Alien Romulus: My Acid Tongue

A drone searching the wreckage of the Nostromo finds the organic object it was searching for and returns it to a space research station.  Meanwhile, Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her adoptive brother Andy (David Jonsson) an android, I am sorry, they like to be called a synthetic person, who is malfunctioning and basically has the mentality of a child, dream of getting off the planet and no longer working for the Weyland Yutani Company who is operating the mining colony they work at.  When Tyler (Archie Renaux), Rain’s love interest, discovers an abandoned space station orbiting their colony, he and a group of other young miners develop a plan to remove the cryogenic stasis pods that would allow them to travel the nine years to a better world.  They don’t need Rain to accomplish this, but they do need Andy, being a Weyland Yutani synthetic, as he would be able to access the ships security systems, but Andy’s main directive is to do what is best for Rain and will not leave her. Rain reluctantly agrees and the group take a mining ship to the space station, which was being used for genetic testing on the Xenomorph that was retrieved from the wreckage of the Nostromo.  Everything seemed to be going as planned until they accidentally set free a slew of face-huggers.  In order to rescue her friends, Rain uses another synthetic’s memory chip and places it into Andy, which updates his access and also corrects his mental deficiencies, but this has unintended consequences. Can Rain survive and finally be free of the mining company, what was the company really doing on the research station, how will they create the sequel? Watch and find out!

Alien: Romulus is an American science fiction horror film which takes place between the first film, Alien (1979) and the second film Aliens (1986). It is the seventh installment (the nineth is you include the 2 Alien vs Predator films) in the Alien Franchise and was produced by Ridley Scott, the director of the original movie. The character of Rook in this film is played by Daniel Betts and uses the likeness of Ian Holm who played the “synthetic” Ash in the original film.  The movie was filmed in Budapest and shot chronologically.  Special effects were done by Image Engine and music was by Benjamin Wallfisch. The film was released in theatres on August 16, 2024 and garnered mostly positive reviews, praising the performances of the leads, visual effects and atmosphere.

As a critic, it is hard not to second guess yourself when you see other critics liking something that you didn’t find especially good.  This film is not bad, and I did enjoy the performances of Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson. Jonsson in particular I feel did an amazing job being basically two different characters throughout the film with aspects of the same character visible in each.  The visuals are stunning, and the claustrophobic atmosphere does add to the overall terror of the film. The music is very good in also creating the horror necessary in each scene.  So, why was I not that impressed with the film?  Because it felt a bit overly complex, both in its setting and its story telling. It also uses so many aspects from all the other Alien films in a way that goes beyond paying “homage” that nothing felt original and fresh for me, but completely left out other aspects that were important in the other films, like the Xenomorph eggs. In addition, it was also very dark.  I don’t mean the story was dark, I mean many of the scenes take place in very dark places and where you can see some of the Alien’s classic movements behind its next victim, it became difficult to see some of the action. I may be jaded, as I am a huge fan of both the first film and the original sequel, in fact they are two of my all-time favorite movies, and in my opinion none of the films that have come after, have ever come close to capturing the magic those two films had.  Ridley Scott and James Cameron created two of the most original and vastly unique films to take place within the same universe. While Prometheus at least tried to add something to the mythology, Alien Romulus is just the same ol’ same ol’.