Alien: Romulus (2024) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Finding the path to prosperity is never an easy feat we hope. You don’t believe me? Look at Alien: Romulus.


PLOT


The 2024 film takes place in 2142, set between the events of the franchise's first two films. Rather than follow Ellen Ripley floating through space, the story follows an orphaned colonist named Rain Carradine who works at LV-410 with a malfunctioned android her late father adopted, Andy. With Weyland-Yutani forcibly extending her contract, she plans to escape from the planet with her adopted brother. She seems to have a chance when reuniting with her ex boyfriend Tyler Harrison. He shares with her that he is planning an escape of his own to Yvaga III with his sister Kay, as well as their cousin Bjorn and his adopted sister Navarro. There is a station floating outside the planet and they want to take a few hyper-sleep chambers to facilitate their escape. Rain is hesitant with the fact Andy will be needed to communicate with the station's computers and will be left behind since the other colony won't allow synthetics, but she goes along since this will be her only chance to leave sooner. The station happens to be one abandoned by Rain's employers split into modules, Romulus and Remus, aka Renaissance. The group boards the Corbelan IV to reach the station and Andy joins the boys in finding the chambers. They scavenge for cryo fuel when the pods are found to not have enough for the planned 9 year expedition. As the girls wait, Rain finds out Kay is pregnant which she has kept secret from her brother. During the scavenge, the boys inadvertently revive frozen face-huggers in a cryo lab which puts the room on lockdown. Because Andy doesn't have the clearance to override and escape, Rain & Nevarro rush to save them. Rain uses a chip from a dismembered synthetic onboard and gives it to Tyler to save her brother, but the chip repairs his malfunctions and resets his mission to serve the company. When the lab door opens, they get chased by a horde of face-huggers. Bjorn & Tyler avoid getting impregnated, but not Navarro. Rain reactivates the dismembered android whose name happens to be Rook, for all the help they need to know what they're up against. He explains that the seed planted in Navarro will grow to be a xenomorph and knows this because the previous crew of Renaissance captured the same one that attacked the Nostromo years prior. When the Renaissance found it, it was presumed dead until it attacked. The self defense from the crew only resulted in their damnation because the station's exposure to the alien's acidic blood destroyed the station and killed what was left of the crew. Although the group safely removes the facehugger off Navarro, Andy insists leaving her behind to save themselves but Bjorn ignores the plea and takes her onboard. Navarro undocks the Corbelan from Renaissance at her brother's request before the chest burster emerges from her body, leaving Kay in shock. As that happens, Corbelan crashes into the hangar of Romulus which accelerates the station's collision course to the planet's rings. Bjorn gets to Kay first, but gets killed by a fully grown xenomoprh fresh out of its cocoon. Andy helps Rain & Tyler get there only after avoiding the same facehugger horde. By the time the others reach her, Andy considers leaving her with the fact she's being used as bait. Before they can agree to anything, Kay gets taken by the alien. As the group moves forward, they find a lab for what is said by Rook via monitor to be a fluid harvested from facehuggers meant to rewrite & adapt DNA at will, Z-01 aka the Prometheus Fire. The android explains they took the first xenomorph intending to use their DNA to save humanity and rush evolution as we know it since most colonies are dying anyway from unbearable temperatures and novel diseases every cycle, as well as toxic mining fumes. Andy is assigned to take it to Jackson's Star on LV-410 and if the humans go against it, Rook won't allow them to leave. With the alien still hunting them, the group arm themselves with pulse rifles. However, Andy recommends to not fire any bullets or they'll risk another case of explosive decompression or acid blood exposure. When the group passes through a nest, they find an injured Kay and get her out of there but Tyler sacrifices himself to buy the others time to escape. When Andy gets another malfunction due to the attack from the aliens, Rain guides Kay to the closest elevator before she goes back to save her brother. On her own, Kay takes use of Z-01 to heal her injuries without a second thought. At the nest, Rain resets Andy to his previous programming. With a swarm of xenomorphs in her way, she temporarily disables the station's gravity to shoot her way through and avoid the acid blood in the process. Once getting closer to an elevator shaft, they float above until another alien grabs Rain. She shoots it away, but she loses her momentum as she rises until she reaches a ladder in time to avoid the impact of a gravity purge. Andy delays the fall of an elevator as she gets caught by another alien who wants to kill her for itself. Thankfully, her brother gets to her in time to save her from it and others following them. With no more threats in their way, they board Corbelan with Kay and leave Renaissance before impact. After boarding, Rain declares moving forward with Yvaga and ignoring Jackson’s Star, as well as put up with defending her brother when they get there. Just as they prepare departing to Yvaga however, Kay gives birth to a hybrid mutated by Z-01. The hybrid quickly kills its own mother before disabling Andy and chasing Rain. The final girl overcomes the odds one last time by ejecting it into LV-410's rings, dropping a cargo pod onto it. The film ends with Rain recording a log of her optimism to reach Yvaga before joining her brother in cryo-stasis.


THOUGHTS


If there is one thing quite obvious about this franchise, it’s hard to enjoy it without the involvement of its creator Ridley Scott because we were lucky James Cameron topped his vision with Aliens and the former’s prequels are far more interesting than the stuff that came out from the 90s to the 2000s. So it’s not difficult to say expectations were high in such a spinoff. Due to Fede Alvarez handling an outstanding remake of Evil Dead and making a grounded original set of thrills with Don’t Breathe, I wasn’t too worried of the outcome and I’m glad to feel that because despite having low expectations, they were exceeded. So it wasn’t really a bad thing to try blending the caliber of an action packed yet scary intense after Aliens, but it just wasn’t working for so long because the latter was oddly lacking. This time, the terror truly returned and was able to be quite attention grabbing. You know the visual effects done for space or the acid blood and the set pieces for the ships are quite grounded, but the practical stuff are truly appreciated here. Screen time rationed out between the facehuggers & xenomorphs but when you see them, you’re just as scared as you were the first time. Even the puppetry done for Rook, who has an intentional outstanding resemblance to Ian Holm’s Ash was worth the price of admission. The big jump scare though goes to the unpredictable appearance of the Z-01 hybrid that is basically a fucked up amalgamation if an Enginneer had mated with a xenomorph if possible. This is not the first hybrid this franchise has seen, but this has to be the best due to how relentless it was to take action. It skips the curiosity you would expect from Resurrection and goes straight to being a killing machine liked you’d recall in AVP Requiem. The presence of this monster was another reminder of the consequences when trying to play god because this was an action done so blindly no matter the intent behind it. With a mix of old and new threats, you would still have a thought that hope is lost if you don't have the same plot armor as Ripley. The characters we follow don't match the same resilience the iconic protagonist had, but the chemistry they all share brings up the important reminder to not disregard the morality you stand by, otherwise you're just being part of the problem. The company of Weyland-Yutani is indeed part of the argument since they don't care the way they should when it comes to their employees and Daniel Betts fills in the shoes of the late Holm to be the emphasis about it. As Rook, he is quite manipulative and him being aware he's a machine makes him embrace relentless determination for a cause that's gonna go nowhere. He may not know that, but not considering the possibility is where he's a threat because his programming makes him blind on what else can be done to improve humanity as we know it. However, we're more against the company than just him because we're rooting for people who deserve to have prosperity after being in a position where they had to fight for it. We're quickly hooked with Archie Renaux due to making Tyler a natural born leader since he does his best to treat everyone as equals and think more about them than himself, which all the more makes his death upsetting. Isabela Merced had us root for Kay apart from being pregnant, because she was far more sociable compared to how Spike Fearn as Bjorn. The guy has his angst due to how androids sacrificed her mom at work when it could've been avoided, which made him uncomfortably hostile towards Andy. The only time it feels excused is when he tries protecting Navarro from him. He does try to be compassion towards looking out for others when wanting to save Kay, but he only does that because she is having his baby which is implied as they stared intimately towards each other before he dies (and Alvarez has confirmed it as well). Kay's death was the most fucked up due to it technically being her own doing as she could've thought it through on using the Z-01 drug, but Bjorn still has it bad due to how slow it happens for him. It still sucked when Navarro died first because Aileen Wu showed her to be most reserved that she unknowingly sacrificed herself to protect her brother. With such loss happening one by one, you're gonna ask aloud if it's all worth it until a follow up ruins the narrative. For now, I think it is because two people survived the night. Rain is much different from Ripley in final girl standards because apart from being quite resourceful when danger came her way, she acts the most pragmatic so that everyone can be satisfied. It is a desperate yet effective move because she just can't wait anymore to achieve a new chapter in her life she deserves. She is also the most selfless of the group compared to Tyler because as a big sister, she has to protect Andy the way he protects her in return and puts up with whatever consequences that come from it. With that being said, David Jonsson felt phenomenal as the android because he's far more different than the ones we've seen. He's the only one of his kind to be more genuine of his kindness despite his programming because he is literally building emotions with the bond he has with Rain and tries to build with others. Even after getting improvements, he is still able to maintain the humanity he gained which is indeed a challenge in his feat. Because of this, he and his sister deserve a lifetime of peace and I hope it can stay that way. This movie is as good as I say it is, but there were still things that didn't make much sense. For example, how come no one in LV-410 noticed the Renaissance crashing? People leave the planet all the time despite the cloudiness and you're telling me no one noticed it during a 170 gap before Tyler picked up on it? That is ridiculous. Going a little step back, if Nostromo had a big explosion, why is the debris so close to each other? I would imagine pieces landing onto other planets already. Also, shouldn't Tyler be electrocuted if Bjorn used the prod on water? I mean I can't be wrong thinking about this. And honestly, what the hell would Kay do if she didn't have a key to escape from the xenomorph? Personally I would hide in the cockpit before the hatching was complete, so I wish to believe she would do the same because it doesn’t seem like it would try to hurt itself just to get to her. And I know Andy is not perfect, but he could’ve told Bjorn to be careful before saving him from falling. He doesn’t know what happened to his mom, so there’s no reason to not communicate. And ain’t it too big of a coincidence the cooling equipment used for the face huggers ended up being the same cryo fuel needed for the trip to Yvaga? I know the challenge kicks in once the alien arachnids awaken, but why is this even possible? I feel like they should have different sources of equipment to avoid getting stolen. I don’t want to root for the company, but this totally something to avoid if they tried. Hell, I don’t even blame Bjorn for wanting to protect Navarro, but if a robot is telling me she’s got a 60/40 chance to survive an alien coming out of her, I’d give up because it’s not worth the risk compared to other decisions that have occurred in this franchise. And if there is an arms lock in a lab room, why aren’t there any in the cryo room for the face huggers? If you’re gonna be precautious in one room, keep it up everywhere else. Lastly, was it worthwhile for the alien to take Kay after already injuring her? It's clear it took her to be a new host, but the blood loss probably wouldn't make her an ideal specimen. Ignore this, then you'll still appreciate this movie as much as I have. In short, Alien: Romulus is the franchise's return to form we waited way too long for. If sci fi horror is your thing, see this now.