Summary
- Alien: Romulus is a nostalgic return to form for the franchise, echoing the original film's plot almost too closely.
- The callbacks to iconic lines and scenes from the Alien canon can sometimes feel forced and take away from the tension.
- The decision to digitally resurrect Ian Holm's character without his consent feels disrespectful and prioritises profit over ethics.
As I sat in the cinema watching 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Alien: Romulus earlier this week, my immediate thoughts were how good it was. How it nailed the Alien aesthetic and vibe that prequels 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Prometheus and Covenant failed to. How it brought things back to the claustrophobic thrills that put the xenomorph on the map. How it felt like an Alien film.
But as the film went on, the similarities grew stronger. Then characters 𒉰from the original returned. And it all got a bit too much when iconic lines from the Alien canon were repeated verbatim; a wink to the audience with no place in the reality of the film itself.
I left the cinema unsure whether I enjoyed the film or not. It felt a bit like a return to form, a bit like an homage, and a bit like a remake, or at least a reinterpretation, of the original film. A♏ll this left me a bit confused.
Spoilers follow for Alien: Romulus. And Alien.
Alien: Romulus Is Alien’s The Force Awakens
I pondered Romulus in my hotel room that night, and came to the conclusion that it’s the Alien franchise’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Force Awakens. After two movies with mixed reviews (or a prequel trilogy with consistently terrible ones), theꦛ Alien series wants to show you that it’♒s back on track. It’s in good hands. So it releases a soft remake of the original movie as a comfort blanket for disillusioned fans. And, for the most part, it works.
After The Force Awakens retrod the plot of A New Hope, recreating the classic practically shot for shot, fans were back on board. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Star Wars is good again! While we all k🐎now how 🐟that went, it started strong, and this is what Alien: Romulus is aiming for: a sturdy new foundation upon which to rejuvenate the franchise.
I don’t have a problem with Alien: Romulus recycling the plot of the original film like it’s some sci-fi nutrient paste, but it reduces the tension. I quickly figured out that the cramped corridors and experimental xenomorphs were following in the footsteps of the original, so it was no surprise at all that the pregnant character gave birth to a human-xenomorph hybrid aboard the escape ship. It was even less of a surprise that the aforementioned creature was jettisoned through some complex series of levers. But, despite how fa🉐miliar it all felt, I still enjoyed the film.
Alien: Romulus’ Callbacks Went Too Far
But then the callbacks went too far. In🐭 the slimy alien tunnel and elevator sequence (a departure from the Alien plot for a brief Aliens interlude), android Andy (an incredibly unimaginative name for a great character with an exceptional performance from David Jonsson) kills a xenomorph before triumphantly shouting “Get away from her you… Bitch!” I audibly groaned in my reclining leather seat.
Romulus is set between Alien and Aliens, so, just to add more confusion, Ripley hasn’t actually said this yꦆet in-universe.
However, it wasn’t the winks towards the audience that irked me most, nor was it the shot-for-shot recreation of iconic scenes. I didn’t even care about bringing the actual xenomorph from the first film back to life through fake science shenanigans. It was the desecration of 🎀Ian Holm’s legacy that really annoyed me.
Holm, who died in 2020,💃 played iconic android Ash in the original film, and his descent into madness on behalf of the company set a high bar for all androids who followed in hiꦗs footsteps. While the likes of Fassbender and Jonsson provide admirable performances, Holm wrote the rulebook for androids in the franchise and the wider science-fiction genre.
So of course, Alien: Romulus decides he needs to posthumously reprise his role, kind of (Holm plays Rook now, a different synth with the same face and simil🐼ar memories and commands as Ash). Holm couldn’t consent to a CGI replica of his face and 🔯voice being used in Romulus; he had no say in the performance. As an actor who gave a different performance on every take, ripping this away from him for a shot of nostalgia feels gross.
Rook isn’t just a cameo, either. He’s a main character in the story, guiding protagonist Rain through the bowels of the Romulus spacecraft – while keeping the best interests of the company at heart, of course. There’s no real need for him to be there, this coulဣd have been any android. It could have been a different plot device entirely. Hell, get Fassbender back in if you have to. But Alien: Romulus decided that apeing the original and referencing the series’ most iconic lines wasn’t enough, it needed to resurrect a dead actor to reap in maximum profits.
The Alien franchise has become the very thing it set out to satirise. Fede Álvarez and 20th Century Studios are a real-life counterpart to Weyland-Yutani. They don’t care about the ethics of using Ian Holm’s likeness, they don’😼t care about his rights as an actor, they care about profit. If reincarnating him via dodgy CGI will bring in💯 a few more bucks, they’ll greenlight it. Once again, the parallels to Star Wars are apparent, who treated legendary horror actor Peter Cushing with the same profit-driven disdain.
Alien: Romulus is a fun movie. It’s better than Prometheus and Covenant, it’s – for me – better than Alien 3ಞ and 4, too. But it leans far too heavily on nostalgia to ever really become its own film, and Holm’s unsanctioned return leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. In another universe, there’s a version of Alien: Romulus that took risks and did its own thing. Maybe it flopped, maybe it soared to new heights. But playing it safe plays well at the box office.
Alien: Romulus Is Covered In Isolation's Emergency Phones
"Every time something bad is about to happen, y🦋ou will see a phone".
