Vague Visages’ Alien: Romulus review contains minor spoilers. Fede Álvarez’s 2024 movie features Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson and Archie Renaux. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews.

MU/TH/UR! We have lift-off! Forty-five years after Alien (1979) and two perplexing sequels, H.R. Giger’s biomechanical hellion bursts from the depths of its unearthly lair. No longer cluttering the franchise movie narrative are heavy-handed philosophic concepts and autosexual narcissistic flute-playing. In Alien: Romulus, male characters don’t get lost in a cave for nearly two-thirds of the movie, only to die by stupidity and lack of creativity. Instead, director Fede Álvarez gives the masses exactly what they wanted all along. The latest Alien film abounds in chest bursts, face-hugging, deaths by tongue drills and the ongoing threat that a giant spiked tail will take down the main protagonists. This isn’t to say that Alien: Romulus is without substance. No genuine Alien flick would be complete without an emotional throughline or an insidious conspiracy to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Álvarez serves up a ragtag crew for the focal monster to devour, and — with producer Sir Ridley Scott riding shotgun — he delivers a first-rate revamp of xenomorph and space jockey mythology.

From the get-go in Alien: Romulus, it’s apparent that Álvarez has no intention of fooling around. Morbid wailing fills the film’s prologue — an unholy inverse of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) — after which viewers plunge headfirst into the belly of the beast, Jackson’s Star. Comprising the misery of this Weyland-Yutani mining colony are stifling air pollution, pitch black skies and no chance of getting off the rock as the corporation stacks the deck in their favor. But young Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her band of fellow junkyard scavengers — Kay (Isabela Merced), Tyler (Archie Renaux) and Bjorn (Spike Fearn) — have other plans in mind. To their good fortune, a decommissioned spacecraft enters Jackson Star’s orbit bearing cryostasis pods which could enable their travel to planet Yvaga, Rain’s dream destination. The only catch is that it requires Spaeny’s character to use her synthetic and adopted brother, Andy (David Jonson), as a means to interact with the ship’s MU/TH/UR computer program, endangering his survival. It turns out that the alleged spaceship is not a ship at all, but rather a space station that contains a deadly secret — the corpse of a Xenomorph, formerly in the wreckage of the Nostromo, along with a multitude of face huggers to boot. Finding themselves in harm’s way, Rain and her friends must place their faith in the amoral half-dead synthetic Rook (portrayed by Daniel Betts and voice likeness of Ian Holm). However, as the protagonists delve deeper into the Romulus and Remus space stations, Rook’s true intentions surface. This pushes Rain to the brink and forces Andy to reevaluate where his true  allegiances lie — with his sister or with Rook and his creator, Weyland-Yutani. What sells the overall Alien: Romulus experience is the genuine authenticity of the cast itself.

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Not since the original 1979 classic has an Alien ensemble cast packed quite the punch, and much credit goes to the aforementioned Spaeny. Taking up the mantle of the Ellen Ripley archetype is not an easy task, but Alien: Romulus’ lead actress proves throughout the film to exude bravado while displaying vulnerability and a down-to-earth nature. Rain is a genuine coal miner’s daughter, and this natural sense of grit makes the entire cast so appealing. A subtle but potent example is the moment when Tyler’s cousin, Bjorn, lights a slim cigarette right in the middle of liftoff, only to immediately inhale the entirety of the stick. These characters aren’t the clean-cut, Apple store apparel scientists from Prometheus (2012). Instead, their style and mentality project total indifference. Alien: Romulus has the same grunge aesthetic that made the first three Alien films so relatable and one that Gen Z has retroactively adopted. If there is one shortcoming in the characterization department, it’s the group’s leader, Tyler. Álvarez and co-screenwriter Rodo Sayagues present Renaux’s character as a variant of Aliens’ Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn), a heroic macho type who is level-headed and soft-spoken. Throughout Alien: Romulus, Tyler mostly reacts to his surroundings and is largely subservient to the whims of Rain. He doesn’t bring intrigue to the table, largely coming across as a blank slate. This flaw could be the result of Álvarez staying too true to the typical Alien formula. He could have just as easily bypassed Tyler as he takes screen time away from the relationship between Rain and Andy.

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The sibling relationship between Rain and Andy feels reminiscent of John Steinbeck’s 1937 novella Of Mice and Men. In this case, Jonsson’s character takes up the role of Lennie — a naïve, likable person. He means well and wants to prove his self-worth to his older sibling but lacks the mental capacity and natural thought processes to protect himself, let alone others. In the case of Rain, Spaeny is quick on her feet to establish that while she cares deeply for her adopted robot brother, she also feels restrained by his handicaps and yearns for the day when he will be less co-dependent. A major strength of the Alien franchise has always been its examination of “motherhood.” But, by injecting the synthetic human element in Alien: Romulus, Álvarez takes it one step further, prompting his audience to consider the pros and cons of humans’ ability to co-exist with highly intelligent machines of the future. He does so organically, due in part to the chemistry that Spaeny and Jonsson have with one another. Álvarez achieves a clean break from the unnecessarily complicated and undercooked relationship which Elizabeth Shaw ( Noomi Rapace) and the android David (Michael Fassbender) share in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus series. Further fine-tuning the concepts which Prometheus presents and Alien: Covenant (2017) continues, he wisely chooses to inject callbacks that play to his strength as a body horror director. Alien: Romulus’ climax includes character action that will satisfy those yearning for more of the evolutionary Scott elements as well as those who just want a good old-fashioned monster fight. 

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Another major selling point is Alien: Romulus’ sound design. Sound mixing is, without a doubt, the backbone of the Alien franchise, and Alvarez’s 2024 franchise installment is no exception. The combination of the alien screeches and the non-diegetic hissing of acid blood is nerve-rattling and represents a fresh approach to creating terror, proving it’s not imperative to have a horde of monsters behind every corridor. Alien: Romulus’ visuals are a treat as well. By incorporating the Unreal Engine 5 technology, Álvarez creates scenarios that harken back to 2014’s Alien Isolation, a video game that uses similar technology; a callback to delight hardcore Alien fans. Even more impressive are the practical effects in Alien: Romulus. Álvarez wisely chooses Xenomorph basics — a guy in a rubber suit. In doing so, the monster’s actions again feel raw and unpredictable. Plus, the space station set pieces are a lot wider, which allows for a plethora of intense zero gravity scenes. 

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When Disney originally bought 20^th Century Fox, only to immediately put the Alien franchise on indefinite hold, it appeared to be the beginning of the end. This past weekend proves otherwise. Alvarez has returned franchise fans to familiar territory — the dark and claustrophobic confines of a spaceship with a clueless crew of space scavengers who end up relying upon not one but two androids to coach them in their life or death struggle against their merciless opponent. Alien: Romulus is a traditional thriller that elicits many of our most primal fears with each appearance of the Xenomorph. Alvarez doesn’t abandon Scott’s conceptual messages about monster identities, but he does confine them to specific and impactful moments. Alien: Romulus isn’t on the same level of franchise revamps such as the 1995 James Bond film Goldeneye, nor will it move the needle in the same manner as Marvel’s Avengers (2012), but it does provide the franchise with a means of moving forward and gifts audiences with exciting entertainment. If it’s time to move sci-fi plots beyond human struggles to control and co-exist with machines, Alien: Romulus brings these ideas to a serviceable conclusion. Before Xenomorphs take a back seat, Álvarez provides audiences with a monster whose bite is as strong as ever, and he also delivers horrific visuals that will give any horror fan a run for their money.

Peter Bell (@PeterGBell25) is a 2016 Master of Arts – Film Studies graduate of Columbia University School of Arts in New York City. His interests include film history, film theory and film criticism. Ever since watching TCM as a child, Peter has had a passion for film, always trying to add greater context to film for others. His favorite films include Chinatown, Blade Runner, Lawrence of Arabia, A Shot in the Dark and Inception. Peter believes movie theaters are still the optimal forum for film viewing, discussion and discovering fresh perspectives on culture.

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