Romulus in retrospect – The Oxford Student

Since his debut with Signourey Weaver in the lead role, Foreigner franchise has become one of the most famous in cinema history. That such a famous franchise is getting a sequel should be a good thing, but I felt uneasy when I heard the news. In my grumpy way, I think too much cinema has gone the way of Marvel; sequels are no longer a viable way to expand on a franchise's premise, they are usually lucrative, often bland, and rarely in demand. Alien: Romulus was a pleasant surprise.

As I learned in a handy 5-minute video with a summary of all the films so far, Alien: Romulus sits between the first and second film (Foreigner And Aliens I was happy that the viewing experience was enhanced by a little prior knowledge, but not diminished without it, and the film can stand on its own; the plot is simple enough to please both the superfan and the uninitiated.

Rain (Cailee Spaeny) works on a mining colony in Weyland, Jackson's Star. She lives with her adopted brother Andy (David Jonsson), a humanoid robot with a penchant for cracking corny jokes. Having worked her required hours, she believes her time on the colony is up, but as any self-respecting evil conglomerate would do, her contract is inexplicably extended. Outraged by this betrayal, she agrees to her ex-boyfriend's insane escape plan: she and a group of other disillusioned workers will take over an abandoned ship and use its cryogenic pods to travel to a hospitable planet far beyond Weyland's reach.

Surprisingly, the plan goes smoothly and the crew wastes no time getting to the cryostasis bay. While fiddling with the machines, however, they get trapped and the people outside rush to raise the temperature. In fact, they not only warm themselves up, but also a group of baby Xenomorphs (known as Facehuggers) that have been kept frozen the whole time. The Facehuggers attack and the crew fights off most of them, except for one that attaches itself to an unfortunate crew member, Navarro (Aileen Wu), making him its carrier. The gruesome birth of a tiny Xenomorph follows (of which we are barely spared).

As these incidents make clear, the ship is no ordinary vessel, but a research lab that Weyland used to experiment on Xenomorphs (hence the freeze-dried facehuggers). Even more terrifying is that the ship was not abandoned, but the entire crew was killed, and there are even more Xenomorphs lurking inside the ship. To make matters worse, the ship's unbalanced axis (don't ask me) means that it is on a collision course with the rings of a nearby planet within hours.

In order not to give away more about the film, I will stop here. From this point on, the plot is no longer particularly surprising and happily delivers exactly what we expect. Therefore, we could dismiss such a film as a rip-off. In my opinion, however, Alien: Romulus is not. It's not about reinventing the wheel; as mentioned, Sigourney Weaver's famous performances have cult status for a reason. The film is mostly an homage, as it's full of obvious and indirect references to the franchise's past. However, there are some great performances and artistic shots that deserve attention in their own right.

In focus Alien: Romulus is an elaboration of the Foreigner Canon; a film that offers little plot development without being a lucrative shell. Such things can happen! It is certainly a thrilling film with touches of disarming eeriness that are a credit to the director.

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