PublishedAugust 15, 2024, 07:00
In theaters since Wednesday“Alien Romulus,” flee, poor fools!
There’s not much to save in this episode of a saga that screams to return to its roots while panting within the first minute.
by
Jean-Charles Canet
In the Alien chronology, which includes some major films (“Alien” and “Aliens, the Return”), some frustrating but interesting digressions (“Prometheus” and “Alien Covenant”), and also a few monumental wastes (let’s think of the lamentable “Alien vs. Predator”), “Alien Romulus” is situated between the first feature film, directed by Ridley Scott, and the second, directed by James Cameron. The pressure is particularly high for this ambitious new episode, directed by Fede Alvarez, which aims to be neither a digression nor quite a sequel.
Playground for young adults
What is it about? A feature film (two hours long) that starts on a mining planet exploited by the Weyland-Yutani company. From the very first seconds, something feels off. All the characters presented to us are young adults. This choice to make us believe that these kids in their twenties are workers exploited by a profit-hungry company simply does not work.
The trailer (French version) for “Alien: Romulus”.
20th Century StudiosThis is exactly the opposite of the first “Alien” (1979), where Scott presented a composite crew, with proletarians, employees, managers, and various functions and ages. It was just, realistic, subtle, effective. One immediately believed in the stakes and power dynamics. In “Romulus,” we discover a playground inhabited by clueless and caricatured youths, as if they had been spawned by a market study.
Toward the wreck
Tired of being exploited, the crew of boys and girls — one of whom is pregnant, with a Chekhov’s gun as big as a house— decides to take control of their run-down spaceship to head to a more hospitable place. But it’s far. They need hibernation capsules. Luckily, one of them knows that a wreck belonging to the company, likely equipped with them, has entered orbit. Off to the wreck, which turns out to be a large space station, equipped with hangars, one named Remus, the other Romulus.
Of course, the station is too abandoned to be honest. And our team of misfits quickly arouses the interest first of frozen birthers (they shouldn’t have turned up the heat), and then of real big ugly aliens. Who will perish, who will survive to suggest there will be a sequel? It’s written; we quickly guess who and, unfortunately, it’s not a character played by Sigourney Weaver.
Ridiculous final mutation
From the shipwreck riddled with jump scares remain a few nicely crafted sequences. A virtuosic preamble in particular which demonstrates very well that a ship in space makes no noise. The sets are credible, faithful to the extended universe, and the special effects are respectable without too much digital mush. There are also some revelations about what the predators are and what Weyland-Yutani intends to do with them. But these narrative enrichments are of an abysmally crude nature, with a final mutation that borders on absolute ridiculousness.
This film was produced in response to the commercial failure of “Alien Covenant,” which was unjustly seen as too misanthropic; “Alien: Romulus” has brought the xenomorphs back to the center of the butchery. Personally, we would have preferred Ridley Scott to remain at the helm (and not just as a producer, as here) and to conclude his trilogy that began with “Prometheus” with dignity.