Alien: Romulus

Thanks to Ash and a few other bad apples, it is not easy being a synthetic person in the Alien universe. It is even harder being a real person when Xenomorphs are around. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation probably bears a lot of responsibility on both counts. To escape their unfair company contracts, a group of space miners try to salvage the wrong derelict space-vessel in Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus, which opens this Friday in theaters.

The nearest livable refuge planet to their ringed hellhole is nine years away, so it requires cryo-pods. Fatefully, Rain Carradine’s ex-boyfriend Tyler detected an abandoned scientific research space-station in a decaying orbit around the planet, which has five intact pods. To retrieve them, they need Carradine’s “brother,” Andy, a glitchy synthetic, to interface with the ship’s system.

Even though they require Andy’s assistance, Tyler’s jerkweed cousin Bjorn keeps bullying him, because another synthetic made the triage decision that led to his mother’s death. Bjorn even deliberately taunts Andy with the significance of the five pods: one each for himself, Carradine, Tyler, his secretly (for now) pregnant sister Kay, and their pilot Navarro, but none for Andy.

Of course, the station (divided into two halves, “Romulus” and “Remus”) has a serious Xenomorph infestation problem. It also has the remnants of Rook, a synthetic science officer, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Ash, the sinister synthetic from the original Alien. True to his programming, he wants to deliver the potential power of the Xenomorphs to the company, regardless of the potential human harm. Unfortunately, some of his nasty coding will overwrite Andy’s prime directive—always do what is best for Carradine—when she tries to install Rook’s security clearances.

Clearly, Alvarez and co-screenwriter Rodo Sayagues deliberately went back to what everybody loves about the first film. Ditching the complex mythology-building, they simply but shrewdly offer up Xenomorphs hunting people in space. They even CGI’ed Rook to resemble Ash (with Daniel Betts serving as the stand-in). Guess what? It still works.

This time around, they come up with some clever business involving the acidic alien blood in zero-gravity. However, the cleverest elements involve Andy’s altered personality and Carradine’s efforts change him back. Plus, it is very cool to see what looks like Ian Holm’s Ash up to his old tricks again. It is also somewhat terrifying to see such convincing deep-faking.

Indeed, the best performances in Romulus are courtesy of David Jonsson, who is terrific as Andy, and Holm, who sadly passed away in 2020. Frankly, Jonsson really delivers great genre work, as both sad Andy and scary Andy. The rest of the undistinguished cast could have been downloaded or CGI’ed out of a run-of-the-mill slasher movie.

As in previous films, the first act scenes of dystopian corporate exploitation are ham-fistedly heavy-handed. However, the cat-and-mouse action in space is satisfyingly tense. There are also some disgusting effects that will surely delight fans. It definitely follows the template of Ridley Scott’s classic, but Alvarez has enough tweaks to keep things fresh. It all looks great on the big screen, but seeing it even bigger in IMAX is nice, but unnecessary. Recommended for franchise fans and anyone interested in the AI/synthetic human themes, Alien: Romulus opens this Friday (8/16) in theaters, including the Look 57 Dine-In in New York.