We have to preface this with review with an explanation. I am, for the most part, against most sequels, remakes, reimaginings, and the like and refuse to support them financially. Fortunately, I was able to see the newest addition to the Alien franchise due to winning movie passes from Movie Reelist (Thanks!), so I was able to see the movie in the theater guilt free.

My second preface is that I am a big fan of the Xenomorph. It is one of my favorite horror villains. I have two 2 foot alien heads by my fireplace. I mean, I’m right up there with Ash when he said “It’s the perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.” Naturally, this makes watching most of the movies in the franchise a bit…shall we say difficult. So it was with no small amount of trepidation that I went into the theater yesterday.

At first, I was absolutely blown away by the film. It is visually stunning. Romulus captures the look of the first two Alien movies perfectly. It fully feels like something that takes places in between those films. This is one of the (many) problems I have with Ridley Scott’s recent additions to the franchise — they just don’t look like something that fits the timeline. For this film, director Fede Alvarez pulled in some of the F/X crew from the original film and it shows.

For those who are unaware, Alien: Romulus takes place chronologically between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). It follows a group of young adults who are financially indentured to a mining outpost run by the Weyland-Yutani corporation. In order to escape their horrible, sunless life, they plan to sneak aboard a derelict space station and steal some cryo-tubes which will allow them to sleep for the nine years it will take them to reach a new home far from Weyland-Yutani’s grasp. This is a bit of a departure from earlier films, with the cast skewing much younger than what we are used to.

The stand out performance of these has to be David Johnson who portrays the artificial life form Andy. We’ve seen maniacally obsessive androids. We’ve seen helpful, almost soulful androids. This is the first time we’ve seen a glitchy android who favors dad jokes and I am all in.

Naturally, once aboard the station they encounter everyone’s favorite alien life form (apologies to Gordon Shumway).

It is at this point that the film becomes a bit of a mixed bag. There are still some great, original scenes, but the viewer is also “treated” to a hodge-podge of the franchise’s greatest hits. By the end of the movie, I was less engaged in the plot and spending more time thinking “yep, that happened in Alien,” “Oh, that’s a callback to Aliens,” and even “wow, there’s that image from the third film.” There are nods to every movie, with the exception of the questionably cannon AVP movies. At times these work, at other times, not so much.

Alvarez’ horror background is apparent in some of the more gruesome shots, especially those involving the Xeno’s acid blood. There is a particular scene featuring the character everyone hates that made me mutter “aw hell yeah” under my breath. There is plenty of suspense and some great chase scenes involving the Xenomorph in different stages of its life cycle.


If you want to go in totally blind, skip over this next part and scroll right down to the rating at the end.


HERE THERE BE SPOILERS


David Johnson is called upon to play essentially two characters: Andy as a messed up, developmentally stunted android and as a fully functioning representative of Weyland-Yutani. While not quite on par with the amazing work that Tatiana Maslany did in Orphan Black, I thought it was much better than Michael Fassbender’s David/Walter roles.

Andy is not the only android we see, and I am still divided on my feelings regarding Rook, who is the same model as Ash from the first film. At times the visual of Ian Holm (who regrettable passed in 2020) is spot on, at others it is uncanny valley disturbing. Daniel Betts’ vocal performance very close to Holm’s.

Speaking of visuals that are disturbing but not in a good way — the final boss battle with the giant smiling white humanoid Xeno/human/black goo creature: Ugh. Just Ugh. I applaud the fake-out of setting up the “we’re in the cryo-tubes and the movie is over” scene only to have one more task to complete, but that thing was just awful. It looked terrible and brings to mind the hybrid thing from Alien: Resurrection and no one wants to think about that movie.

There are some unique visuals here, high scores going to Xenomorph acid blood floating in zero gravity and a horde of attacking Facehuggers that fans will absolutely love. Also, there is a bit of splattery gore that made my horror heart happy.



FINAL THOUGHTS


Alien: Romulus is a worthy addition to the franchise, soaring well above the worst of the sequels and prequels. Although it suffers from being far too series-referential, there are some original ideas and arresting special effects that help to balance it out. If you are a fan of the look and the sound of the franchise, go see it in the theater, otherwise, you can wait a couple of weeks for this one to hit your favorite streaming service.

3 1/2 Ovipositors out of 5.

Hailing from the motor city Detroit, Michael Cieslak is a lifetime reader and writer of horror, mystery, and speculative fiction. He has served as an officer in the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers and is the editor of the Erie Tales anthologies. Michael is the Editor in Chief of Dragon’s Roost Press and his works have appeared in a number of collections including DOA: Extreme Horror, Dead Science, Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes, ), and the collaborative steampunk novel Army of Brass.  He is a kilt enthusiast. And he’s killin’ it over at thedragonsroost.biz.