While you could cynically accuse this sequel of being a ‘greatest hits’ collection for the film series, Alien: Romulus is a lovingly-crafted and hugely enjoyable return to this fictional universe, and is the best film in the franchise since Aliens.

Premise: Desperate for a better life away from the oppressive authority of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her adopted ‘brother’ Andy (David Jonsson), a reprogrammed android, join their friends on a mission to salvage cryostasis chambers from an abandoned derelict spaceship. But the derelict harbours a dangerous secret...

Review:

Obviously, no new instalment in the Alien series is ever going to be as good as Alien or Aliens, both of which are stone-cold cinematic classics. But since Aliens came out in 1986, the franchise has never really been able to come close to recapturing the magic of the first two films. I do have a soft spot for the 2003 “Assembly Cut” of Alien³ (which is infinitely better than the muddled 1992 cinematic release), but it works because it’s the culmination of Ripley’s story, rather than it being a great ‘Alien movie’. Then, because of the 200-year time-jump in 1997’s Alien Resurrection, that felt like it was set in a completely different universe from the original three films (as did the contemporary-set AVP: Alien vs Predator films from the 00s, the less said about, the better).

Ridley Scot then returned to the series in the 2010s, but with very mixed results. 2012’s Prometheus had some great ideas, but the film’s ruined by far too many badly written character decisions, and it doesn’t actually have any Aliens in it (an indication that Ridley Scott wasn’t really interested in making an Alien film). Alien: Covenant was a bit of a course correction in 2017, restoring the word “Alien” to the title and bringing back some of the classic iconograph (Eggs! Facehuggers! Chestbursters!) – but it’s still only really the last half an hour that’s an ‘Alien movie’. Covenant was perhaps the most accomplished and coherent Alien movie since Aliens, but it still felt quite detached from the original trilogy.

“…really recaptures the spirit & tone of the original fictional universe…”

Alien: Romulus, on the other hand, feels like a proper ‘Alien movie’ from beginning to end. It’s very clear that director and co-writer Fede Alvarez is a huge fan of the original two films, and that Alien: Romulus is very much his love-letter to those classics that he grew up with. Some have argued that Fede Álvarez is too faithful to the original two films – playing a ‘greatest hits’ compilation from those films rather than taking any bold new creative risks – and while I can see some objective basis for those comments, I don’t agree with them. I think you can’t argue with the results – which is that Alien: Romulus is the most fun, most enjoyable film in the series since Aliens, and it’s also the first one since 1986 to really recapture the spirit and tone of that fictional universe.

Chronologically, Romulus is set in the time period between Alien and Aliens, and it includes plot points and design nods to both of those films. Even the derelict itself is split into two parts: the older ‘Remus’ section, where the design is based on the Nostromo from Alien, and the newer ‘Romulus’ section, which incorporates the updated design aesthetics from Aliens. But it’s unfair to imply that Alien: Romulus is nothing more than a collection of rehashed moments and ideas from the first two films, as Fede Álvarez manages to explore some really interesting new elements, while also paying tribute to the existing Alien mythology (and even weaving some of Prometheus’/Covenant’s ideas into this new chapter).

“…the film’s secret weapon is David Jonsson‘s performance…”

For example, the opening section of the film, which depicts the harsh lives of the exploited workers on an off-world colony run by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, sets the scene perfectly for the main characters’ motivation to embark on such a dangerous venture to try to find a way to a better life. Throughout the film, there’s a sense that the universe is fully realised and tactile, be that in the way that little details are fleshed out, or in the way that Fede Álvarez have favoured the use of puppets, animatronics and prosthetics over CGI and greenscreen wherever possible. The production design and cinematography in Alien: Romulus is truly top-notch.

But for me, the film’s secret weapon is David Jonsson‘s performance as Andy, the adoptive ‘brother’ of Cailee Spaeny‘s Rain. Don’t get me wrong, Cailee Spaeny is superb in her role, and she’s having one hell of a year with Alien: Romulus following her breakthrough performances in Civil War and Priscilla – but her role at Rain is the more straightforward of the two leads (although she still takes her performance in some unexpected directions). But Andy is a much more complex role – a malfunctioning android that Rain’s father recovered from a scrap heap and reprogrammed to look after her as her adoptive ‘brother’. But by the time we join the characters, Rain’s parents are both dead, and Andy’s malfunctions mean that she’s having to look after him, rather than the other way around. David Jonsson (who made an impressive debut in last year’s rom-com Rye Lane) brings a touching childlike innocence to Andy in the opening scenes, and he has undoubtedly the most interesting character arc in the film (and once that generated lots of spoiler-packed discussions after I watched the film).

“…returns audiences to the fictional universe depicted in those first two films…”

The rest of the cast is made of largely up-and-coming, less-well-known actors, with the exception of Isabela Merced (who’s been fantastic in everything from Dora & The Lost City of Gold to Sicario 2: Soldado). But as well as delivering on the character relationships, Fede Álvarez also provides plenty of inventive action set-pieces. Some play with tension, others play with panic and chaos, and some are just crowd-pleasing action, but all are memorable and entertaining in their various ways. The film also includes an interesting development in the final act (which, to avoid spoilers, I won’t discuss here) that I thought was an unexpected direction to go in, and just the kind of creative risk that some have accused the film of not taking.

There are, however, a couple of controversial elements that have divided audiences, one of which involves a line spoken by one of the characters which (for me) was gratuitous and which took me (momentarily) out of the movie. I personally would have removed the last two words from the line in question, which would have arguably achieved the same result and made far more sense in the context of the moment. The other controversial element involves the posthumous depiction of a deceased actor – now I’m not going to debate the larger ethical issues involved in this sensitive area (although Fede Álvarez has spoken movingly in interviews about how the family of the deceased actor were involved in the process), but I will say that in the fictional context of this movie, I found the character’s inclusion to be very effective, and felt that it added an extra dimension to that particular plot thread.

“…the best movie in the series since Aliens…”

I don’t think it’s just recency-bias to say that Alien: Romulus is the best ‘Alien movie’ since Aliens – it's the only one that’s really returned audiences to the fictional universe depicted in those first two films (without time-jumping into the future, or flashing-back to the past). Growing up in the 90s, I fondly remember the ‘expanded universe’ of novels and comics that fleshed out the universe of Weyland-Yutani, the Colonial Marines, and the pioneering off-world colonies first seen in Alien and Aliens, and it was always a disappointment to me that we never explored more of that universe on the big screen. Now, we finally have – and I’d happily seen more Alien stories from these filmmakers.