The “Alien” series has long been considered to be one of the most interesting series of movies ever released. The first two films, “Alien” and “Aliens,” are both considered masterpieces of the horror and action genres. “Alien 3” and “Alien: Resurrection” are often left forgotten, while “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant” offer interesting new lore to the series as a whole. But six movies is a lot of movies, so when I heard they were releasing a new alien movie with a return to the more horror and action sides of the original two, I was modestly excited. So I went to see “Alien: Romulus,” and one thing is for certain: it is another very interesting movie. It is not perfect, but it does offer new things to the franchise for better or for worse.
The basic plot of the movie follows Rain, a down-on-her-luck Weyland-Yutani employee, and her glitchy android companion, Andy. Rain wishes to leave the mining planet of LV-410, but when her company extends her work contract, she forced to turn to her old flame, Tyler to get off planet. Tyler has a plan to steal cryogenic sleep pods from the company on its decommissioned twin space stations of Romulus and Remus. They only really need Andy, who has some of the access codes, to get on the space station. And so they leave, into jaws of terror, because there is a reason no one from the company is trying to stop the space stations from being destroyed by LV-410 rings.
To begin, one of the best parts of “Alien: Romulus” is its cinematography. Director Fede Álvarez knows how to shoot interesting-looking horror scenes, and his use of colors throughout the movie is incredibly. I feel like in films recently, bar a few exceptions, have lost the importance of good color grading in a film, something the originals understood, and something Álvarez breathes new life into. Plus, Álvarez offers some new ideas in the aliens-attacking-the-humans scenes, like this one scene where they use the alien acid blood, plus the space stations zero gravity, to show a really cool parkour scene, and another where the face huggers chase the crew around different parts of the space station.
The set design for the movie is also amazing. The planet that the main characters of the film live on is called LV-410, and it feels perfect for the overbearing, the evil, the almost dystopian company of Weyland-Yutani. The twin space stations, Romulus and Remus, are also amazing to look at, and have a design that allows the alien to hide within the scenery without us knowing it is there until it is too late. Space also looks amazing in this movie, for the few shots we see of it from inside the spaceships.
The two main characters in this movie are also both standouts. Andy the Android, played by David Jonsson, is especially great. While he initially plays the character as an extremely glitchy robot, his character goes through a lot in this movie, even changing his personality due to the uploading of an update to his system to be more calm and assertive, but also more cold and uncaring. He is both tragic, yet comedic, and a joy to see on the screen. Actress Cailee Spaney as Rain also gives an amazing performance. For a series so known for its female leads, Cailee Spaney stands right there beside great actresses before her. Her somewhat withdrawn approach to Rain’s character, while still bringing out emotion when she needs to really sell a scene, makes the movie better.
So I guess at this point you think: “Wow Miles, it sure does sound like you love this movie,” but no, there are a ton of problems with it. First, let’s talk about the other characters. This series is known for its ensemble casts, who get taken down one by one. You have, no, you need, to feel for these characters to really care about their deaths. It is sad to say, but none of them really achieve this. You have the ex-boyfriend Tyler, who is mostly okay, but the movie kind of makes you hate him for wanting to abandon Andy to his doom. And if Tyler’s somewhat rocky relationship with Andy is somewhat disagreeable to me, then imagine my hatred for the character Bjorn, his cousin, whose entire personality is hating on androids. Then there is Tyler’s pregnant sister, Kay, who feels like she should be doing way more throughout this movie but is kind of sidelined. And, last but certainly not least, there is Navarro. Navarro literally has no character traits. She only exists to have a really cool chest-bursting scene with Kay, and then nothing else. There are good ideas for characters in here, but they all just feel underdeveloped by the film.
Another major problem I have with the film somewhat relates to characters, but also kind of relates to something I hate to see in the film industry at large: in this movie, there is an antagonistic android who has been cut in half, and acts almost like an evil conscience for Andy, telling him the wrong things to do for the betterment of the company. This android is portrayed by an AI version of dead actor Ian Holmes, who famously portrayed the original android of the series, Ash. While the family did agree to allow his likeness to be used in such a way, it still feels a bit scummy, and takes away a job from a real actor. Also, it is not like the other actors in previous Alien movies who portrayed androids are dead. Get the guy from “Aliens” to do it, or maybe even Micheal Fassbender’s David character could be on the ship. It also is not very pleasing to look at on screen; it looks as fake as it is.
My final major problem with this movie is its storyline. It’s not something that I can describe the best without spoiling the whole film, which I still recommend you watch, so let me do it through simile. This movie’s plot is like an omelet that has some of the best toppings on it ever—we are talking bacon, good cheese, chives, onions, the works. You have a great chef flipping that thing over, making sure it mixes well, but uh-oh the egg is burnt. It spent too long on the pan, and while it is still going to taste good, it is not going to be the spectacular meal you expected. That’s what this movie’s plot feels like: the movie is too long, certain scenes feel like they should be significantly cut down, and its characters just have a little something missing.
That is why this movie is so interesting. It could have been up there with the first two movies in terms of enjoyability, but now it is around the same level as “Prometheus.” It has all the necessary components to make an amazing movie, it just needs a tighter script, some more interesting characters, and let’s just agree to stop using AI in movies. Although those are all huge issues, I cannot help but recommend them, just on the merit of the amazing cinematography, two lead performances, and the scenery. I hope to watch more Fede Álvarez movies in the future. Go see this one, KO, it’s at least worth a watch.
