Alien: Romulus (2024)

Did we need yet another entry in the ever expanding xenomorph universe? Absolutely not. Did we want one? Well, on the basis of how poor Alien: Covenant (2017) was, definitely not.

Taking the reigns for potentially more impending doom in terms of Alien flicks is horror director Fede Alvarez, whose previous work includes the fairly redundant Evil Dead remake (2013) and the pretty flat The Girl in the Spiders Web (2018). So all round, the omens weren't good; then came the news that Romulus was to be set in between the events of Ridley Scott's original (and best) Alien (1979) and James Cameron's excellent follow up Aliens (1986), almost openly inviting comparison and criticism.

So what a surprise it was then, to be pretty entertained and at times (even more impressively) chilled by Alvarez's sidequel. We begin on a mining planet, where we meet a group of second generation inhabitants of this hellish community in a place that never sees the sun, and the world building of the planet is encapsulating, forcing you to smell the dirt and fully appreciate the predicament of Cailee Spaeny's Rain and her android 'brother' Andy (a really excellent turn from Rye Lane's [2023] David Jonsson) as they try desperately to work their way out of their environment- most of the character's parents are dead due to mining accidents or lung disease- by acquiring enough hours work to qualify for placement elsewhere.

Unsurprisingly, the system's rigged against them, and once they fully realise that, they join a rag tag bunch of misfits in an attempt to board a seemingly abandoned spaceship hovering above the planet, and escape to pastures greener. None of it makes any sense of course, it's all just stuff and nonsense to get us to a place where aliens can run riot.

But the difference here is that we're back to basic nonsense. Although I still very much hold up Prometheus (2012) as an interesting film and one that almost justifies its existence, Ridley Scott's insistence on attempting to explain why the aliens existed in the first place eventually resulted in Alien: Covenant, a film so unnecessary it led to the cancellation of the proposed trilogy.

Alvarez makes no attempt to delve into any of the philosophy of the Aliens, this is very much Alien: Greatest Hits. Crucially, we don't see any aliens at all for the first half hour or so, reminding you of what made the original so good. Less is more, and inference is frequently creepier than out and out jump scares. We all know what awaits on the ship, and the mayhem dually arrives, nodding to almost every Alien film you can think of. These callbacks could be irritating; instead they remind you fondly of what's come before, meaning that Romulus must be doing something right. When we eventually see a fully grown xenomorph it's filmed with the respect it's garnered- and it's chilling.

There's many highlights including facehuggers in water (a nod to the underwater scene in Alien: Resurrection [1997]), an incident in which characters have to creep through a room filled with facehuggers- although the return of an old face using technology proves de-aging has a long way to go in terms of CGI, and is a fairly needless addition here.

The final quarter of Alien: Romulus is where it falls over itself. Incorporating elements of the engineers in Prometheus and the human/alien hybrids in Alien: Resurrection to form a final big bad is a stretch too far, and by this point I was wishing the film would just cease- it becomes overblown and faintly ridiculous with its revelations towards the end. Less is more as I have already stipulated, and if Romulus had been able to follow its own lead from its own first half, we might have ended up with a more rounded film.

However, considering the enormous reservations I had going into this, (having thought that the trailer looked pretty dreary) it's almost astonishing that Alvaraz has pulled off an Alien film that had me glued to the screen for at least two thirds of its running time. Stripping down the extra elements that bogged down previous installments proves an excellent decision, and Alvarez also pulls great performances from his main cast. So, almost unbelievably, I have to take my hat off to everyone involved, because far from being the disaster I anticipated, Alien: Romulus proves to be something perhaps long since thought impossible; a new, decent, Alien film. 7.3/10