Summary
A visually stunning but narratively hollow Alien entry that struggles to escape the franchise’s repetitive and nostalgic traps.
Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead stands out for its stylish and moody reimagining of a cult classic, managing to innovate while honouring what fans loved about the original. In stark contrast, Disney’s post-acquisition strategy often appears to focus on leveraging beloved properties, sometimes recycling them to the point where they risk becoming hollow imitations of their former selves.
So, the ninth Alien film, the first of the Disney era, appropriately opens on a mining colony. Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) tirelessly works in the Weyland Yutani facility with her adopted brother Andy (David Jonsson), a malfunctioning synthetic lifeform that once belonged to the company.
For a brief time, this setting promises to be one of the more original premises for the franchise, shifting the focus away from scientists and soldiers in favour of a group of characters living on the fringes. Like the ‘truckers in space’ outlook of Ridley Scott’s original, perhaps aimed at younger audiences dealing with a cost of living crisis.
The ragtag group in question (Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu) convince Rain to use Andy to help them break into a Company station orbiting the planet. Yet things go awry when they get aboard, soon discovering there’s a whole bunch of critters that want to hug faces and burst out of chests.
You don’t have to have seen a previous Alien film to know where it goes from here, although Fox/Disney are most definitely counting on audience whoops of recognition. While Álvarez had previously said that his film was intended to be unconnected to the previous entries, you can almost feel the moment the real-life Company stepped in and changed the course of his script (co-written with regular collaborator Rodo Sayagues) in favour of franchise continuity.
Like an ouroboros chasing its own tail, modern franchise films can’t seem to exist without constantly tipping their hat to the past. This begins subtly enough with the opening credits, but by the time the film digs up the digital corpse of Ian Holm—who passed away four years ago—any lingering sense of unease is made disturbingly real. While it’s an impressive technical achievement, the ethics of using a deceased actor’s likeness remain dodgy.
From this point forward, the film simply becomes a dark ride in a theme park. The audience straps into their doom buggy and watches the animatronic totems reenact reworked moments from the entire franchise. It’s an indiscriminate collage, picking moments from Scott’s Alien, James Cameron’s Aliens and even Prometheus. This culminates in a final act that doesn’t simply riff on the previous films, but wholesale lifts entire scenes and dialogue from earlier entries, undercutting any tension or sense of originality.
To the credit of Álvarez and cinematographer Galo Olivares, this is unquestionably one of the most beautiful and slickly shot films in the franchise to date. His emphasis on the body horror is tangible, and you can feel every sticky and slimy moment dripping out of the bio-industrial landscape of the station.
Likewise, the cast work valiantly against the material at every turn. Spaeny continues a strong run in the wake of Priscilla and Civil War, even if the film runs her through the Ripley mill. Jonsson, however, emerges as the standout, delivering a nuanced performance as an “articial life form” whose behaviour subtly echoes neurodivergence. His portrayal is a masterclass in controlled intensity.
ALIEN: ROMULUS will no doubt please fans who wanted a straighter Alien film after Ridley Scott’s more meditative take with Prometheus or the middle ground of Alien: Covenant. While it might have a solid setup, it’s ultimately left adrift in space without enough original material to fill the void.
2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Fede Álvarez | WRITERS: Fede Álvarez, Rodo Sayagues | CAST: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn | DISTRIBUTOR: 20th Century Studios/Disney | RUNNING TIME: 119 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 15 August 2024 (AUS), 16 August 2024 (USA)
