I'm specifically referring to the first movie here, not the franchise.
This review contains minor spoilers!
Alien: Romulus is very much a sequel to Alien in terms of plot, genre, and even timeline. (It takes place between the first two movies.) We've ditched almost all of the philosophical questions and heaviness of the two prequels and returned back to the horror roots.
Fede Alvarez is our director. You may know him from 2013's Evil Dead remake, or from 2016's Don't Breathe. Both movies are fantastic, and they both lean into the same body horror and sexual horror that runs through this franchise. On paper, he's the perfect director for this, and I had very high hopes.
He met them.
Go see this.
It's great.
End of review.
No? Not convinced yet? Alright, fine, I'll write more words.
It's a very pretty movie, especially the different shots of space. There is a plot relevant asteroid belt that looks particularly gorgeous. I loved that it wasn't just a flat ring, but had iceberg-like chunks that gave some elevation. It's something I've never seen before. More importantly, the aliens also look fantastic. I think that they were mostly practical, which is always a plus.
I have to specifically highlight the facehuggers. They not only look great, but we get a very clear look at just what it is about them that makes them so scary. Like seeing just how deeply down your throat that they go, and just how much they resemble certain parts of the human anatomy when they slide out. Or watching a character fight desperately to stop one from forcing itself down their throat, with the tube sliding in and out of their mouth over the course of the struggle.
It's horrifying and it's graphic and it's exactly what I wanted.
There's a lot of great gore in all of the kills. Inventive gore. Even if we've seen characters die from the same thing in previous movies, it's shown to us in a different light. I actually wish that the camera had lingered on the aftermath a little more, but I'm well aware that I'm an outlier when it comes to stuff like this.
Alien: Romulus, like almost all IP work these days, pulls a lot from past iterations. Some people might roll their eyes, decry the lack of originality or creativity, and otherwise grumble about the state of the media landscape. And, admittedly, I was inching towards that by the end. However, there's enough love and care here from a production standpoint that I was more willing to just embrace it. Especially since there was still a lot of new things.
The biggest variation is our cast. Whereas past movies focused on adults, with adult jobs and responsibilities, our group here is very young. These aren't scientists, colonists, or even space truckers. These are kids (young adults, but they feel like kids) who are desperate to escape a society that is systematically designed to chew them up, spit them out, and refuse to bury them because it costs too much. It taps into a certain generational rage, I think, of being promised a future that is then ripped out from under you and replaced with hell on earth.
While no one is truly prepared to face a xenomorph, the youth of the characters make some of the horror all the more potent. They don't know what they're doing. They're desperate and just want to go somewhere that actually has a sunrise. They're no match to the most perfect organism, and they're the only ones who don't fully realize that.
Luckily, the cast was incredibly strong across the board, and does a great job in getting us invested in everyone. Spike Fearn (Bjorn) occasionally spoke a bit too fast for me to catch all of his dialogue, but he got better as the movie went along. Archie Renaux (Tyler) impressed me a lot more here than he did in Shadow and Bone (maybe because he didn't have to go up against Ben Barnes as a love interest!) and I loved the chemistry that he had with Cailee Spaeny.
Spaeny's Rain is our protagonist. It's too easy to describe her as this movie's Ripley, and while she does fall into that role, Spaeny does bring something new to it. There's a brittle hopelessness to her that exists despite her stubborn refusal to quit. I also adored her relationship with her brother, Andy.
There's a lot to say about Andy, who is an android. He's also Black and has a lot of verbal and physical traits that mimic developmental and intellectual disabilities. Rain is the only one who treats him like a person. Everyone else, including unnamed extras, react to him with either outright hostility on one end, or condescending politeness on the other. Even Tyler, who is relatively kind to Andy, still ultimately sees him as a tool to be used. It's really uncomfortable at times, and I wish that the movie continued to explore that instead of letting it fall to the wayside once alien things begin happening.
Regardless, David Jonsson kills it in the role, especially when Andy begins to grow beyond his initial programming.
I skimmed a few reviews before I went to see the movie, and they all mentioned that the last ten minutes would be divisive. And... yeah. I definitely agree with that. I won't spoil it, but it's absolutely batshit insane. I'm just not sure if I mean that in a complimentary way or not yet. Leaning towards yes, but I'm going to need to sit with it for a bit.
I will say this about it: I waited the whole movie for Alvarez to show off his body horror chops to the degree that I knew he was capable of. He finally followed through. It also got the loudest audience reaction.
There's a second, divisive element to the movie as well. Again, I'm avoiding spoilers here because this is one element that definitely works better as a surprise. But the CGI used to bring it to life was the most noticeable effect, well past the point of being distracting. I don't think that we needed this element either. There is a fine line between homage, fan service, and cloying nostalgia bait, and while Alvarez is very adept at tap dancing along that line, he strayed a bit too much into the nostalgia bait with this.
Either way, if you're an Alien fan, I can't see you being disappointed here. I left the theatre immediately wanting to see it again.
Random Thoughts
I always mix up Cailee Spaeny and Joey King in my head.
Rain's cut on her cheek was a bit too Hollywood Perfect. It was a very aesthetically pleasing cut.
There's a cool shot where we clearly see Romulus and Remus written on the station, as well as the gap between them. Naturally, it happens just as we have a discernible gap between our siblings.
There is a lot of influence from 2014's excellent Alien: Isolation. It's a video game where you play as Amanda Ripley, and I highly recommend that you at least watch a no-commentary playthrough.
~~~~
An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.
Alien: Romulus is very much a sequel to Alien in terms of plot, genre, and even timeline. (It takes place between the first two movies.) We've ditched almost all of the philosophical questions and heaviness of the two prequels and returned back to the horror roots.
Fede Alvarez is our director. You may know him from 2013's Evil Dead remake, or from 2016's Don't Breathe. Both movies are fantastic, and they both lean into the same body horror and sexual horror that runs through this franchise. On paper, he's the perfect director for this, and I had very high hopes.
He met them.
Go see this.
It's great.
End of review.
No? Not convinced yet? Alright, fine, I'll write more words.
It's a very pretty movie, especially the different shots of space. There is a plot relevant asteroid belt that looks particularly gorgeous. I loved that it wasn't just a flat ring, but had iceberg-like chunks that gave some elevation. It's something I've never seen before. More importantly, the aliens also look fantastic. I think that they were mostly practical, which is always a plus.
I have to specifically highlight the facehuggers. They not only look great, but we get a very clear look at just what it is about them that makes them so scary. Like seeing just how deeply down your throat that they go, and just how much they resemble certain parts of the human anatomy when they slide out. Or watching a character fight desperately to stop one from forcing itself down their throat, with the tube sliding in and out of their mouth over the course of the struggle.
It's horrifying and it's graphic and it's exactly what I wanted.
There's a lot of great gore in all of the kills. Inventive gore. Even if we've seen characters die from the same thing in previous movies, it's shown to us in a different light. I actually wish that the camera had lingered on the aftermath a little more, but I'm well aware that I'm an outlier when it comes to stuff like this.
Alien: Romulus, like almost all IP work these days, pulls a lot from past iterations. Some people might roll their eyes, decry the lack of originality or creativity, and otherwise grumble about the state of the media landscape. And, admittedly, I was inching towards that by the end. However, there's enough love and care here from a production standpoint that I was more willing to just embrace it. Especially since there was still a lot of new things.
The biggest variation is our cast. Whereas past movies focused on adults, with adult jobs and responsibilities, our group here is very young. These aren't scientists, colonists, or even space truckers. These are kids (young adults, but they feel like kids) who are desperate to escape a society that is systematically designed to chew them up, spit them out, and refuse to bury them because it costs too much. It taps into a certain generational rage, I think, of being promised a future that is then ripped out from under you and replaced with hell on earth.
While no one is truly prepared to face a xenomorph, the youth of the characters make some of the horror all the more potent. They don't know what they're doing. They're desperate and just want to go somewhere that actually has a sunrise. They're no match to the most perfect organism, and they're the only ones who don't fully realize that.
Luckily, the cast was incredibly strong across the board, and does a great job in getting us invested in everyone. Spike Fearn (Bjorn) occasionally spoke a bit too fast for me to catch all of his dialogue, but he got better as the movie went along. Archie Renaux (Tyler) impressed me a lot more here than he did in Shadow and Bone (maybe because he didn't have to go up against Ben Barnes as a love interest!) and I loved the chemistry that he had with Cailee Spaeny.
Spaeny's Rain is our protagonist. It's too easy to describe her as this movie's Ripley, and while she does fall into that role, Spaeny does bring something new to it. There's a brittle hopelessness to her that exists despite her stubborn refusal to quit. I also adored her relationship with her brother, Andy.
There's a lot to say about Andy, who is an android. He's also Black and has a lot of verbal and physical traits that mimic developmental and intellectual disabilities. Rain is the only one who treats him like a person. Everyone else, including unnamed extras, react to him with either outright hostility on one end, or condescending politeness on the other. Even Tyler, who is relatively kind to Andy, still ultimately sees him as a tool to be used. It's really uncomfortable at times, and I wish that the movie continued to explore that instead of letting it fall to the wayside once alien things begin happening.
Regardless, David Jonsson kills it in the role, especially when Andy begins to grow beyond his initial programming.
I skimmed a few reviews before I went to see the movie, and they all mentioned that the last ten minutes would be divisive. And... yeah. I definitely agree with that. I won't spoil it, but it's absolutely batshit insane. I'm just not sure if I mean that in a complimentary way or not yet. Leaning towards yes, but I'm going to need to sit with it for a bit.
I will say this about it: I waited the whole movie for Alvarez to show off his body horror chops to the degree that I knew he was capable of. He finally followed through. It also got the loudest audience reaction.
There's a second, divisive element to the movie as well. Again, I'm avoiding spoilers here because this is one element that definitely works better as a surprise. But the CGI used to bring it to life was the most noticeable effect, well past the point of being distracting. I don't think that we needed this element either. There is a fine line between homage, fan service, and cloying nostalgia bait, and while Alvarez is very adept at tap dancing along that line, he strayed a bit too much into the nostalgia bait with this.
Either way, if you're an Alien fan, I can't see you being disappointed here. I left the theatre immediately wanting to see it again.
Random Thoughts
I always mix up Cailee Spaeny and Joey King in my head.
Rain's cut on her cheek was a bit too Hollywood Perfect. It was a very aesthetically pleasing cut.
There's a cool shot where we clearly see Romulus and Remus written on the station, as well as the gap between them. Naturally, it happens just as we have a discernible gap between our siblings.
There is a lot of influence from 2014's excellent Alien: Isolation. It's a video game where you play as Amanda Ripley, and I highly recommend that you at least watch a no-commentary playthrough.
~~~~
An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.
I have been looking forward to this one for a while now. It was originally going to be on Hulu like Prey (which I also strongly recommend). Alien has been on of those franchises that I love, but so many of the entries have failed to meet the lofty heights of Alien and Aliens, it is pleasing to see that this one at least gets close.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for reviewing this one, and you covered pretty much everything I needed to know. Save for the music, did they bring back the music? I love the music from the first two films.
I was so happy when this moved to theaters. Hulu is literally the only service I don't have. (I'm still dying to see Prey.)
DeleteAs for the music, yes! They actually brought themes and motifs back from the first three movies, as well as Prometheus.