Alien: Romulus (2024)
(No spoilers)
It should be said up front that I am a huge fan of the mainline Alien franchise. The first movie contends for a place in my top 5 movies of all time, possibly top 3. The rest are, admittedly, meh, but I enjoy them all the same.
One major draw for me is in the comparison with previous Alien movies. All these movies share the same general formula: wage-slaves and/or para-military goons (and one corpo-android) in space, wreckage is found, someone gets facehugged, alien goes through puberty, people die, heroine escapes through quick-thinking and determination. But each movie is a product of its time. Like James Bond or Batman, every generation gets an Alien, and its in the differences between each that you can find the real content.
What draws me in most about these movies is the extremely slow building of the Alien universe. Every movie expands the background lore just a _tiny_ bit more, while re-using more or less the same formula for the individual movie itself. Compare it to something like yet-another-Spiderman-or-Batman origin story movie, or a Zelda game. In those you get a different take on the same story, but generally without a feeling that the sum of all the stories is going to add up to anything new. Each stands alone. With Alien there's a slow building of this universe that's happening in the background (and occasionally the foreground, in the case of Prometheus), and that's what keeps me coming back.
With all that said, I think Romulus is probably the best Alien since the original. They kept the right parts of the forumula in-tact, expanded into new places enough to be interesting, and didn't add anything unnecessary.
The one massive caveat I'll add to that is that this movie is _far_ more disturbing than any of the others. If you don't like gore then this ain't the movie for you. I don't mind gore, but I don't show up for it. The psychological aspect of the horror is where the movie really shined (especially in the end), to the extent that even a seasoned Alien vet like myself was a bit challenged and disturbed. I count that as a positive, but I would totally understand if someone didn't; not everyone wants to be challenged at the movies.
Another piece that shined was the characters and their relationships between each other. The first Alien featured a diverse group of space miners, each a bit disgruntled with the company but overall seemingly content with their life. Their relationship with each other is that of collegial, if sometimes a bit antagonistic, and their goal is universally to get home and get paid. Compare to Romulus, which is a rat-pack movie at its core. Once again we have a diverse group of space miners (kids, really), but this time with a completely antagonistic view towards the _company_, and a fierce loyalty and respect for one-another (except the corpo-android). It's them against the universe, and their only goal is to escape their corporate-servitude and find new lives together.
If this is the Alien for this generation, and if this generation actually identifies with this story (which I don't know), what does that say about how this generation sees their life vs those of the 70's and 80's, when the first Alien was released?
The expansion of the Alien universe itself I felt was fine, though there's not much I can say without spoilers. I do start to worry that whoever is in charge of the overall vision (is there anyone?) is maybe writing themselves into a corner that's going to be difficult to get out of. There's clear references to the goings-on in Prometheus, but now the cause-and-effect is getting a bit circular. Maybe that's the ultimate goal.
Final thoughts: I don't think this would be a bad first-Alien-movie for someone to have seen, assuming they could stand the intensity. It hits all the beats and it teases the larger universe. That said, if you can, watch the original first.
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