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It seems that someone in Hollywood has ultimately decided that the best of the Giger Alien films are those that combine strong action and suspense with good character, without being weighed down by corporate politics and science fiction mythology. Ridley Scott’s prequel movies have their fans (and presumably so do the two Alien Vs Predator films) but personally I am in favour of this apparent return to the essence of what made 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens so effective (and to a lesser extent 92’s Alien3).

It made sense to me that they had hired the director of the last Evil Dead movie as well as that really pushed boundaries and lent into the body horror that has always been a part of these films as well, at least until I realised that this is from Fede Alvarez who made the 2013 Evil Dead remake rather than last year’s excellent Evil Dead Rise which was directed by Lee Cronin.

Alien: Romulus is a return to form then. It is definitely aligning itself with the first two Alien films, fitting chronologically right between them, but does pick up on elements of Alien: Prometheus and Alien: Covenant as well effectively bringing all of the movies together in a way that they’ve not managed before. It is a gripping monster flick with engaging performances from its younger cast (although Cailee Spaeny who stars is no more than four years younger than Sigourney Weaver was when she first played Ripley) and provides an undistracted thrill for the audience. Of course this also makes it a little samey, particularly to Alien. I definitely enjoyed it but I do find myself wondering what Lee Cronin would have done with it.

It may not be a genre defining classic like the original then but it’s good. There are a number of set pieces that find interesting ways of dealing with established elements like the face huggers and the acid blood and the nods to the previous movies mostly work within the narrative. There is one familiar line that is really clumsily included but generally they manage the legacy well. I won’t say which of the cast it is as the reveal was handled well but unsurprisingly one of the players is a robot and the way they bring in this strong part of these movies in is really well managed. The characterisation, performance and relationship with others in respect of this aspect is particularly good. It did seem like they were setting things up for a sequel at one point (this was one of the problems with Prometheus and Covenant) but then it dealt with it all in the running time which I appreciated. This is not to say there isn’t possible sequel bait here but this might just serve as an ambiguous denouement like in 1979. It is ultimately not a great surprise to discover who the last person standing is (which was not the case in 1979) but I thought they nicely played with this a little as well.

I’m going to dance around spoilers for this next bit but if you want to know nothing going in then skip this paragraph. There is one actor from the first Alien who appears in some form in this film and it is someone who has since died, which is sadly true of several of the central cast of that movie. I can totally see why they included this character in this way, it works in terms of how it is linking things together and is consistent with what we have seen in all the other movies. It does once again raise the question of the ethics of bringing actors back like this but I find as this becomes increasingly common practice in cinema, I am okay with it. I trust they were given permission by the man’s estate but it’s not as if anyone would ever think this is really that person like they might in a deep fake video. The use of CGI means that they can now make one actor look a lot like another now (although it is still not perfect) but Malcolm McDowell looked uncannily like Rupert Murdoch in Bombshell but because that was done with make up it was never an issue. I get the moral complexity of this but personally I was pleased to see their face in this series again and I thought it showed respect to their past contribution to this ongoing story.

In this run of seven movies then (leaving out those silly Predator mash ups) this is one of the best. The plot builds well, the characters are generally fully rounded and uncliched, the chases are tense and believable and the direction, design and cinematography is all really good. The poster doesn’t have an iconic strap line like ‘In space no one can hear you scream’ or ‘This time it’s war’ but with a strong return to the familiarity of this series’ dank deserted spacecraft, egg laying monsters, violent chest births and the like, it could have said ‘Welcome back to the mothership’ and that would have worked.

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The Ripley Factor:

It is interesting to look at the icon that is Ellen Ripley and gender representations in the first Alien, against those in this latest instalment. It has only happened in the tail end of the forty five years that have elapsed between the two but we are now at a point in cinema where a normal woman with no superhuman skills taking control in the face of unimaginable odds stacked against her is not exceptional anymore. Needless to say that sexism in film still exists and there is not equality in the industry but I’d argue that Ripley’s legacy is finally that we don’t raises our eyebrows at females prevailing in action and horror movies like we once did. With things as diverse as Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Verse, A Quiet Place, Twisters, Civil War, Love Lies Bleeding and the latest Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Mission Impossible, Planet of the Apes films, even in male lead stories it is just the norm. This is the world this series exists in now, a world it helped create, and it responds as you’d expect.

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