2024-08-15 04:13:16
Reunion with a familiar face
What fans can expect from “Alien: Romulus”
14.08.2024 – 14:15Reading time: 3 min.
The first “Alien” film hit theaters 40 years ago, and now the seventh installment in the science fiction series is being released. What is “Alien: Romulus” about?
Ridley Scott achieved a milestone in the genre in 1979 with the atmospheric science fiction shocker “Alien”. Action specialist James Cameron delivered the spectacular sequel “Aliens – The Return” in 1986. Four more “Alien” films followed. But the first two remained unsurpassed. Now the seventh film in the series is coming to cinemas. “Alien: Romulus” is set between the two cult works.
After veteran Ridley Scott had directed “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant” – both of which tell the prequel – himself, he now limited himself to production and left the directing to Uruguayan Fede Alvarez. Alvarez was one year old when “Alien” hit the cinemas and established Sigourney Weaver as the action heroine Ripley.
Ripley does not appear in “Alien: Romulus”. The story revolves around a group of disillusioned young people who want to escape their dreary existence as miners in a colony. On an abandoned space station, the group led by Tyler, played by Archie Renaux, hopes to find a few hypersleep capsules in order to begin the long journey to a distant planet and start a new life there.
For their illegal trip to Romulus Station, Tyler recruits the orphan Rain, played by Cailee Spaeny, and her “brother” Andy, played by David Jonsson. Andy is an android programmed by Rain’s father to protect her. Tyler hopes that the friendly Andy can open a few security doors on the station. But some rooms would have been better left locked.
- Film premiere almost 30 years ago: Here “Alien” star Sigourney Weaver posed in a nude dress
As soon as they get to the top, the burglars discover that scientists have grown something on the Romulus station. Tyler and co. soon know why there are no human survivors. It is aliens who want to hunt the young people. The terrible events on the Nostromo, the spaceship in the first film, which can also be seen briefly here, are repeated.
Filmmaker Fede Alvarez gained horror experience as the author and director of “Evil Dead” and “Don’t Breathe” and made the little-noticed Stieg Larsson film “The Conspiracy” in 2018. In “Alien: Romulus” he relies on the tried and tested concept of the first film and enriches it with original new ideas. A scene in which Rain navigates through a weightless room full of alien acid is one of the exciting highlights.
“Alien: Romulus” fascinates with a quasi retro-futuristic look that consistently continues the look of 1979, which from today’s perspective is no longer quite modern, without appearing outdated. Even eighties sneakers fit in well. The sets and the aliens are still based on the designs of HR Giger, who died in 2014 and who won an Oscar with his team for “Alien”.
Composer Benjamin Wallfisch has skilfully incorporated elements of earlier soundtracks by his legendary predecessors Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner, as well as Harry Gregson-Williams, into his atmospheric film music. Sound effects – and sometimes absolute silence – also play an important role.
Fans of the series, which also inspired two crossover films with “Predator,” will discover various Easter eggs. The group comes across an android named Rook. It is the same model as Ash, played by Ian Holm, on the Nostromo. Holm, who died in 2020, was digitally recreated for the figure with the consent of his descendants.
Alvarez’s film, unlike many horror thrillers today, is neither extremely bloody nor does it overdo the graphic depiction of violence and injuries. The Uruguayan avoids cheap shock effects and creates action-related tension. There is no need for particularly anxious viewers: “Alien: Romulus” is not nail-biting, the tension is moderate.
The seventh film in the “Alien” series is still an entertaining science fiction thriller and a worthwhile addition to the series. In the last third of the film, however, something similar happens that was criticized by fans in 1997 in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Alien: Resurrection.” The science fiction universe is set to continue next year. “Alien: Earth,” the first TV series about the sinister creature from an alien world, is expected to start in the first half of the year.