******SPACE STATION-SIZED SPOILERS!******

After my deep disappointment with the last two installments of the ALIEN franchise (“Prometheus,” “Covenant”) another ALIEN movie has burst from the chests and brains of director/cowriter Fede Álvarez. Like “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” “ALIEN: Romulus” (2024) feels conspicuously designed for a younger audience (as is most everything these days), despite its earned hard-R rating.

Once again, I took a rare outing to a local cinema for this one, and my Regal RPX auditorium had a slightly misaligned image (the keystone cornering was off), which quietly drove me mad. Once you get used to projecting your own movies at home, you become very picky about relinquishing control to the multiplex.  Nevertheless, the Dolby Atmos sound was solid, and the movie itself was just interesting enough for me not to nitpick the projection errors too much… 

“ALIEN: Romulus”

Set between the events of the first and second movies, “ALIEN: Romulus” opens by revisiting an unanswered question regarding the fate of the xenomorph that Ellen Ripley ejected from her escape shuttle at the climax of “ALIEN.” The Weyland-Yutani corporation sent a ship to sift through the Nostromo debris until it found the drifting xenomorph, which had gone into a dormant state.  The company ship snared the frozen beastie, taking it back to the massive Renaissance research space station which is divided into two sections, called Romulus and Remus (as in ancient Roman mythology, not Star Trek villainy)

Note: Did anyone really think the vacuum of space would be enough kill that damn thing?  Someone best search the orbital space of LV-426, too; there’s probably an alien queen still floating out there, as well…

The movie then cuts to a Weyland-Yutani controlled mining colony on the planet Jackson, which is shrouded in thick clouds which block the sun while the atmosphere is slowly transformed into something Earth-like. Orphaned twentysomething colonist Rain (Cailee Spaeny) lives with her android ‘brother’ Andy (David Jonsson), who’s taken care of her since her parents died.  Rain tries to get out of her 12-year work contract in order to leave Jackson, but her request is denied after work quotas are doubled.  She later meets with a group of friends; cousins Tyler (Archie Renaux), his pregnant sister Kay (Isabela Merced), their hotheaded cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and pilot Alvarez (Aileen Wu). Tyler has found himself a ship, the Corbelan, and he plans to rendezvous with the now-dilapidated Renaissance station, which is in a decaying orbit over Jackson’s ring system. They’ll steal the station’s cryopods, and fly off to the planet Yvaga, where they’ll begin new lives. One small glitch; Yvaga doesn’t accept synthetics, but Tyler allows for Andy, since the android’s interfacing systems will allow them to hack the station’s MU-TH-UR computer system, giving them access.

Note: Even in the opening sequence with this movie’s characters, there are already many callbacks to other ALIEN movies. We see the large atmosphere processors on the Jackson colony (which is virtually identical to the Hadley’s Hope colony on LV-426), we see a friendly android (à la Bishop  or Call), and we hear a reference to the “MU-TH-UR” computers of the first film (which were used for a blue-collar space towing rig, not a top-secret science station, but sure). I don’t mind a reference or two, but this movie is simply packed with them; to the point where it becomes ridiculous.  After a couple hours, the movie begins to feel like a tour of the ALIEN universe’s greatest hits (and music cues), as opposed to a new ALIEN film forging its own mythology (like James Cameron’s “ALIENS,” one of the smartest sequels ever made). More on this later…

The old ship reaches the space station, but not before Rain experiences her first sunrise, as well as her first view of the sun in Jackson’s solar system, since her planet is continually shrouded in clouds. The Corbelan docks, and with Andy’s help, the are able to open the doors, and restart the station’s dormant life-support systems.  Leaving the ship with Andy and Alvarez, Tyler and Bjorn promise Kay and Rain that they’ll be back with the cryopods in a half hour (famous last words). There is no sign of surviving crew, and the station’s wonky gravity generator periodically goes on and offline.  They soon locate the cryopods, but discover the pods don’t have enough fuel for them to reach Yvaga. Now they will have to go deeper into the station to locate some cryo-fuel. The best laid plans of mice and men…

Note: I’m not sure if it was intentional, but I found it a bit disturbing that the first synthetic person we see in the movie is modeled after a Black man, and that he lives in a naive, innocent state of servitude to a young white woman (!?). I’m not sure if this was supposed to be a statement on America’s own horrific history of slavery or perhaps it was something else (director/cowriter Fede Álvarez is Uruguayan, not American). Nevertheless, I found it bordered on “Song of the South” at times, no matter how often Rain refers to subservient android Andy as her “brother.” 

The blind search for cryo-fuel takes them to a chamber where they find rows of compartments along the walls, as the doors close behind them.  These compartments begin to ‘heat up,’ glowing red with energy, as their centers begin to bulge outward like so much stovetop popcorn.  The compartments burst, and predictably, the room is soon flooded with water and facehuggers—the large, spider-like stage of the ALIEN xenomorphs that seek human throats in which they can deposit eggs to advance their own life-cycles.  With the two cousins in danger, Alvarez and Rain have already located the bifurcated torso, head and arms of a synthetic named Rook (Daniel Betts, using the face/voice of the late Ian Holm), who was the science officer on the station. Rain takes Rook’s command chip and places it into Andy, which gives him full unlimited access to the station, but it also means the company’s directives automatically rescind “all other priorities” of Andy’s former programming…

Note: Director Álvarez and his crew put obsolete CRT-monitors all over the station for continuity’s sake, though they look a bit hipster-ish now; like watching a 4K movie on a shitty VHS tape, just because you can.  Even underfunded hospitals stopped using CRT monitors. It’s ironically fitting that the movie’s characters are raiding a station filled with older tech, since that is precisely what the filmmakers are doing as well.

Tyler and Bjorn are soon rescued, but at the cost of the familiar creepy-crawlies being freed from their containment and infesting the space station. Regrouping to the station’s lab with the reactivated torso of Rook, Alvarez is attacked by a facehugger, which threatens to choke her if they attempt to remove it while it’s implanting its egg.  Working with Rook, the upgraded Andy (physically and mentally) realizes that extreme cold might numb the facehugger’s tail enough to remove it, prompting them to use liquid nitrogen.  Their plan works, and they toss the loosened, half-frozen creature down an acid-burned hole in the hull extending several decks below.  A freed Alvarez quickly regains consciousness, and recovers enough to escape with the others.

Note: Once again there is an overload of callbacks to the first film, including music cues from Jerry Goldsmith’s original score as we’re introduced to Rook; the “Ash”-model synthetic (Hyperdyne Systems 120-A/2) with the face and voice of the late Ian Holm digitally mapped over actor Daniel Betts (with the permission of the actor’s estate, according to the credits). The digital facsimile of Ian Holm’s face and voice have that creepy, uncanny valley effect; especially with the faux-Holm’s lip movements.  Once Andy is loaded with Rook’s chip, he recites some of Ash’s old dialogue, too. Rook even does a few of those himself, including “all other priorities rescinded” and “I can’t lie to you about your chances, but you have my sympathies,” continuing this otherwise well-crafted movie’s frustrating habit of recycling the franchise’s golden oldies instead of advancing the ALIEN mythology with new ideas. 

As the group beats a retreat back to their ship (to hell with the cryopods), they are temporarily separated.  Not trusting androids, hotheaded-Bjorn and Alvarez head to the ship without Andy, Rain and Tyler, whom they’ve left behind.  Alvarez fires up the ship for an emergency takeoff, as she’s met by a confused Kay, who’s been on the ship the entire time.  Suddenly, a doubled-over Alvarez feels very ill, as Kay grabs a handheld fluoroscopic device (which she’s used to monitor her own fetus) and takes a look. A horrified Kay then sees an infant xenomorph cracking its way through Alvarez’s ribcage, before it bursts from her chest.  With their pilot now dead, the newborn xenomorph then kills Bjorn, as the un-piloted Corbelan crashes back into the station’s main docking bay…

Note: The chestburster effect would be a lot more surprising if we hadn’t seen this very thing already happen in every ALIEN movie over the past 45 years. This movie also pushes the timeline of the xenomorph’s life-cycle up considerably. The late John Hurt’s ‘Kane’ from “ALIEN” had a much longer interval from his initial implantation to his chestburster reaching enough maturity to burst from his body.  In this film, it’s only a matter of minutes between Alvarez’s implantation to her death (?!). The rapid-fire deaths of Alvarez and Bjorn would also mean a lot more to us if we got to know any of these new characters half as well as we got to know the colorful Nostromo crew in “ALIEN,” or even the cadre of Colonial Marines in “ALIENS.”

The Corbelan’s impact into the hangar bay has advanced the station’s decaying orbit, meaning it’ll now impact the ring system of Jackson in less than one hour. Kay has escaped the crashed Corbelan and the newborn xenomorph, which is rapidly maturing (once again, its life-cycle is greatly accelerated from prior films).  As Kay is stalked by the creature, Rain, Andy and Tyler make their way to reunite with her as soon as possible. Reaching the hangar bay, they see Kay behind thick glass, and she begs them to open the doors—but Andy refuses, telling the others it’ll allow the xenomorph in, which will kill them all. Angered by Andy’s cold, newfound logic, they watch helplessly as Kay is attacked and abducted by the now fully-grown creature (that was fast…).

Under control of Rook and his company directives, Andy makes his way to another lab aboard the station which contains vials of the black primordial goo featured in 2012’s “Prometheus” (called “Z-01”); the substance that was released into Earth’s biosphere millions of years ago, leading to the evolution of all humanoid life on our planet.  Ash—I mean, Rook, tells Andy that the Z-01 is key to saving Earth’s colonies on other planets, which are failing due to humanity’s lack of environmental adaptability. Andy sees a video of the Z-01 reviving a dead rat (which omits the rat’s subsequent grotesque mutation), as he and Rook conspire to keep the Corbelan’s survivors from leaving the station unless the crew is carrying the compound with them. 

Note: One thing I did admire about the film is that it fills in an intriguing missing piece of ALIEN mythology; specifically, the reason why the Weyland-Yutani corporation had such a jones for live-capturing these dangerous creatures. Until now, this never made sense to me, since they’re too far untamable and unpredictable to use as bioweapons or urban pacification (as suggested in “ALIEN: Resurrection”).  Now we realize the company wanted to genetically extract the Z-01 substance from the creatures (as seen in “Prometheus”) which makes them so impervious in order to make more adaptable colonists, which also suggests Earth is at the end of its viability as a home planet. 

Meanwhile, Rain and Tyler are searching the lab area for their own ways to combat the xenomorphs. They grab two Colonial Marine-issue pulse rifles, and Tyler gives Rain a quick lesson in using them (another bit stolen directly from Ripley and Hicks in “ALIENS”).  With their weapons in hand, they carefully enter a xenomorph hive built into a station corridor. They hear Kay whimper and find her cocooned against the wall (just like Newt).  After freeing her, Tyler notices Kay’s injuries, and suggests using the compound might cure her, but Rain objects, saying they don’t know the longterm effects of the compound (let alone on a pregnant woman). 

Note: From this point on, nearly every scene is an homage (i.e. ripoff) of a scene from various movies in the ALIEN franchise. They come at us so fast and furious that the entire final act is just a dizzying ride through the ALIEN series’ best moments, as if covered by better-than-average fan film actors.

The group are then attacked by the xenomorphs.  Andy is damaged and Tyler is killed.  Rain takes Kay to an elevator (a near-exact copy of the industrial cage elevators at Hadley’s Hope in “ALIENS”), and tells her she’s going back to save Andy. Rain instructs her to prepare for departure aboard the Corbelan.  After Kay is back aboard the ship, she takes Tyler’s suggestion and injects herself with the compound, which immediately causes her wounds to close. 

Note: Tyler’s death is given little fanfare, which is in keeping with the rapid pace of the final act, but it also demonstrates how little feeling anyone has for these characters. They’re Star Trek redshirts at this point, save for Rain and Andy.

With her pulse rifle slung over her shoulder (like Ripley in the final act of “ALIENS”), Rain takes the elevator back to the level where she lost Andy, and finds the damaged android.  She then takes advantage of Andy’s current vulnerability to remove Rook’s chip from him, which also relinquishes Rook’s control over his fellow android. After rebooting to his original program of caring for Rain, Andy holds her in place as he shuts down the gravity generator; this allows Rain to use her pulse rifle to blast the xenomorphs, since their acidic blood won’t fall straight to the floor and melt holes in the station’s hull. The two survivors then have to carefully float through blobs of floating acid themselves, as they advance up the elevator shaft to the hangar bay, killing more xenomorphs as Rain’s ammunition count lowers. After reaching the Corbelan, the station begins its fatal impact on the planetary ring system, and it breaks up (taking Rook with it) as the Corbelan blasts off…

Note: The zero gravity alien attack sequence is the one truly unique set piece of this movie that isn’t borrowed, suggested, or homaged from a previous ALIEN film, and to director/cowriter Fede Álvarez’s considerable credit, it’s a showstopper.  Secondary to actually killing the xenomoprhs is the even trickier part of navigating through floating, stringy pools of their concentrated acidic blood. The sequence is directed with great fluidity and tension, and I only wish there were more novel action sequences like it throughout the film. 

Back aboard the Corbelan, Rain puts Kay into one of the appropriated cryopods, but before she goes to sleep, she suddenly and violently gives bloody birth to her ‘baby,’ which has been severely altered by the compound, and is rapidly growing into an angry, pale giant with black eyes (like the ‘engineers’ seen in “Prometheus”). The mutant immediately kills its mother (there’s gratitude for you), and damages Andy (again).  The ship is also plunged directly into the ring system as well, until Rain dons a pressure suit to fight the giant humanoid-monster, just as Ripley did.  During their final battle, she ejects the mutant from the ship.  After the ship is stabilized and its course for Yvaga is resumed, Rain puts the damaged Andy into cryostasis, promising to repair him.  She then does another Ripley salute by recording a final ‘survivor’s log,’ before going into cryosleep herself…

The End.

Note: The monster-baby hybrid is just another variation of the skull-faced alien/human hybrid seen at the end of “ALIEN: Resurrection.” And don’t get me started on the embarrassingly clunky re-use of Ripley’s iconic “Get away from her, you bitch!” line, which is now played entirely for laughs by Andy. 

Summing It Up

The cast of “ALIEN: Romulus” are all attractive young people (as we see in every movie now), making me long for the days when we saw interesting faces in the cast of an ALIEN movie, like Harry Dean Stanton (1926-2017) or Yaphet Kotto (1939-2021).  This latest movie also delivers a dodgy (if creepy) digital facsimile of the late Ian Holm (1931-2020) in another of the countless callbacks to prior ALIEN films, including 2012’s problematic “Prometheus” and 2017’s insufferably awful “Covenant” (I f**king hate that movie…).

Of the movie’s few plusses, there are some imaginatively shot sequences (zero-G xenomorphs) and some fluid camerawork from director Fede Álvarez (2013’s “The Evil Dead” remake). The script, cowritten by Rodo Sayagues, fills in a few missing pieces of ALIEN lore, such as the reason why Weyland-Yutani is so hellbent on securing this particular star beast. The set dressing, sound FX and music cues of the movie are all very familiar to ALIEN fans; i.e, the giant atmosphere processors and pulse rifles resembling those used in “ALIENS,” and the corridors and labs of the space station echoing the Nostromo’s design from “ALIEN.”  Nearly everything in this film is borrowed, but very little is new.

Despite the well-directed set-pieces, gobs of gooey practical effects, interesting camerawork and creative additions to ALIEN lore, my biggest gripe (“I like griping!” ) is with the characters. I’m not saying the cast doesn’t give it their all, because they do, but their characters are little more than ciphers.  Such a small cast (echoing the Nostromo’s seven-member crew) should’ve allowed us to invest a lot more emotion in these characters. Even the gung-ho Colonial Marines of James Cameron’s “ALIENS” were given bits of business to differentiate each one from the others.  

The young characters of “ALIEN: Romulus” are little more than lambs to the slaughter, with Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and Andy (David Jonsson) being the only two characters I was even remotely invested in. I also knew from the moment I first saw them that they were the only two characters who were going to survive the movie. This is not good to know so early on, since you find yourself just waiting for the others to get killed off. After awhile, the waiting gets a little dull, no matter how horrifically or inventively the others are knocked off.  It all begins to feel a bit video game-ish; as if the surviving characters are just hitting higher scores instead of advancing the story. 

Ultimately, “ALIEN: Romulus” is more or less superior to some of the more disappointing entries that followed the once-brilliant ALIEN franchise after its first two films (and yes, that includes the overrated ALIEN3). And while this current, heated-up collection of ALIEN favorite bits will probably not be remembered as a classic, it has enough points of interest and justifiably R-rated body horror to offer up a decent, if very predictable thrill ride.  The easter eggs and callbacks are piled on too thick, as if forcibly steering the franchise back to its simpler ‘monster-movie in space’ roots.

Yes, the movie was better made than I expected, but in fairness, I wasn’t expecting much, based on the lackluster trailers.  With its entire cast looking well under thirty, “ALIEN: Romulus” feels like a bunch of kids borrowed the keys and took the ALIEN franchise for a wild joyride to nowhere.

Where to Watch

“ALIEN: Romulus” is currently in theatrical release only. Streaming will most likely be on Hulu after a few months, depending on the box office of the theatrical run. FX’s “ALIEN: Earth” streaming series, to be shown on Hulu as well, is due to arrive sometime in 2025.