Looking up the word Romulus you learn that he was the first king of Rome. So, it is peculiar to find that the newly released Alien: Romulus fits between 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens in the timeline. Hitting theaters on August 16, 2024, arriving digitally on October 15th, plus hitting 4K, Blu-ray™ and DVD on December 3rd, Alien: Romulus is Fede Álvarez’s (known for 2013’s Evil Dead and 2016’s Don’t Breathe) foray into the Alien franchise. Doing so, he looks to follow in the footsteps of Ridley Scott as well as James Cameron, who created and continued the story in the aforementioned Alien and Aliens (two most beloved entries in the entire series).
The seventh film in the Alien world, Alien: Romulus is also the first since 2017’s Alien: Covenant. With that in mind, the facehuggers are back! Scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station (USCSS Nostromo from Alien), a group of young space colonizers – consisting of Rain (Cailee Spaeny: Priscilla 2023, Civil War 2024), an orphaned miner, Andy (David Jonsson: Deep State series, Industry series), an android reprogrammed by Rain’s late father as her surrogate brother, Tyler (Archie Renaux: Voyagers 2021, Morbius 2022), Kay’s brother and Rain’s ex-boyfriend, Kay (Isabela Merced: Instant Family 2018, Dora and the Lost City of Gold 2019), Tyler’s pregnant sister, Bjorn (Spike Fearn: The Batman 2022, Aftersun 2022), Tyler and Kay’s cousin, Navarro (Aileen Wu), a pilot and Bjorn’s adopted sister – come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
There is also Rook, an android science officer on board the Romulus, voiced by Daniel Betts, but with the likeness of the late Ian Holm, who portrayed Ash in the original film, but died in 2020. Although this is not new; because going back to 1982’s Trail of the Pink Panther they used old footage of Peter Sellers. This could have had major legal ramifications, but fortunately, Holm’s estate signed off on it. Other productions like 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story are still in litigation for the use of the late, great Peter Cushing’s CG likeness to resurrect Governor Tarkin, even though Guy Henry’s in the credits.
Bringing back recurring characters, or in this case, recurring monsters, is fine and dandy, but you should have them do something to move the story or mythology forward. Sadly, Alien: Romulus does not do that. Sure, the Xenomorph, the human/xenomorph, and the Offspring are beautifully brought to life practically and the facehuggers do their thing, but they just do not do anything they have not already done in the
six previous films in the timeline or the two crossovers.
With this in mind, most of the cast in Alien: Romulus are throwaway characters that serve their purpose to move the story along, then, they are systematically offered in typical Horror movie fashion. In this case, by facehugger, chestburster, xenomorph with acid blood, or general bad decisions. However, then we get to the heart of what makes Alien: Romulus breath, which is the relationship between Rain and Andy. Meeting them in the beginning, they are trying to survive improbable odds while confined to an enclosed corridor. That said, claustrophobia is a huge part of the Horror aspect here, with Body Horror coming a close second.
Aside from Rain’s and Andy’s relationship, Alvarez honestly did not have much to work with to move the storyline forward that has not already been covered in some fashion in the other movies. So, what you get is a nice looking, fun for the familiarity amalgamation with the aforementioned appearance of Ian Holm’s Ash (Alien), repurposed as Rook, the finding of the original xenomorph Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) dispatched also from Alien, a Prometheus name drop, the xenomorph/human hybrid (1997’s Alien: Resurrection), alluding to embryos saved (Alien: Covenant), and references used in Aliens that would not be in the lexicon yet.
In all, the end of Alien: Romulus leaves room for another sequel, again, between Alien and Aliens. If that happens, hopefully, the powers that be will find some new ground to mine… so it is not just another Hollywood going back to the well cash grab. Nonetheless, Cryptic Rock gives Alien: Romulus 3 out of 5 stars.
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