Alien: Romulus Takes Deep Space Terror To New Heights [Review]
“In space, no one can hear you scream.” (screams anyway)
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Alien is one of the highest grossing movie franchises of all time. Despite suffering some bad entries along the way, the first Alien (1979) directed by Ridley Scott remains one of the most iconic science fiction films ever made.
The newest instalment of this sci-fi horror franchise is Alien: Romulus, directed by Fede Alvarez with Scott as a producer.
Romulus is reportedly released as a standalone film, but chronologically the film is set between the events of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986).
Alien: Romulus is about a group of young intergalactic colonists who butt heads with a terrifying life form (pretends to be shocked) while on an attempt to scavenge the rundown space station, Renaissance. ‘Romulus’ is the name of a lab aboard the Renaissance.
In Roman mythology, Romulus and his twin brother Remus were the founders of Rome. In a fit of rage, Romulus ends up killing Remus on the day Rome was built.
Apparently.
Other than debunking the age-old saying that Rome wasn’t built in a day, this sibling allegory somewhat mirrors the unusual relationship between Rain Carradine’s character played by Cailee Spaeny, and her adopted android brother, Andy, played by David Jonsson.
Despite Andy being an android, and androids having questionable reputation within the Alien cinematic universe, the bond between Rain and Andy is a rather interesting commentary of our modern-day relationships with Artificial Intelligence.
In Romulus, the siblings go through challenges that test their relationship and loyalty to one another.
Alongside a slew of new characters – Tyler (Archie Renaux), Kay (Isabela Merced), Navarro (Aileen Wu), and Bjorn (Spike Fearn) – and united by a collective aim of escaping the brutally unfair colony run by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, they decide it’s time to claim some space of their own.
The Gen Z cast of Romulus would appeal to a younger audience. It does give off a very ‘Stranger Things’ vibe – especially with a main character that could very well be played by Millie Bobby Brown.
Except one takes place in Hawkins and the other in deep space.
Overall, Romulus feels like a coming-of-age, pop-culture version of Alien with significant nods to memorable elements from the “sacred texts” – the original Alien movies from the past.
And this isn’t a bad thing, because it does strike a nice balance between the two that makes this worth the watch for people who are familiar with Alien films and those who haven’t seen any of them before.
It’s also tempting to see Rain as a new, rebooted version of Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley. Undoubtedly, the biggest similarity between the two is that they’re both badass women who love fiercely and share a mutual hatred for slimy creatures.
Talking about creatures, Romulus features a lot more of them, and I mean A LOT more of them.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised (or not-so-pleasantly terrified) by the amount of screentime these buggers get.
Without giving too much away, there’s also a new creature in Romulus that you should look out for. TBH, it’ll be pretty hard to miss. And will probably be in your nightmares for a while.
Alvarez’s previous films include Don’t Breathe and Evil Dead, and that might be why Romulus leans more into the horror genre with a notable amount of jumpscares and creepy (but amazing) sound design.
To be fair, nothing much about Alien is a surprise since the franchise has been around longer than most of us have. That probably played a part in having to amp up the scare-level in these other ways.
Not that facehuggers aren’t already horrifying enough.
Despite Romulus being a gory scarefest, Andy’s character offered comic relief as the android brother that’s programmed with an ample amount of bad dad jokes. It was cute to see how this was used to offer comfort to Rain and to break the tension between scenes that would otherwise be splattered with Xenomorph acid for blood.
I personally loved the many instances where Romulus paid homage to the old Alien movies.
The opening credits of Romulus are very reminiscent of Alien (1979), with the same fonts and similar starry backdrop.
In one scene, Andy recites the exact line used by Bishop, the android from Aliens (1986): “I prefer the term ‘Artificial Person’ myself”, to clear the confusion on preferred android pronouns. 🤖
The trailer even uses a haunting version of the “You Are My Lucky Star” song that Ripley mutters to calm herself down before she takes on a Xenomorph at the end of Alien (1979).
However, we’re sad to report that the nostalgic nods in Romulus unfortunately did not include Ripley’s oyen space cat. You’re missed, Jonesy. 😪
Alien: Romulus is playing in cinemas nationwide from 15 August 2024.
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