Alien:Romulus beautiful soft reboot
Hello, friends,
At last, the day has come—a new chapter of the legendary franchise is now available in cinemas, and I couldn't miss this film. You could call me a fan of the Alien universe, so a fresh movie after seven years since Alien: Covenant feels like a breath of fresh air. Today, we'll take a closer look at the new movie and figure out whether it's worth your time or just another useless and senseless picture.
Not a Typical Story
What do we know about the standard storytelling in Alien films? We usually have a main character, some secondary characters who get eaten by the monster, the xenomorph itself—from facehugger to fully grown species—followed by a bloody massacre. In the end, the main hero somehow manages to kill or isolate the creature. A good addition in modern films is the synthetic robot who has its own thoughts and goals to achieve. We’ve seen two great examples in the forms of Walter and David from Alien: Covenant. But the storyline in Alien Romulus takes a new direction.
Alien: Romulus - First victim.
The main characters are ordinary workers on an industrial planet called Jackson’s Star. They are quite young, which is not the usual thing for the Alien franchise. Since this is a soft reboot, we have a strong female character—Rain Carradine. She has no family, and the only close person to her is a synthetic human named Andy. He’s an old model created by Weyland-Yutani and found by Rain’s father in a junkyard. His primary directive is to do what’s best for Rain. Since Jackson’s colony is a hellish place, with a bad atmosphere, huge pollution, and almost slavery-like work conditions, the youngsters decide to change their lives by flying away to a planet called Yvaga, free from Weyland’s influence. The only problem is that the flight would take nine years, but the solution is just above their heads. Near the planet, Navarro, the pilot of our group, spots an abandoned Weyland ship, likely with cryostasis chambers on board, which would allow them to reach Yvaga. Rain's great dream is to see the sun once again, and she agrees to let Andy open the door of the mysterious spaceship.
Let me briefly introduce the secondary characters—Tyler, the alpha male and all-around nice guy; his cousin Bjorn, a total jerk; Kay, Tyler’s sister, who is pregnant; and Navarro, the mechanic and pilot, who may be trans, though I didn’t catch it fully. I found it strange that in such poor colony conditions, Rain's team has their own space cargo ship. Maybe it’s normal, but it surprised me.
Alien: Romulus - Andy changes his main derectory.
Finally, our heroes reach the mysterious spaceship, and with Andy’s help, they manage to open the door. To better understand Andy, I should describe this synthetic human. As I mentioned earlier, he was rebuilt by Rain’s father, and to me, he’s quite a strange machine. In previous films, synths were strong, cold-minded, and quite dangerous, even to their own creators. Andy isn’t that kind of guy. He can be easily broken down, and without Rain’s help, he can’t reboot his own systems properly. He has an interesting personality—he shows emotions, tells jokes, and displays great affection for Rain. If I didn’t see his mechanical parts, I would think he was just an ordinary human with some quirks. This film offers a new perspective on synthetic humans, and it’s quite interesting.
After boarding, Tyler, Bjorn, and Andy discover that this spaceship is divided into two parts: Romulus and Remus (you know, like the founders of Rome). Andy realizes this is some kind of research ship, but what was its purpose? Soon, the team finds the chambers and sends them out for Navarro to collect. The problem is the fuel; there isn’t enough for a nine-year journey, so Tyler decides to search for extra tanks. But in the main section, they find a creepy scene—a huge hole in the floor and a broken synthetic in two parts, which doesn’t improve the team’s mood. However, they still decide to explore the dark corridors. Eventually, they find a compartment with fuel, but when they try to take the tanks, the system lockdown begins. Andy can’t open the door, so Rain decides to install a chip from the damaged synth into Andy, which should allow him to open the door. But the lockdown isn’t their biggest problem.
Alien: Romulus - The legend appears.
The room wasn’t just filled with cryofuel—it was a huge freezer with dozens of facehuggers inside. Yes, you’re right—someone intentionally bred and grew monsters. Rain manages to install the new chip in Andy's head, and from that moment, we see a great change in his character. With new code, he becomes the core of this film. His movements and actions become as precise as David’s. No mistakes—every move is calculated, and a new directive replaces the old one: Do what’s best for the company. The team survives the room with facehuggers and eventually reaches the room with the damaged synth, but Navarro receives an unpleasant gift on her face. To figure out what’s going on, Andy activates the damaged synth, who shares the truth. He calls himself Rook and reveals that Romulus was a research ship. They reached the crash site of the Nostromo and captured a live alien for research. The main goal was to create a serum using xenomorph DNA to make superhumans immune to illnesses and physical damage, just like the aliens. But, as usual, something went wrong. He shows what actually made the huge hole in the floor—an alien killed by the security team and left hanging above the ground.
From this point on, madness takes over. Bjorn and Tyler manage to remove the facehugger from Navarro, but as you may guess, the process had already begun. Bjorn takes his girlfriend to the cargo ship, leaving Andy, Rain, and Tyler on Romulus. Unfortunately, they can’t leave because the alien already burst from Navarro’s chest, causing the ship to smash into the Romulus docks. Andy’s new task is to deliver the serum samples to a Weyland representative on Jackson. One by one, we lose characters—Bjorn after a close encounter with an alien egg, and then Kay is taken away by a xenomorph. Andy, Rain, and Tyler go deeper into the lower levels and find a horrifying scene—the entire level is a nest of aliens, and the whole spaceship crew has been consumed and used to create new monsters. But they somehow find Kay, who is still alive and not infected. They save her, but Tyler sacrifices his life to let Rain and Kay evacuate. Andy is temporarily disabled after being attacked by an alien.
Alient: Romulus - Kay refuses to acknowledge her child.
Rain gives Kay short instructions and hands her the serum case. She’s a brave girl and can’t leave her only friend behind. She returns, removes Rook’s chip, and together with Andy, they fight the xenomorphs. Kay feels she won’t make it to their ship and injects herself with the serum—a huge mistake. When Andy and Rain reach the cargo ship, Kay is already in the cryochamber, but the computer warns that something is wrong. The serum wasn’t perfect, and it seems like it was created for one purpose—to change human DNA and create super soldiers, not to cure and make superhumans. It might have been a mistake, but I’m not sure. Anyway, a new super monster is born from Kay. Instead of a facehugger, Rain finds a human child—an ugly hybrid of human and alien with white skin, a tail, a long and skinny body, and, most terrifying of all, a human face. I have a feeling it was an Engineer's face from Prometheus. The creature grows up in minutes and comes to see its "mother." Kay isn’t happy about this and tries to abandon the child. The creature doesn’t appreciate this attitude and consumes Kay.
In an epic battle, Andy and Rain manage to defeat the monster and send it with a cargo container into the asteroid belt. In her last voice message, Rain tells us that she is the last survivor from Romulus and is heading to Yvaga.
Strong and Weak Sides
After leaving the cinema, I thought a lot about what I had just seen. On one hand, we have a fresh take on an old franchise. Young characters, a storyline about dreams turning into nightmares, a new look at synthetic humans, great performances from classic aliens and facehuggers, a new super hybrid of human, xenomorph, and Engineer, and of course, stunning graphics and unreal space action scenes outside the dark and creepy corridors. As an action film with new details about xenomorphs, this is a great movie. It captures your attention and keeps you interested for the entire two hours. The actors are all new to me, but I can’t say they acted poorly. Andy was the star of this film. I loved his performance and how perfectly he transitioned between two different characters before and after the chip injection. Overall, I can say that the entire cast did a great job. The creators had several great ideas to make the film even more exciting and interesting. We got a closer look at facehuggers, their interaction with grown-up aliens, and discovered that they can find their prey by temperature signature. I really liked how the creators paid attention to the acid blood of the xenomorph and created a whole scene around it when Andy and Rain, in zero gravity, tried to avoid the acid floating in the air. That was an ultra-cool episode.
Alien: Romulus - Rain and Andy fight back against xenomorphs.
But every movie has its darker sides, and I couldn’t overlook them. The creators tried to make a cult character like Ripley once was. They even recreated the scene where she used a flamethrower, replacing it with a cryogenic machine. Good attempt, but right now, I can't say Rain is ready to replace the legendary Ellen.
Since the cast is multicultural, we see Andy as a Black synthetic human. Bjorn hates synths and doesn’t hesitate to show his attitude toward the robot. Maybe I’m wrong, but I see a hidden modern agenda here against skin color and other stuff. We’re all humans—I personally don’t care about your eye size or skin color. David Jonsson portrayed his character perfectly, and I respect him for that. Same with Navarro—a strong, bold woman who can handle any trouble. For some reason, she was the first to get eaten. Maybe she should have kicked some alien ass with a snapper or something.
Alien: Romulus - The moment befor the end.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing in this film was the lack of aliens. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like I didn’t see enough xenomorphs on screen, especially in close-up. In my opinion, the hybrid alien took up more screen time than all the classic monsters combined. This is just a slight minus because it was compensated by the facehugger scenes at the beginning, so you might overlook this if you wish.
The new alien has a perfect design—creepy, mysterious, and ugly. It’s a perfect demonstration of what happens when you mess with DNA too much. But overall, it’s the same alien in a new body. I thought maybe it would speak or at least behave more intelligently. It showed some understanding when it tried to hug its mother, but eventually, it ate her. This is so messed up, in my opinion. I really hoped for some conversation or, in my wildest dreams, that this monster would fight the classic aliens. But it acted just like its blood relatives, trying to kill everyone, even the synth. I think the creators had some ideas about this guy, but for some reason, they decided not to make him intelligent, despite having an Engineer’s face.
A New Dawn for Alien
After 45 years of the Alien franchise, we now have three storylines. This is just my opinion, so feel free to disagree. First, we have the classic—Ripley and the first four films with her. Then we have Prometheus and Covenant, which show us how the aliens were created and who’s in charge. And now we have something between these two storylines. Maybe this will be a separate story about Rain and her adventures, or maybe the creators will unite all three storylines in one great conclusion. Maybe Predators will arrive soon? I don’t know, but I have different ideas about the future of this franchise, and Romulus is a good example of a modern horror film. I can gladly give it a 7/10 and recommend you see it for yourself. But don’t be greedy or lazy—spend a few dollars and get a ticket to the cinema. The wide screen and 3D sound give an unforgettable impression of this film. :)
That’s all for today. Feel free to share your own opinions about Romulus in the comments, and see you soon!
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