As one of the all time great movie monsters the Alien franchise has had an uneven output and after the box office failure of Alien Covenant can Alien 7 or Alien Romulus restore the franchise to former glories.
Helmed by director and co-writer Fede Alvarez he’s no stranger to the gore factor after his excellent reboot of Evil Dead and his superior suspense thriller ‘Don’t Breathe’ and he applies it all here. Set between Alien and Aliens this latest installment starts off on a mining colony planet. Without sunlight the endless dark days sees the employees tied to contracts they can never escape and to that end this could have been set in an Amazon warehouse. But Rainn (Cailee Spaeny) is desperate to get out and along with her android Andrew (David Johnsson) gifted to her by her late father they look to get off the planet along with her brother. Along with her ex-boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux), his sister Kay (Isabela Merced) and couple Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and Navarro (Aileen Wu) escape the planet for Romulus, a decommissioned space station with those hyper sleep chambers that will aid their nine year journey to a better planet. But landing on the station they soon find they accidently activate the frozen xenomorphs who have other ideas for their new visitor. You know this isn’t going to end well.
Alien Romulus goes back to the basics of the first two films in a conscious move away from the ponderous theology of Prometheus although Alvarez can’t resist the call backs to the first twos films and even Alien Resurrection as well as the Alien games. To that end there’s a whole load of Easter eggs here that the devoted fan base will lap up and will reward their multiple viewings.
But there’s a lot to like here. It is a far younger cast than that of the other films but Cailee Spaeny, who has been on the ascent since ‘Priscilla’ and this year’s excellent ‘Civil War’ takes on the mantle of Ripley as the film progresses. But it’s David Johnson as android Andy who excels in a role that echoes Ian Holms android from the first film and battles with conflicted directives given to him by the nefarious Weyland–Yutani corporation who was as much the villain of the franchise as the aliens themselves.
Like the first film this is a haunted house story in space and as the fans demand there are several gloop dripping deaths with the film ratcheting up the set pieces with the third act being enormous, if slightly incredible, fun with one especially notable gravity defying set piece on the space station. Some will complain but nonetheless Alien Romulus sets the franchise back on track even if it is a little too keen on its call backs but this is the film that sets the franchise back on track and will appeal to fans but old and new alike.
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Director Fede Alvarez talks about the making of the film…
When facehuggers attack at the London premiere – Fede Alvarez and cast save the day….
Here’s the Alien Romulus trailer…..
