Alien: Romulus

Transcript of Radio Message

STAR DATE: 8/X/20XX

Can you hear me?

This is Jethro the Cat, helmsman of the USCSS CONRAD. A funny thing happened today; you see, while we were scavenging on Planet Whattever, I was telling the crew about my opinions on the two Alien prequels, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. I told them I thought they weren't bad, and in fact, I even admired the epic esoterisms of Prometheus. They immediately marooned me.

Fortunately, I have a slew of movies to keep me company on this rock. One of them is Alien: Romulus, Fede Alvarez's interquel between 1979's Alien and 1986's Aliens. I'll tell you about it while I wait for a rescue.

On the mining colony of Jackson's Star, Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny), her adopted android brother Andy (David Jonsson) and her friends, are overworked by the ominous Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Their planet is devoid of daylight and fair working conditions, but they see a better future on the much more hospitable Yvaga III. They just need to prepare for a nine-year voyage to that planet, somehow.

When the space station Renaissance suddenly drifts into orbit, Rain's friends - siblings Tyler (Archie Renaux) & Kay (Isabella Merced), their cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and his adopted sister Navarro (Aileen Wu) - plot to abscond with the station's cryopods. Andy is needed to interface with the station, while Rain sees this as her first opportunity to get off the planet. The Renaissance will crash into the planetary rings in a few days, but the job will take them much less than that. Surely, it will work, right? Of course, not!

Our heroes get aboard the Renaissance, which is split into the subsections Romulus and Remus, rather easily. But they find out that the cryopods won't last them the whole nine-years. That's when they come across the station's biological experiments, the Xenomorphs themselves, who don't intend to let anyone leave alive. To make matters worse, the countdown to destruction rapidly accelerates to less than an hour. Nobody's safe, but our heroes have to escape somehow.

Alvarez has assembled a good cast to play the crew. Jonsson technically plays two characters, for while Andy is normally socially awkward, he becomes colder with increased intelligence after an upgrade. You'll be impressed with the contrast once you see it. Rain, meanwhile, is quite compelling as she tries to work her way through her predicaments. You'll be impressed with her resourcefulness when it's all done. Bjorn's abrasive attitude makes him a bit unlikable, but he's still pitiable when everything goes wrong. By contrast, you will feel sorry for Kay when it's all done. Tyler is an okay guy, though him teaching Rain how to use a pulse rifle has an amusing twist. Navarro makes the most of her limited screentime.

There's another person you'll remember here. He's Daniel Betts, who is remolded through digital trickery into the likeness of Ian Holm's Ash from the first film, to play the new android Rook. The digital facelift mostly works, though it was appallingly done when we first get a look at him. The digital voice, meanwhile, is scarily flawless. He's quite believable when he tries to warn the crew of the Xenomorphs. He's still believable when he leaves the crew to die "for the company's interest," and later, when he breaks after Rain outwits him. The digital impersonation might be unnecessary, but Rook is still a memorable movie villain.

The technicals mostly work wonderfully aside from that facelift. Whether it's the opening scene set aboard the wreckage of the first film's Nostromo, or the up-close planetary rings, the outer space scenery is nothing short of outstanding thanks to cinematographer Galo Olivares and the visual effects team. The Renaissance is a marvelous feat of Naaman Marshall's production design. It only gets better whenever the station experiences fits of zero gravity. The Xenomorphs are perfectly gruesome organisms brought to life with a seamless mix of puppetry and CGI. Just wait until you see the final Xenomorph. The action scenes, as edited by Jake Roberts and scored by Benjamin Wallfisch, are all unforgettable set-pieces. The only reason I had to check my watch was to see if the countdown took as long as it said it be. To my surprise, both movie and real times pretty much matched.

This maybe the closest we'll get to a film based on the video game Alien: Isolation. Alien: Romulus nails its tension and visual style rather well. Unlike the actual video game movie I reviewed this week, this one actually has characters you'll easily get invested with. You'll still want the best for this crew even if they're at their worst. This is nearly two-hours well spent at any price. So, with that in mind, this is Jethro, previously of the Conrad, signing off.

PS: Jethro was rescued within a day of this message.

UPDATE: Edited error in character relations.