"Alien: Romulus" Well Imitates the Horrific Thrills of Its Franchise

The sci-fi series goes with younger actors, to good effect

August always offers at least one enjoyably watchable popcorn movie, and I think “Alien: Romulus” is the one this year.

You probably know the franchise. The original “Alien” came out 45 years ago, a mash-up of Star Trek and horror films of the time, but also inspired by Episode IV of “Star Wars” as director Ridley Scott has testified.

Since all of those genres and franchises are still around, with horror thriving like never before, I suspect the studio thought another “Alien” movie was due. And why not appeal to Gen-Z? Because instead of picking middle-aged, weary-looking actors — as “Alien” famously did — they chose younger actors here, and relative no-names at that.

Good for them. It works well enough, and the great revelation to me is the actor David Jonsson, who plays the android in “Alien: Romulus.”

At first he’s the Asimov toy-robot to his “sister,” the lead character Rain, who’s stuck as a low-wage laborer on a mining colony. As usual, everybody in this movie can’t get out of the grip of the overlord, cyberpunk corporation Weyland-Yutani, the big baddies in “Alien” who would prefer to capture ultra-killer xenomorphs than save you and your buddies’ lives. Both of these characters are working-class slaves.

I had guessed that “Romulus” might be another Alien origin movie, like last decades’s “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant,” both having ancient-sounding titles. Alas, no. The Romulus title alludes to the imagery of a mother wolf suckling two children, an emblem of ancient Rome which you could still see if you walk its streets. Because the Alien franchise is basically a series of really demented Star-Trek episodes, that imagery becomes, um, a bit viscerally real and gross by the end.

Anyway, “Romulus” brings Gen-Zers into the depressed and gritty Gen-X world ruled by amoral corporations and immoral androids. Here, Rain and a group of young pals decide to escape their mining colony. They somehow blast into space, knowing they can find cryogenic pods on an abandoned space station. These pods, if used properly, could take them seven light-years away to a solar-system where they would be free of androids and corporate overlords.

Alas, the abandoned space station contains exactly what you moviegoers at an “Alien” movie think it will. That sets up a scenario that’s not only influenced by Star Trek but also — again, maybe appealing to Gen-Z — horror videogames.

Now, I must tell you that “Romulus” is a giant rehash of all the Alien movies, especially the first two. It’s such a Rehash that that word, to properly describe it, deserves capital letters.

Basically, for long stretches of “Romulus,” it’s an imitation. In art, that’s obviously not valued as highly as original work. Often, it deserves strong scorn.

I’d normally agree, but sometimes a good imitation is delightful-enough art in its own way. “Romulus” watches to me as the exceptional Rehash.

It begins, more or less, by using the same opening shots, same font, and same pace as 1979’s “Alien.” Rain is effectively a younger Ellen Ripley. The aliens are going to look and act exactly like H.R Giger’s original aliens. As the movie proceeds into its last act, it imitates and calls back to “Aliens” repeatedly, and its plot dovetails in with “Prometheus.” There’s even an old character from the franchise who’s resurrected here, in another one of those terrible-looking CGI revivals.

I usually loathe these kinds of Rehashes. We’ve been getting them for at least ten years. They are so chockful of callbacks — I’m looking at you, “Blade Runner 2049” — that they utterly fail to imaginatively surprise, as is their duty. They might be well-made, even providing astounding aesthetics, but at the end of the day, they are just imitations.

Now why am I forgiving the Rehash “Alien: Romulus” and telling you that it’s a good summer-movie entertainment?

Good question, and the first reason is that, like “Blade Runner 2049,” it’s well-made — besides that terrible-looking CGI revival.

Part of that is the imitation it does of “Alien,” which is to take its sweet time to get to what we know is coming. An hour of this movie passes, and no aliens show up. Ha, just like “Alien”! Except they develop the characters pretty well through this stretch. We simply aren’t getting movies like this anymore, presumably because they violate Hollywood’s formulaic algorithms for money-makers.

In particular is the crucial relationship developed between Rain and Andy, the android “brother” whose one and only directive is to care for Rain. That’s a twist on the “Alien” franchise, because — spoiler! — most of the androids turn out to be deceptive Machiavellians.

Andy’s sweet at first. Yet he gets to be the most complex android so far in the franchise, played just magnificently by Mr. Jonsson. Which also means in — big gulp — film history.

Somewhere in the middle of the movie, he’s “updated,” a program installed with and on top of his existing personality. And that complexity gives him moral contortions galore, with Rain and her friends never sure what his directive is or whose side he’s on.

That’s added in with another franchise left-turn that “Romulus” takes. Here the humans have a bit of ability to thwart or get away from the aliens. This may be because they are younger? I don’t know, but at least finally the aliens aren’t the all-powerful predators who can take out any human they want with ease.

You can tell I have a soft spot for the franchise. I freely admit to always enjoying the loathed “Alien3,” although the director’s cut is the only way to go with that one. Recently, I rewatched “Prometheus” and enjoyed it for its wondersweep and ridiculous foibles. (In fact, a larger essay on that movie is coming on this Substack!)

The “Alien” fare generally are, as I said, demented Trek episodes. In effect, a merry band of explorers tries to understand some new place and phenomena, only to get hunted down by the acidic xenomorphs and the spidery parasite-hands. It’s all a negative-curiosity tale: “don’t go in there, or else!”

These days, that fits right in with the horror-movie craze. Maybe some younger viewers will find the science-fictional wonder in it all.