Tyler (Archie Renaux) has a plan to hijack a hauling ship, Corbelan, to escape the mining colony Jackson’s Star after the Weyland-Yutani corporation extends their contracts.  A key part of this plan involves Rain (Cailee Spaeny), his ex-girlfriend, or more specifically, Andy (David Jonsson), Rain’s brother who is a reprogrammed synthetic human that would be capable of communicating with the MU/TH/UR system that controls the spacecraft.  Also joining the renegade crew are Bjorn (Spike Fearn), his partner, Navarro (Aileen Wu), and Tyler’s sister, Kay (Isabela Merced).  Shortly after breaking orbit from Jackson’s Star, the crew comes across a dual-part research station, Romulus and Remus.  Boarding the abandoned station for resources, they discover what the original crew was sent out to study; the wreckage of the USCSS Nostromo and the Xenomorph species. 

Fede Alvarez directs Alien: Romulus, the seventh film in the franchise and a legacy sequel to the original Alien (1979) with the events shown occurring before the events in Aliens (1986).  Rodo Sayagues assists on the page for the 119-minute film released by Twentieth Century Studios.  The film features an overwhelming score by Benjamin Wallfisch that leans on the themes and cues of the other composers in the series; Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, and Marc Streitenfeld.  Galo Olivares has the momentous task of photographing the exceptionally dark film, and Jake Roberts is able to build tension across the edit resulting in one of the director’s largest films to date while not abandoning his roots in horror and thriller nor the spirit of the Alien franchise. 

The film cold opens with the research crew bringing on the carcass of the Xenomorph that was ejected from the airlock of the Nostromo, only to discover too late that the creature was not dead but only in stasis.  Alvarez then pivots the tone of the film into something much slower, laying down the foundation of the world, while not spending too long down on Jackson’s Star as much of the action – and anything the audience is going to care about – will take place aboard the ship.  We are introduced to these younger characters, and given Alvarez’s pedigree as a filmmaker and the Alien franchise as a whole, they are rather fleshed out for being little more than face hugger fodder and it is to the film’s benefit as we begin to care about these characters as actual people.  While the performances are quite good from the green cast assembled by casting directors Sydney Shircliff and Mary Vernieu, Romulus is lacking a bit of the gravitas that the later, more pondering and philosophical entries of the franchise had. 

Part of this is because Romulus is not looking to delve too deeply into the lore of the world thus creating a mirror for our current society as Ridley Scott has been doing in the later entries of Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017). It is a shame because given the depth of the myth of the founding of Rome, this film is really only using the names of the wolf-raised brothers and nothing else, but given the nature of the franchise, Romulus does still butt up against some questions that are top of mind.  The major thematic issue dealt with in the film – though more as a byproduct of the plot than an actual thesis statement – is the proliferation of AI.  The concept of AI is far from new in the franchise, but there are certain choices made across the runtime that do bring up some ethical questions that the industry is grappling with and were a major sticking point in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes of 2023.  Ian Holm, who passed away in 2020, is “reprising” his role in sorts as Rook, the synthetic human that served on Romulus and Remus and was modeled to look exactly like Ash, the synthetic human aboard Nostromo which Holm played in the original Alien.  This tracks as Michael Fassbender would play both David and Walter, two synthetic humans in Covenant, but a live actor playing a dual role is a much different scenario than using CGI to recreate the likeness of a deceased actor.  It is jarring to say the least because not only does this digital approach betray the surprisingly refreshing tangible look and feel of the dilapidated ship, but even beyond that it crosses a moral line that until this point has mostly been met but never fully breached.  It also denies the film a chance to bring in a stalwart actor – though Daniel Betts is credited with providing a vocal and facial performance here – that would have let Romulus feel just a little more connected to the franchise and a little less scrappy of a production that could not afford a more established cast. 

When it comes to the action of the film, much of this is held to the back half of the narrative as Alvarez really pulls out all of the stops and delivers a sustained, action-packed finale for those who stayed with him through the calmer, tension-ratcheting first half.  We see flashes of what is to come, but we are not expecting a sustained, 20-some-minute, adrenaline-fueled finale that utilizes nearly the entirety of the abandoned ship. Earlier in the film, there is an extended sequence in the flooded-out chamber where the face huggers had thawed and then later Tyler and Rain must navigate a parasite-filled hallway in silence or their position will be given away. These are all tense sequences but last mere minutes, so when the third act comes around and Alvarez maintains this high level of both horror and action, we feel like we are watching a brand-new and exciting film. An anti-gravity encounter on the bridge of the ship. A vertigo-inducing battle in an elevator shaft. When Rain emerges from the ordeal, many filmmakers would have ended the story there, but Alverez has one more trick up his sleeve tying the film back to Prometheus in a gruesome and fascinating way.

Romulus serves as an interesting crossroads to a franchise that is struggling to go in either the more traditional horror path or the philosophical thriller path. If anything, it proves the versatility of the franchise because it is able to support both of those draws while still delivering a fully realized film. It does not feel totally tied down to what came before it – though there are a few moments of fan service that are its weakest parts – and while it is not a “reboot” in the sense that this branch of the story is just part of the larger Alien tree that we can expect to see continue much beyond what is shown, it blends new and old ideas alike in a satisfying way. Alvarez is approaching the material out of a place of love and admiration, and it shows through in the final result. The fresh-faced cast breathes some new life into a franchise that many have feared had its best days behind it, but with each new installment, it seems to prove that the Alien series is rightfully just as resilient as the Xenomorph itself.