Most frustrating thing about new movie in Alien franchise

This new entry in the long-running Alien series smartly goes back to the franchise’s beginnings – but one thing makes it a frustrating watch.

In space, no one can hear you scream, or, I guess, cackle in delight when a punk ass side character gets a mouthful of face hugger tentacle.

Nor can anyone in space hear you groan when the nostalgia bait is too on the nose, as it often is in Alien: Romulus. 

Director Fede Álvarez‘s new addition to the long-running Alien series smartly goes back to the franchise’s grimy, claustrophobic, gruesome beginnings, but ironically is hampered by reverence for prior instalments.

Alien: Romulus is bracing fun, buoyed by a stellar ensemble cast, but its narrative falls apart under any speck of scrutiny. It’s an especially frustrating film because you see glimmers of the magic that made some of its predecessors instant masterpieces. Alien: Romulus just can’t get out of its own way.

It was initially pitched as new chapter in the Alien franchise, “unconnected” to past films, and yet set smack in between the events of 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens. The film was directed and co-written by Fede Álvarez, who had hitherto proven his penchant for gross-out horror in 2013’s Evil Dead reboot and Don’t Breathe.

Make no mistake, the film has plenty of the Alien franchise’s usual jump-in-your-seat scares.

Alien: Romulus was intended to be a return to the franchise’s original form, as a practical effects-based sci-fi thriller. It was also initially meant to go straight to streaming platform Hulu, but at some point, the powers that be granted it a wide cinematic run.

Its strongest salvo is its set up. Doe-eyed brunette Rain (Cailee Spaeney) is stuck caring for her brother Andy (David Jonsson) on a horrific mining colony on a planet where the smog is so thick, no one ever sees the sun. Illness is rampant, misery omnipresent, and the colonists’ corporate contracts keep getting re-upped without the their permission.

Rain is offered one way out. Friend (and former flame?) Tyler (Archie Renaux) has figured out there’s a decommissioned Weyland-Yutani ship just floating derelict above the colony’s atmosphere. If Andy can help him sneak on board, Tyler suspects there will be enough cryopods for him, Rain, and their buddies to survive the nine year journey to a distant paradise of a planet.

Alien: Romulus is in cinemas from today.

Alien: Romulus therefore plays out like a heist gone terribly wrong. The first hiccup is the revelation that the Weyland-Yutani ship is actually a space station made up of “twin” sections coyly called Romulus and Remus. The second problem is the structure is on a collision course with the planet’s rings. The third catastrophe? Oh, yeah, there are Xenomorphs all over the abandoned craft, just waiting to pounce on Rain and her scrappy band of friends.

After its ingenious set up, though, the narrative flaws begin to snowball. Without getting into spoiler territory, almost every nod at the past films lands rather flat. What makes the film’s first act work so well is how specifically narrow the stakes are; Rain and her friends simply want a better life. As the nefarious designs of the Weyland-Yutani corporation take over, the story makes less and less sense. The primary motivations of the characters are waylaid for lore, much to the film’s detriment.

A fresh new cast of space explorers waiting to be eaten.

Like another reboot of recent months, Twisters, half the fun of Alien: Romulus is watching its ensemble cast of up-and-comers play off each other. Cailee Spaeney is incredible as Rain, the action ingenue who leads with smarts. David Jonsson continues to cement his place as one of the most captivating young talents to watch out of Britain, while Isabela Merced is arguably the tender heart of the film as Tyler’s sweet sister, Kay. Spike Fearn’s Bjorn is a delightfully relatable asshole; his nasty attitude clearly nurtured by the colony’s hellacious environment. Aileen Wu pops as the gang’s confident pilot Navarro, who is chill about everything except, you know, aliens. And Archie Reneaux once more makes a convincing case for himself as Hollywood’s next captivating leading man.

The other half of Alien: Romulus‘s fun? Watching aliens go ham on the aforementioned cast.

It is indeed silly summer fun, but it never transforms into anything more than that.

Álvaraz acquits himself well enough as a horror director – I was howling both in terror and delight – but the script has too many big swings that feel like flails.

The more Alien: Romulus chases the iconic moments or ghastly twists of the original films, the more it loses its footing.

You want Rain and her friends to not only survive the Xenomorphs, but also the crushing fist of capitalism, represented by Weyland-Yutani. That dream becomes harder and harder to believe in the more and more it chases the Easter eggs and convoluted mega-lore that feeds the corporate franchise machine.

This story originally appeared on Decider and is republished here with permission.

Originally published as Most frustrating thing about new movie in Alien franchise