Alien: Romulus

A journey into famous waters that I never really wanted to take. I never believed Fede Alvarez had it in him to take on a legend of these dimensions, I didn't believe in the much-trumpeted genre setting of thoroughbred gore, but when critics, viewers, and box offices scoffed at Ridley Scott's misunderstood Alien: Covenant years ago, there was probably no other path left to go. And yet it works – and the combination of modern editing with dirty and oily technique is aggressive and beautiful from the very first minute. The aggressive creature is given enough space, the human crew makes mistakes that are understandable yet still manage clever and logical decisions at key moments. There is so much winking at the past that I was daydreaming, knowing that with a bit of exaggeration I could imagine I was watching Alien 1.5. Not to mention that finally, after years of waiting, the lines drawn from the classic tetralogy and the mythology of Prometheus have finally been combined, which is a gift that I never expected to receive. Thanks to this enrichment, Alien: Romulus is truly more than just a fun horror film, nor is it merely a side chapter the series could have done without. It's a reward for those who never completely gave up on Alien (and who can see beyond the first twist and don't mind that the script plays a bit subversively with them with iconic lines). I understand the arguments about the polarizing final chapter; without it, I would be happier than I am with it now. On the other hand, I must applaud the courage that even the brave and visually deconstructed genre film Alien: Resurrection was lacking almost thirty years ago. The fact that the result of such an experiment did not meet my expectations is my problem. Everyone who sees the saga as a whole and not just as a space for the eternal (and nowadays really endlessly tiresome) argument about which of the first two installments is better should also give it a try. (17/08/2024)

It is necessary to make full use of resources obtained at great cost, even if the result is only some kind of bastardised mutant. This is true for Weyland-Yutani and its real-life equivalent, The Walt Disney Company. The most surprising aspect of Alien: Romulus is its anti-originality. This time around, the Disneyfication of the franchise doesn’t have the feel of a refresh with new characters (as was the case with Star Wars: The Force Awakens), nor does it work as cultish fan-service along the lines of the serial clones from Marvel. Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues wilfully turned out a CGI remix of the Alien franchise’s greatest hits, which lends itself to a game of bingo on the theme of “which cult scene, popular one-liner or iconic shot from the preceding films will be paraphrased in the next scene”. The charm (and uniqueness) of the original Alien tetralogy consists in the fact that it comprises diametrically different and stylishly and supremely distinctive films (I won’t even say anything bad about the fantastically crackpot fourth one. Alien: Romulus is only a derivative, or rather the film equivalent of an Alien-themed ride at Disneyworld – we passively pass by a series of well-known scenes that are impressively yet lifelessly rendered and something occasionally amuses or scares us, but we walk away completely unmoved at the end. Though Prometheus was silly nonsense and elicited exasperation and hatred, it is still better than this precisely crafted definition of the term “content” from the vocabulary of media corporations. (16/08/2024)

In terms of plot, Alien: Romulus is more sophisticated than Prometheus and Covenant combined, but it’s not much more clever than Alien vs. Predator. Ridley Scott understood that if he wanted to appeal to a new generation of viewers and successfully continue his Alien campaign, he would have to pass the baton to an energetic craftsman, such as the one who gave an intense restart to the Evil Dead franchise for young viewers. The characters in Romulus are teenagers, a fact that is unacceptable for us lovers of the original, serious genre pillars of cinema. Fedez Alvarez blends together the previous Alien films' iconic moments, which will not surprise the connoisseurs, but will thrill young viewers who are unfamiliar with them. We can appreciate the effort to make an upgrade through innovations (the fine resurrection of Ian Holm), but without using them in a well-thought-out way in the plot, they are there only superficially for effect. The film almost ceased to hold my interest when the characters failed to close behind themselves the huge door to the room containing the facehuggers, in which they had previously increased the temperature so that they could safely pass through it. And there is more such sloppiness that negates the newly shown rules of the Alien world even for novices. And that’s a shame. (18/08/2024)

After the excellent trailers, it wasn't hard to become excited for Alien: Romulus, but there was still a little red light in my head. It subtly reminded me that behind the camera was Fede Álvarez, a man who certainly has a lot of talent, but not for the horror genre. I suffered through his Evil Dead, and Don’t Breathe was fine at best. And unfortunately, I should have listened to that red light, because while Romulus has its merits, it disappoints in the most fundamental way, it doesn't work as a genre film. Alien: Romulus looks great, and I enjoyed the analog computers, the grey metals, the industrial atmosphere full of hissing pipes, likewise with unexpectedly good actors and interesting characters who behaved surprisingly smart. But that’s not enough when Álvarez can't build a scary atmosphere and his scares are dull and uninteresting. Part of the problem is that this is more a game of referencing and quoting old films, leaving little room for the new. As a result, it's a nice fanservice from someone who knows how it should look, sound and work, but he just can't quite put it together into a workable horror film. Álvarez may be a good producer with an interesting vision, but unfortunately he's not a good director or executor. (14/08/2024)

A pop horror flick that appeals to Generation Z and won't offend the oldies. On the positive side, I'll take the superb and highly talented Cailee Spaeny and the fantastic last half hour, and on the negative side, the simple fact that the other teens are all interchangeable, I didn't find my way to them at all and didn't care if the monster made a sandwich out of them. Yes, it's nice to look at, it has the hallmark of the 70s technique Ridley Scott established in his masterpiece, the atmosphere is nicely depressing and claustrophobic, but for the first two-thirds the film painfully lacks in any kind of tension, because apart from Cailee I - as I've already written - hadn't built up any rapport with the characters and consequently didn't experience the threat of the facehuggers as such at all. Fortunately, there are enough references and allusions to previous episodes, and as a connoisseur I appreciate how "disjointed" it is in that respect: the first third is slowburn old Alien, the second the warlike Aliens, and the last one is a return to the first one, with Fede Álvarez literally quoting it. So yeah, I actually had a decent time, and since Álvarez unloaded a few scenes I hadn’t seen in this genre before, I give the film four spits of acid. (20/08/2024)