Availability: Showing widely in theaters; streaming expected in November or December; see JustWatch here for future rent or purchase options.
Don’t trust anyone over 30
Sigourney Weaver was only 30 years old when she starred in Ridley Scott’s seminal 1979 “Alien,” but her character, Ripley, was a mature woman, a feminist icon, and a leader—in that case, of men. Cailee Spaeny (“Priscilla” [2023], “Bad Times at the El Royale” [2018] and “Civil War” [2024, as the naïve, determined, wanna-be photo-journalist]) was 25 when “Alien: Romulus” was filmed last year in Budapest, but her character, Rain, plays as a teenager (our 18-year-old companion thought she might be 15) and, while competent enough and possessed of a steely, inner intensity, she’s never compelling as a leader, of men or women.
Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her android brother Andy (David Jonsson)
are the film's emotional core.
“Beverly Hills 90210” gets Lost in Space.
Indeed, most of Rain’s coterie are young folks like her, a clique of boyfriends and girlfriends, siblings (one an e-brother, an android), and cousins, indicating the film is designed to appeal to Millennials or an even younger cohort. Instead of a hierarchical group led by elders, these 20-somethings conspire to leave the mining colony of Jackson’s Star (a stand-in for capitalist exploitation), highjack a “hauler,” retrieve cryostasis chambers from a derelict space station, and head for the planet Yvaga. “Beverly Hills 90210” gets Lost in Space. The only people over 30 are unpleasant and—as Jack Weinberg declared during the 1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement—not to be trusted. (Half the space station is named “Romulus,” in what could be an interesting reference, only it doesn’t seem to relate to anything except maybe the beginning of a new civilization. For a reason that will be obvious, there is unlikely to be an “Alien: Remus.”)
Uruguayan Fede Alvarez, 46, right,
speaks at ComicCon - is the sci-fi/
horror also a comedy?
Youth has prevailed, too, in Disney’s choice of a director. Uruguayan Fede Alvarez (“Evil Dead” [2013] and “Don’t Breathe” [2016] established his horror directing chops) is “only” 46, though he did consult regularly with Ridley Scott, “only” 86, who directed Weaver in the original and agreed with Alvarez that the already 6-episode franchise “needs waking up.” Given that injunction, there isn’t all that much “waking up”—more like trying to get the teens out of bed. Set chronologically between the first and second “Alien” films, “Alien: Romulus” flaunts the big and clunky clanging-doors analog technology unveiled in 1977’s “Star Wars.” The Xenomorph creatures are the same slimy, gooey, acid-dripping bunch that Ripley encountered 45 viewer-years ago, and as tots they still enjoy bursting through the chests of the unsuspecting, though this time it’s a rare movie-goer who doesn’t know what’s coming.
Left, Kay (Isabella Merced), who is threatened by one of the slimy, dripping Xenomorphs.
When screaming Kay (Isabella Merced) gives birth to a creepy, ghost-like Xenomorph-human hybrid called The Offspring (representing scientific hubris), it may be a first for the franchise, though there’s nothing like the first time, 56 years ago, when the offspring was Rosemary’s baby. The scaling up of the Xenomorphs from fetuses to The Offspring is one example of Alvarez’s effort to lace CGI with real action. And 7’7” Romanian basketball player Robert Bobroczkyi in the role of that hybrid creature is one of the better casting moves.
Guns once again reign supreme, as if the monsters were attacking Dodge City in the 1870s.
One would imagine that more than a century of scientific progress (the film is set in the mid-22nd century) would have generated some new weaponry, maybe something designed just to kill Xenomorphs. Instead, guns once again reign supreme, as if the monsters were attacking Dodge City in the 1870s. It’s very American to be creative with the ordinary, like Charles Lindbergh charting his 1927 course over the Atlantic with a piece of string and a globe, and our protagonists follow suit, adjusting the room temperature so the gooey things can’t sense human presence, and cleverly using zero gravity to render their acid-spitting less than effective. For a brief time (too brief to be compelling), the remaining survivors track the conceit of “The Quiet Place” films, as if Xenomorphs locate their victims only through sound.
Cailee Spaeny's Midwestern earnestness keeps the film from sliding into satire.
Tyler (Archie Renaux), here behind Rain (Spaeny), is Kay's brother and a former boyfriend of Rain, but you'd be hard-pressed to see much, if any, evidence of those relationships. Tyler and Kay are among the secondary characters who are undeveloped and uninteresting.
Even if not particularly innovative, “Alien: Romulus” delivers on several fronts. Despite its familiarity, there are plenty of “jump scares” to stiffen the backs of all but the most jaded viewers. The android science officer from a previous expedition, Rook (made to look like the late Ian Holm in “Alien,” voice by David Betts), is a worthy villain—lacking a lower body, yet passionately committed to his programmed ideology/mission that calls for speeding up human evolution to save the species—or some version of it.
The film’s emotional core—the relationship between Rain, the plucky, orphaned heroine, and Andy (David Jonsson), Rain’s surrogate Black brother—is also worthy, though it plays off similar relationships between humans and androids/replicants/artificial intelligence in such films as “Blade Runner” (1982), “Her” (2013), and “After Yang” (2021). And off racial issues. Is Andy a real “brother” to Rain? Is he an emotive, somewhat simple guy (bad puns proliferate) or a technical wizard? As originally programmed by Rain’s father, Andy is friendly, caring, and protective of Rain, and his android qualities are essential if the group’s journey is to succeed. Reprogrammed (it seemed like a good idea at the time), he’s a cold, calculating company man.
Rain struggles to understand an “Andy” she’s never known.
Although she ought to know better, to see Andy’s transformation as the purely mechanical matter that it is, Rain struggles to understand an “Andy” she’s never known. Her open-handed response to Andy’s callous disregard for human life constitutes the film’s most dramatic, non-horror moment, as Rain, too, becomes someone else, stepping out of her survivor-mode, controlled persona to take on, however briefly, issues of existential importance.
A small-town Missouri girl, Spaeny brings to her role a Midwestern earnestness that keeps the film from sliding into parody or satire.
Spaeny is perfect for that moment. A small-town Missouri girl, she brings to her role a Midwestern earnestness (“there’s no cynicism or sarcasm where I come from”) that keeps the film from sliding into parody or satire—a very real possibility with a 7th-generation sequel—and compensates somewhat for an uninteresting and undeveloped cast of secondary characters (there is virtually no backstory, depriving viewers of an entertaining set-up). Her Midwestern reserve becomes all the more salient when it’s abandoned in the confrontation with Andy.
“Alien: Romulus” lacks the weightiness of the great sci-fi horror films (make your own list, but start with “Alien”). The existential threats are recycled from literature and prior films, be they human scientific hubris (Mary Shelley’s 1818 “Frankenstein”), computers taking over from humans (Hal in 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”), or affection for a replicant (“Blade Runner” 1982)—making them unsurprising this time around. While titillating fans of the series with “Easter eggs,” the result again is too much recycling, too much that’s familiar. It’s Spaeny’s performance—and those “jump scares,” of course—that are just enough to make a trip to the multiplex worthwhile.
He says: Aimed for the young, who apparently have low expectations.
She says: The acting isn’t good enough.
Date: 2024
Director: Fede Alvarez
Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Isabela Merced, Daniel Betts, Robert Bobroczkyi, Archie Renaux
Runtime: 119 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Other Awards: One nomination to date
Comments