By Dwight Brown
NNPA Film Critic
(**1/2) “This place gives me the creeps!”
When a band of twentysomething scavengers sets their sights on an abandoned space station, little do they know that their search for treasure would lead to the reawakening of alien beings. A creepy feeling is an understatement. They’re gonna be ravaged and destroyed!
In the 22nd century, life on the dark, sunless Jackson Star Mining Colony is hard. Miners are worked to death and promised freedom. But instead, they’re bound. Like indentured slaves. Rain (Cailee Spaeny, Civil War) worked her extra hours and was ready to escape with her friend Andy (David Jonsson, Rye Lane), an android whose technical name is ND-255. Travel permit denied. Trip gone. So, when her ex-lover Tyler (Archie Renaux, Morbius) reaches out to her with some crazy scheme involving blasting off in a hijacked spaceship, searching for resources and possibly a getaway, she’s game.
Rain, Tyler and his crew are ready for action. There’s the menacing rambunctious sidekick Bjorn (Spike Fearn, Aftersun), loving sister Kay (Isabela Merced, Father of the Bride) and the feisty pilot Navarro (Aileen Wu). They board a vessel, head to outer space and hook up with a ghosted space station. What could go wrong? Facehuggers, chestbursters and xenomorphs—aka aliens—are nesting, reviving and looking for prey. “There’s something in the f—ing water!”
The first Alien movie back in ’79, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver, became an iconic horror/sci-fi movie that spawned sequels helmed by heavy-weight directors like James Cameron (Avatar), David Fincher (Se7en) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen). Handing the reins to the b-movie horror genre loving Fede Alvarez is a gamble. His 2013 remake of Evil Dead made $97M+ at the international box office—but to mixed reviews. His 2016 feature Don’t Breathe fared better ($157M and more positive reviews). You reap what you sow from who you hire.
The visual excellence of Ridley Scott’s first Alien is missing from this saga. An unsurpassed sense of timing and adventure, similar to Cameron’s Aliens, is also absent. Lots of the footage and its lighting is darker than need be (cinematographer Galo Olivares). As are the color palette (art director Monica Alberte) and interiors (production designer Naaman Marshall, The Dark Knight). The clothes don’t necessarily fit the period, except for Andy’s puke green uniform (costume designer Carlos Rosario, Shogun). Even the alien creatures are generic as they flash sharp teeth, drip spit, bite bodies and invade their new hosts.
We’ve seen it all before and these special visual effects aren’t particularly distinguishable.
So how does Alvarez get fear across to the audience? How does he make hearts jump up into throats? He relies heavily on thunderous sound effects and an intense, loud musical score (Benjamin Wallfisch, Twisters). He trusts these devices to make the dread more foreboding, the action more pronounced and the deaths ghastlier. That’s the secret formula. The theater vibrates with heavy bass when danger lurks, and bodies are blooded. Hard to measure how high the decibels go, but they’re enough to fray nerves. It’s a PTSD that lasts after you leave the theater. That’s when you feel like you’ve just been runover by a truck. The violence on view is horrific. But sounds of it are far more affecting.
It’s slow going for the first 30 minutes and outside of a space ride and landing, nothing is impressive. Once the aliens attack the so-cocky-you-deserve-to-be-chewed-up crew, and they learn something weird is after them, that’s when the pace finds its rhythm (editor Jake Roberts). Credit Alvarez for ultimately whipping the audience into a frenzy, even if it’s with basic horror/sci/fi tricks. But imagine what this experience would have been like if his visual game was as strong as his audio one. That would have made this movie more than just an assaulting experience.
Spaeny is good not great. Similar to her efforts in Civil War. A bit petite for the role. Hard to imagine her as an action hero, unlike the towering Sigourney Weaver who played Ripley in the OG Alien. Renaux is solid as the group’s leader. Fearn is a bit nasty as Bjorn, as he should be. Merced is likable. Wu adds a gusty spirit to Navarro, giving that character a futuristic warrior vibe. She would have made the Rain character far more believable. She’s more Ripley than Spaeny will ever be.
In the British rom/com film Rye Lane, Jonsson struck the right chord between neglected lover and fervent boyfriend. Here he seems off balance as he figures out how to play a Black android who looks human, is smart but way too passive. Watching him kowtow to a white female lead, in subservient ways, is a flaw in his interpretation of the character. Also, a flaw in the script’s weak character development. Awkward enough to make Black audiences wince. Especially if they’re hoping his character arc includes him becoming the big savior in the end.
Alien: Romulus will give the target audience the creeps. It isn’t Alien. It isn’t Aliens. Not close. But since the screenplay is so self-contained, there’s a generation who just won’t care what came before this chapter. They’ll take it for what it is. An engaging, generic horror/sci-fi/thriller. That’s an observation. Not an accomplishment.
Visit Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.
