent, yet cold, calculating, and apathetic to human suffering. Not to fret, for Andy does not remain this way through the entire movie, but Jonsson excels at seamlessly displaying a range of personalities and emotions in a subtle yet convincing way.

The other actors and their characters are solid enough, but I was most impressed by Isabela Merced's performance as Kay, who is expecting a child throughout the movie and completely sold me during the movie's more body horror-oriented scenes from her terrified reactions and screams. While some of her decisions during the third act are questionable (more on that later), I was nevertheless compelled by her strong performance and character arc as a yet-to-be mother willing to do anything to survive the perilous situations she finds herself in.

Don't Breathe (2016) director Fede Álvarez's decision to return this movie to the franchise's roots of being a gritty and claustrophobic space horror film with extensive usage of practical effects is exactly what this franchise needed to find a new audience and bring back fans disappointed and turned off by the previous movies. Álvarez's skills at creating tension, suspense, and scares through dark settings and silence are a natural fit for this franchise, whose tagline is "In space no one can hear you scream."

Side note: the fact that Disney, the parent company of 20th Century Studios (formally Fox) and the franchise with it, originally wanted this film to be a streaming exclusive on Hulu like 2022's Prey, a well-received prequel to Predator (1987), makes me further question the intellectual competence of movie studio executives in general. It was not until 2023 when Disney had an abysmal year at the box office with many high-profile flops, that Disney gave this movie a theatrical release on August 16th, 2024. Ultimately, I am glad this movie did well critically and commercially alongside the R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) released a month prior. I am also surprised it took Disney this long to finally embrace their newly acquired R-rated franchises to make a profit.

The visual effects and production design for this movie are top-notch, especially those seen during the Corbelan IV's launch sequence (it's nice to see miniature effects, and late 1970s-era computer graphics on the ships' monitors, as well as elements from the late Ron Cobb's production design for the ships and their interiors from the original carried over here), as are the practical animatronic and puppetry effects for the iconic xenomorphs, facehuggers, and chestbursters which look as good and at times, better than they did in the original two films. One fascinating and ultimately satisfying behind-the-scenes anecdote reveals that the original special effects team under the late Stan Winston from Aliens reunited to create Romulus' creature effects and their passion for the craft is on full display here, for not only do they look far more tangible and menacing than a CGI monster, but it is perfectly in line with the visual aesthetic set by the original two movies while making something newer and horrifying.

Speaking of which, one of the new creatures in this franchise is a mutated human-xenomorph hybrid credited as the "Offspring" that is a result of Kay being badly injured and desperately takes the Z-01, a black goo from a facehugger that creates the xenomorphs, from Andy (still under the influence of Rook) to recover her body. However, soon after she gives birth to the "Offspring", it grows to be over 7 feet tall, with pale white skin, pitch black eyes, a mouth that, when it opens, resembles that of the xenomorph itself, and a pointed tail. Its height and overall appearance (brought to life by prosthetic makeup applied to 7 foot 6-inch Romanian former basketball player Robert Bobroczkyi) is a uniquely intimidating creature in its own right and strangely, is a visual improvement over the last human-xenomorph hybrid, the Newborn from Alien Resurrection (1997). Despite being a throwback concept-wise, its scenes nevertheless left an impression.

Benjamin Wallfisch's atmospheric score distinguishes itself from the other entries in the franchise by injecting some brief instances of youthful wonder into the movie, especially during the Corbelan IV's launching sequence where the characters see the sun for the first time after living all their lives on a perpetually gloomy and rainy planet (which somewhat reminds me of Ridley Scott's other science-fiction masterpiece, Blade Runner (1982)). Simultaneously, Wallfisch tastefully reuses not only Jerry Goldsmith's foreboding themes from Alien and the more action-oriented cues from James Horner's Aliens score but also a couple of Harry Gregson-Williams' tracks from Ridley Scott's Alien prequel Prometheus (2012) during the scenes where the Z-01 is introduced to the new characters.

Moving on to the one aspect of this movie that most critics took issue with: the posthumous resurrection of the late Ian Holm, who passed away in 2020, via CGI and AI-powered deepfake technology. According to the filmmakers, they received the approval of Holm's estate and his widow, who admitted that her late husband had wished to have one final performance before his passing and loved playing the treacherous android Ash in the original film. The character of Rook, an android science officer akin to Ash, was brought to life via a combination of practical animatronics and puppetry, with the aforementioned deepfake technology recreating and rendering Holm's facial likeness and vocals (Rook was voiced by voice actor Daniel Betts, whose dialogue was then modified to sound like Holm circa 1979 based on archival audio from Alien).

I didn't mind Ian Holm's posthumous appearance in this movie, for I admire the filmmakers' respect toward Holm and his estate's wishes. However, I have mixed thoughts on the visuals used to bring him back to life. Whenever the camera was focused directly on him and when he spoke, I knew I was looking at a deepfake of Ian Holm, so I had the persistent thought of 'This is too good to be true' going through my head, so it took me a while to get used to it. That said, the facial and vocal recreations are impressive, especially of Holm's distorted voice like how Ash was during his final scenes in the movie. However, during Rook's final scenes where his face was on a ship's monitor, his animatronic face was about as convincing as one of the Presidents from The Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World.

In conclusion, while Alien: Romulus may not be the best entry in the Alien franchise (the honor goes to the first two), it is nevertheless a strongly directed and acted installment with plenty of great visuals that succeeds in making me look forward to seeing what new planets and characters the two new leads will encounter over time. Given that Fede Álvarez is currently working on a direct sequel, I am more optimistic about those chances. Perhaps he and Prey director Dan Trachtenberg can work together to co-direct a proper adaptation of the Aliens vs. Predator crossover comics, but I am getting ahead of myself. My point being, with the critical and box office success of this latest installment, I am glad Disney is finally utilizing Fox's R-rated franchises to not only make box office bucks but to introduce a new generation of fans to these iconic film franchises, myself included. Will all this goodwill last for long? Probably not, but the creative possibilities are still unlimited.

Final Score: 8 out of 10