Alien(s)

I love those little Xenomorphs. My thoughts on Alien: Romulus.

1979: my mother is pregnant with me. She goes to see Alien and says it almost triggers her labour. Cool, right? Pure terror onscreen is almost the impetus of your birth. Still, I wasn’t entirely cooked yet. I held on for some months before I decided to show up.

I think Aliens is the first Xenomorph movie I see, probably around 1999. Legendary film, right?

Years before, I got a full rundown of how much Alien3 sucked from my brother. He ruined the ending for me, and I still haven’t fully watched that movie: every other Alien movie, just not that one. I find it strange how well I remember him describing it to me. My brain is a sponge for pop culture.

I did enjoy the documentary about how this movie came to fail so spectacularly. It’s one Youtube if you’re a process junkie like I am.

My true love for Alien came via the comics. For a while, Dark Horse had some pretty incredible comics based on the property. One, in particular, captured my attention—Aliens: Labyrinth.

It is a mean Alien story full of betrayal, mad scientists and mean Aliens. I'm not sure how it hasn’t been adapted into a movie, but it is easily one of the best Alien ideas I’ve ever read.

Alien: Ressurection is probably the first Alien movie I saw in theatres. I haven’t seen it since, but I love the director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelia). I’ll have to revisit that one. It is considered one of the worst of the franchise, but I think the studio was big into meddling in their Alien films at this point in the game.

I don’t understand how you hire some of the best filmmakers in the world and then interfere with their ideas. That seems odd to me, but it seems to happen all the time.

Then, of course, we get some Alien vs. Predator movies and some prequel movies, and nothing seems to hit the mark. Alien is the franchise that keeps popping up and trying to stick its throat/mouth into us, and failing.

This brings me to the latest film, Alien: Romulus. Or course, I want to talk about it. I might spoil some things, so if you haven’t seen it, you should probably watch it.

I loved this film. Of course, I’ve heard the grumblings that are going on. “It’s too much like….” Okay, yeah, a film about an Alien that we’ve seen in nine other films might not be the most original in some regards.

I want you to leave those thoughts behind, strap into the rocket ship Romulus, and enjoy the ride.

The key to enjoying this Alien movie is to come and have a fun time (if you like space horror).

Okay, what do I enjoy about it?

First off, I like the characters. Yup, a bunch of young punks are attempting to get off a mining planet because living there sucks. Your protagonist, Rain, is an orphan. Her brother, Andy, is an android that Rain’s dead parents cobbled together for her. Their friends, a ragtag group of competent(ish) scavengers, bring them along for a ride to an abandoned space station to loot it. You have your usual group of space outlaws, even the asshole that you know is going to get messed up later in the film.

I mean, that’s a fun premise, right? It's just a bunch of desperate people trying to get off a planet owned by an evil corporation. Seems easy enough, but there are Aliens on the space station.

Look, like I said before, we aren’t breaking any ground here…but if you are here for fun—to watch how these crazy kids get out of a bad situation—you’re in for a treat.

So, the director, Fede Alvarez, has done a remake before. He remade a film called The Evil Dead, from the Sam Raimi original. I liked it a lot. I like the original films, but sometimes, if you have the right director, it is nice to see ideas updated. You can tighten up some spots, add better effects, and have fun doing it.

Fun.

Fede’s Evil Dead was different but fun and pretty horrific. He dialled up the scares and gore a lot. I enjoyed it.

Walking into Alien: Romulus, I didn’t have many expectations. I thought, ‘this movie will update the franchise to a new generation.’

Alien needs some younger fans, right? Yes, it does. The first movie was 1979. And the last couple of movies have been directed at ultra fans of the franchise. You need an Alien doctorate to know what is happening.

With this movie, I thought they would update the special effects and reintroduce many ideas. I was ready for that, and that is what I received.

The thing was, they managed to do this in such a fun way. The facehuggers are fast and scary. The Aliens are Aliens. They want to rip your face off. The synthetics were interesting. They added some interesting ideas to them. The deaths were pretty brutal. There were some decent jump scares. The ending added a bit to the lore—if you were paying attention, you might make some connections between Prometheus and this movie.

They updated some special effects and made a fun Alien movie.

If you don’t or didn’t like it, that’s fine.

I had a great time. I don’t often find myself laughing with giddy joy at the beautiful absurdity of movies, but Alien: Romulus had me cackling to myself while I watched it. It’s fun. I think it’s the best Alien movie we’ve had since the first two.

Not everyone lives, but the ones who do have a great character arc. It is satisfying in every way.

I hope you’re well,

Martin J.