‘Alien: Romulus’ (2024): Back to Formula

Directed by: Fede Álvarez || Produced by: Ridley Scott, Michael Pruss, Walter Hill

Screenplay by: Fede Álvarez, Rodo Sayagues || Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu

Music by: Benjamin Wallfisch || Cinematography: Galo Olivares || Edited by: Jake Roberts || Country: United States || Language: English

Running Time: 119 minutes

What most set up Prey (2022), the latest film in the respected Predator (1987, 1990, 2010) franchise, for success was director Dan Trachtenberg and screenwriter Patrick Aison’s idea to revisit yet still remix their parent franchise’s longstanding premise. The first three films in the Predator series were somewhat different takes on the same idea: A humanoid extraterrestrial sport hunter covertly travels to earth during times of elevated conflict to hunt armed humans for sport.

Prey followed this tradition after the disastrous results of the overcomplicated, convoluted The Predator (2018) by Shane Black, wherein the former a somewhat more primitive version of the series’ monster stalked various computer generated (CG) wildlife, French fur-trappers, and Comanche natives in 18th century colonial North America. By the same token, the latest installment in the Alien (1979, 1986, 1992, 1997) series by established horror filmmaker Fede Álvarez, Alien: Romulus, reverts to earlier franchise entries’ simpler, straightforward genre premises where groups of characters — scientists, space truckers mariners, prisoners, soldiers, colonists, etc. — investigate a mysterious object, location, or spacecraft and inadvertently discover nasty exoparasitic lifeforms with acid for blood. This is in stark contrast to the two most recent franchise installments, the prequels Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2016), which explored the series’ quasi-Lovecraftian, biopunk mythos to divisive reactions amongst the fanbase despite their direction by the original 1979 film’s creative lead, the venerable Ridley Scott.

Biopunk body horror returns in the form of numerous facehuggers (top), who boast more screentime here than in any other Alien movie, as well as the now classical adult xenomorphs (bottom).

Like Prey and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024), Romulus is a carryover from the intellectual property (IP) library of 20th Century Fox, now a subsidiary of Walt Disney and relabeled 20th Century Studios since 2019. All three franchises appear to have survived the latest corporate consolidation in Hollywood (compare to the messy AT&T divestment from and Discovery merger with Warner Bros., for example) if their respective critical reviews, streaming numbers, and box office results are any indication. Even before I saw the latest Alien film, the hiring of Álvarez as the chief writer-director was a refreshing sign of new blood after Scott’s repeated directorial inconsistencies, convoluted storytelling, and overall confused narrative focus with the aforementioned two prequel films. 

In case you couldn’t tell, I found Romulus to mostly be the sort of concise, streamlined Alien film that longtime fans of the franchise have been waiting for since the late 1990s… mostly. While not without nitpicky complaints from certain viewers, Romulus dials back its storytelling focus from the heady, ambitious, often inexplicable themes of Prometheus and Covenant to the more conservative and, I argue, more effective premise of a haunted house slasher in space. Álvarez’s dedicated yet not self-indulgent attention to relatable characterizations, understandable plot mechanics, and practical FX supported by CG imagery rather than the reverse are evident throughout Romulus‘ screenplay, cast performances, and portrayal of the titular extraterrestrial creatures.

His previous well received movies of Evil Dead (2013) and Don’t Breathe (2016) provide decent preparation for the scope of Romulus‘ script and production-design, which slot between the intimate horror of the original Alien and James Cameron’s epic, action-packed sequel, Aliens (1986). Romulus is not as good as either of those films and, frankly, I don’t expect any sequel, prequel, or interquel (Romulus is the latter) to ever rival those classics at this point, but its surgical combination of science-fiction, horror, and action works better than any installment since Aliens; its fastidious balancing of those three genres with reliable, relatable characterizations and rock-solid pacing are better than most sci-fi films of any stripe for that matter.

With regards to both screenwriting and direction, I have few complaints and many compliments: The set-design and creature FX are immaculate, contributing to an oppressive, suspenseful tone, the characters make sensible decisions appropriate to their situation (compare to the inexplicable, often idiotic decision-making of characters from Covenant and Prometheus in particular), and the camerawork accentuates actor and creature movement in set-pieces without obscuring scene geography or calling attention to itself. How great the titular antagonists look in both design and their seamless integration with their environment are perhaps the most noticeable strengths to series fans, but I’d argue the biggest upgrade of Romulus relative to all the later franchise sequels since Alien 3 is how distinct and memorable all the castmembers are.

My only significant complaints with the movie are (1) the lack of any identifiable soundtrack compared to almost every other franchise entry and (2) the unnecessary false ending. Even the lesser Alien sequels had good soundtracks (e.g. Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Prometheus… even Alien vs. Predator [2004]!), but outside of some creepy choir vocals that recall 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in the prologue, Romulus has no musical flavor. Last of all, the most tiresome trope of the Alien series, to me, is the obligatory 3rd Act “double finale,” whereby characters think they’ve escaped danger but have to battle the alien threat one last time; Romulus obliges this trope without justification, forcing upon the audience a goofy-looking final boss that is equal parts the Newborn from Resurrection and the black goo–mutants from the prequel films.

The two best characters in the movie, Cailee Spaeny’s protagonist (left) and David Jonsson’s synthetic surrogate brother figure (right), face down multiple foes in the movie’s best action sequence.

Given the often picky, some might say obsessive-compulsive judgement Alien devotees have toward their favorite movies, the warm if somewhat tempered reception by audiences and critics alike to Romulus is nothing short of a success. Romulus went “back to formula” as Prey did, and I would argue worked better given its bigger budget and far more effective special FX; combine that with a solid cast and a reliable narrative pace even with an unnecessary false ending, and Romulus is most everything fans have demanded since 1986’s Aliens. If a movie of this caliber doesn’t make you enthusiastic about the Alien brand, then I don’t think anything will.

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SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATION: In space, no one can hear you breathe a sigh of relief after so many underwhelming disappointments from the same cinematic IP. I swore off both the Alien and Predator series years ago after the baffling experience that was The Predator (2018), but I’m happy to have returned to the fold thanks to Prey and Romulus. With good characters, a tight narrative focus, reference-level production-values, and (mostly) great monsters, what more do you want in a sci-fi horror movie?

— However… I could have also used a decent musical score and done without the superfluous secondary ending with… whatever the hell that creature is.

—> Alien: Romulus comes RECOMMENDED for both longtime fans and series newcomers.

? Álvarez mentioned offhand in an interview that he could codirect a new Alien vs. Predator film with Trachtenberg. Why not?