Alien 1½

Not perfect, but a worthy sequel (Spoilers)

Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) is a Weyland-Yutani employee who lives and works on Jackson Star, a space rock with no sunlight. One day, Rain discovers that even though her contract should be up, it’s been extended. Oh, man. While the Company has always treated its workers horribly, slavery with extra steps is a new one. This bit of d*****y is what sets Rain on a path to coming face-to-face with everybody’s favorite xenomorph.

Some other people Rain’s age have a plan to hijack a passing research station named Renaissance, which has been divided into a Romulus and Remus section. To do that, they need the help of Andy (David Jonsson). He’s an “artificial person” programmed by Rain’s father to protect her. Andy’s also outdated, with his monotone, tics, and spasms highly reminiscent of someone on the spectrum.

Artificial People Are People Too

Another member of the group is Bjorn (Spike Fearn), who has a grudge against synthetics because one left his mother behind to die so that the rest of her mining crew might live. It’s similar to how Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) doesn’t like nor trust Bishop (Lance Henriksen) but is taken to an uglier extreme. While Ripley was rude to Bishop, she never bullies him like Bjorn does Andy.

While the rest of the crew aren’t hostile to Andy, they view him as “just a machine.” It even turns out Rain, who refers to Andy as her “brother,” has been trying to get to a planet that doesn’t allow synthetics. So, while she would be living her best life, he would be abandoned or decommissioned. Wow. Rain sees the error of her ways by the end, but there was a moment there when I started hoping Andy would kill them all.

Good and Bad Nostalgia

Andy ends up not being the only android in the movie. Renaissance has a synthetic science officer named Rook (Daniel Betts), who seems to be the same model as Ash (Ian Holm), much like how every T-800 looks like Arnold. That might be the main thing I disliked about this movie. Bringing actors back from the dead is creepy, and I found something about this less sincere than when they resurrected Harold Ramis for Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

However, an interview with Fede Álvarez, director and co-writer, came out the day after I published this review, where he addresses the controversy. According to him, Álvarez did approach Holm’s friends and family about using his likeness for the movie, and they signed off on it. So, there’s that to consider as well.

Towards the end of the film, Rook reveals that after recovering Kane’s Son, they were able to reverse engineer the black goo from Prometheus. Their new end goal is to make humans “the perfect organism.” The new serum they’ve created leads to a xenomorph-human hybrid, like in Alien: Resurrection. That took me by surprise because those are two of the most polarizing entries of the franchise.

Critical Response

The critical reception for Alien: Romulus has been mostly positive. One thing that fans and detractors have agreed upon is that this new installment doesn’t reinvent the wheel. No duh. One of the funniest bits of How It Should Have Ended’s  “Nuthin’ But An Alien” song is the singer sarcastically saying that he’s sure Alien: Covenant is “totally original” because “it’s all the same movie/ different crew, different surviving brunette girl.”

I give Romulus an enthusiastic B+ because while it didn’t make me forget that I’ve seen this all before, it’s still really well done. Álvarez’s directing, particularly his usage of long silences, was tight. The cast’s performances were good. And there are some great scenes, like a whole swarm of facehuggers or navigating acid blood in zero gravity. You should see this if you’re as invested in the Alien franchise as I am.