‘Alien Romulus‘ arrives showcasing the fifth director to work on the franchise, acclaimed horror talent Fede Alvarez who has found success not only amongst other IP (2013’s Evil Dead) but also on his own ( 2016’s Don’t Breathe). It does feel like Fede Alvarez is a natural selection for the Alien franchise. Perhaps too natural? Part of the Alien franchise is an ability to change the themes of the movies, with the orignal being the survival horror that Romulus is hearkening back to, but each one shifting the tone to completely different directions. I won’t say they all work, they don’t, but it’s nice to see a series that switches up the ingredients that often and usually found success doing it.

It’s not that Romulus is incapably made, it looks better than most modern genre movies you’re likely to see in the year of our Lord 2024. It’s two leads perform admirably as Rain (Cailee Spaeny), a miner on a distant planet trying to make her way to see the sunrise, and Andy (David Jonsson) her brotherly robot companion. They are easily the most likable of the crew, potentially the only likable ones if we’re being honest. A miss in trying to bring back the blue collar crew of Ridley Scott’s Alien is that all those guys liked each other. This crew can’t seem to stand one another, which makes the tension of losing one of them (or all of them) feel less strenuous. But this too goes back to my original point, if the only thing a “Legacy Sequel” can offer is nostalgia, then that nostalgia has to be picture perfect or all we’re going to be doing is drawing comparisons. When Andy guns down an xenomorph and delivers the classic line, “Stay away from her you bitch!” we can’t HELP but remember Sigourney delivering that line and securing for herself an Oscar nomination. A sci fi sequel getting nominated for something other than crafts in 1979? Unheard of! And this is only part of the reason I prefer the Prometheus route.

Prometheus feels like it’s own movie, it’s an Alien movie in an abstract sense. It’s loosely horror sure, but it’s mostly a movie about existence and our own place in the universe. Something that had not been wrestled with much if at all in the series. Even David Fincher’s imperfect Alien 3 (cubed to those that know) tried something different. Romulus too often feels like it’s playing the hits, taking you back to moments from the franchise and saying the lines or providing the nostalgic feelings. While it may feel like we’re starting to escape the deluge of superhero movies we may come to find that we’ve traded one demon for another. If the best Hollywood has to offer are movies that try to replicate the movies we loved from the past is that any better?

Speaking of demons, I understand that his family signed off on it, but seeing the late Ian Holm’s CGI visage is a display that I did not need to see. Let the man rest in peace. Also did anyone run the numbers on having the dead actor convince another character that they “Had to do what was best for The Company?” Perhaps it’s best that we let actors that have passed not be in the movie. Especially when they died 4 years before it comes out.

As much as it sometimes feels like we’re starting to run from the MCU it does feel that cameos and references will be here to stay in blockbuster film making for awhile, which is a little disappointing. Films are more than the references they make or the people they manage to shoehorn into them. Did it make The Flash better when they marionette’d Christopher Reeves’ lifeless corpse to make a cameo happen? Can we please stop pretending like the greatest movie moment is when Blake Lively appeared as Lady Deadpool?

Hollywood is risk averse so franchises are here to stay. And the numbers make sense, if audiences have a certain amount of buy in they’re more likely to buy a ticket. I just wish more directors would trick folks more. Trick is a harsh word, but bear with me. Dredd (2012) is a great example. In terms of tone, style, substance it has nothing to do with Sylvester Stallone’s beat em up cop movie. It was a way for a creative to get a script sold, and a way for Hollywood to sell that script. It was am improvement on the original in just about every way and everyone got what they wanted. It’s frustrating for any franchise to fall back into things we’ve seen before, let alone one that’s historically good at changing things up.

Sequels should be more than just another movie done less well, and there are a plethora of sequels that succeed at just that. I had hoped for more from a director like Alvarez, who has a penchant for pushing boundaries in more ways than just the goop, slop, blood, and guts he brought with him to this endeavor. He was capable of doing what an Alien sequel requires, and that’s making it feel like an original stand alone movie, even while it hangs it’s hat on the work of those that came before.

2.5/5