Run for your life, aliens attacking!

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it is a cliche for a reason. The Alien franchise has been a lolly scramble of good and bad since Ridley Scott’s Alien was first released in the ’79. Generally speaking, the newer the entry, the worse the movie has been. Most of the more modern sequels struggled to capture what made the original movies so spectacular. That feeling of claustrophobia, the use of sound and lighting, Sigourney Weaver – these are what people want from an Alien film.

Fortunately, in the hands of incredible horror director Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead) Alien: Romulus is a lot closer to being a success than the majority of the sequels that came before it, but I couldn’t help but feel that this good movie had the potential to be great but just never quite got there, despite a strong third act making up for some pacing issues in the first third.

I’m generally not one to care about explaining storylines in reviews, that’s what the movie itself is for, and fortunately, the story itself comes secondary to the horror and action so there’s not a huge amount to explain anyway. Think typical sci-fi storyline – workers on a mining planet want a better life, find an abandoned space station, need parts from said space station, aliens are on said space station and running/hiding/screaming ensues. This isn’t to downplay how good the running, hiding and screaming is, because when it gets going there are genuine moments of tension, panic and even a couple of jumpscares that caught me off guard. All I’m saying is that this isn’t about story, it’s about spectacle and immersion and at times this is done incredibly well, especially when it dares to try something new.

The performances are fairly solid throughout, but it is the two leads who shine. Cailee Spaney as Rain and her adopted brother, android Andy, are the only two characters who are really developed enough to truly care about. Fortunately, they both nail their performances so you do actually feel invested in whether or not they make it through. The relationship between these two is believable, emotionally grounded and provides a decent amount of heart to an otherwise fairly vapid storyline. There’s also a cool android version of an iconic character from the original films that I won’t ruin here, but his performance is fantastic and he provides a very interesting complication to the story.

Where Alien: Romulus prevents itself from being truly fantastic is the fact that it doesn’t make enough of its most engaging elements and concepts,  particularly its use of sound or rather lack thereof. In its opening moments, silence is used to create the tension and claustrophobia of space – it is immediately engaging and feels almost suffocating sitting in the dark with such deafening silence. I had hoped this was a taste of how silence would be utilised throughout the film but instead, it was left fairly underused. Similarly, it takes until the film’s final moments for some steps in an original direction. Up until this climax, the film has been confidently retreading everything we have seen in previous Alien films. While this isn’t done unsuccessfully, it’s not unique enough to be memorable. When we finally start treading into new and unfamiliar territory, it’s instantly exciting, gasp-worthy and breathtakingly shocking, but sadly over too soon.

Overall, Alien: Romulus is a decent entry into the Alien universe. Alvarez understands horror very well and gets some capable performances out of his talented cast. It has moments of brilliance with its use of lighting and sound but these moments aren’t embraced enough to make the most of. It takes too long to get going and spends a lot of time presenting scenes that feel very familiar to the franchise despite being done well, and while its final act starts to blow you away with an original take on the genre, it also reminds you how safe the rest of the film was played out. In the end, I felt like it had what it needed to be outstanding but didn’t risk enough to truly achieve it.