SPOILERS THROUGHOUT
Alien: Romulus is meant to be a return to form for the franchise after Ridley Scott’s more ambitious prequel films about the origin of humanity and an android’s obsession with creating life failed to resonate (though I was a big fan of both). Instead of following David on his next misadventure, Romulus is a safe play, directly following the original film and drawing inspiration from all of them. In other words, it was meant to appeal to fans. In that regard, it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
At first, I was in love with this movie. The dreary dystopian mine planet and all the recreated technology from the original film completely hooked me. Because of that, I’ll gladly revisit this film for years to come. It’s not trying to expound on any big ideas; it’s just a solid survival movie that looks great…until the ghost of Ian Holm showed up.
The de-aging stuff that Hollywood (but especially Disney) insists on forcing on us doesn’t bother me as much as it seems to bother others. Don’t get me wrong, I think most of it looks strange, and it almost always takes me out of the movie; but it doesn’t ruin it for me. Holm in this one almost did, though.
It’s not the quality of the de-aging, even though it’s not great as Holm’s eyes look odd and his mouth somehow looks 2D while the rest of his face is 3D. It’s how unnecessary it is that gets to me. He’s not playing Ash, so it didn’t have to be Holm. And in the original film, everyone was shocked that Ash was a robot, but if his likeness was a standard model, wouldn’t at least one person be aware of it? Ignoring that possible plot hole, who was this for? Is there anyone in the audience thinking, “Fuck yeah, they brought Holm back from the dead!”?
Sure, there’s a precedent for androids looking identical with David and Walter in Covenant, but that was done for dramatic effect (whether that was effective or not is beside the point). And it wasn’t like they digitally recreated Fassbender for it.
I’ve read articles about how Holm’s family gave it the okay, and it was meant as a tribute from the filmmakers, but it was simply a distraction for me, which is why the bulk of this article is about the use of Holm instead of the aesthetics or action or new creatures. Once I accept it, though, it’s easy to enjoy the rest of the film.
While others have bemoaned the fact that Romulus doesn’t attempt to take the franchise in a bold new direction as Aliens (turning to action), Alien³ (turning to nihilism), Alien: Resurrection (turning French?), AVP and AVP: Requiem (turning it all into a joke) and Prometheus and Covenant had before it, I didn’t mind. Not every movie needs to take a big swing if it can deliver a solid bunt that advances a runner. And Romulus is a serviceable bunt. I know that makes it sound like it sucks shit, but I truly mean it as a compliment.
Romulus is a fun enough ride to make me forget the lesser elements like Holm and the sometimes incomprehensible accents from some of the actors (apparently on loan from the Red Riding trilogy). All of the space stuff looks great, the acting is fine, with David Jonsson the standout as android Andy, and there’s plenty of facehugger and alien nastiness to keep things moving. And that Engineer-looking monstrosity at the end was truly disturbing.
It certainly felt like none of Romulus matters much to the franchise as whole, and that’s fine with me. If the studio isn’t going to let Ridley Scott make more Fassbender-as-Old-Testament-android-God-creating-new-life movies, then I’ll take one of these from Fede Alvarez (or whomever) every few years.
Random Thought
I don’t have a lot of randomness to comment on, not until I watch it again at least, but I did want to write a bit about the “Get away from her, you bitch” line. Initially, I fucking hated the inclusion of the line. It made no sense for a character to quote another character from a movie that hasn’t happened yet in the timeline. But then I read a defense of the line that points out one of the Red Riding dickheads calls Andy a bitch earlier in the movie, so that’s why he said it. Fine, I guess that works as an explanation. But come on, it was just there in the hopes that dildos like me would say, “Ha ha, just like in Aliens!” So even with the explanation, I still fucking hate it.