In a remote mining colony, a girl and her brother try to find a way out. But the government that owns them continues to raise the price of their freedom. The future seems hopeless until a friend offers a suggestion: Help us break into an abandoned ship orbiting the planet, steal some cryogenic capsules, and then we can blast off across the galaxy to better horizons. Naturally, she says yes.

She is Rain (Cailee Spaeny), a resourceful and tough type who’s never out of her element, regardless of what form that element takes. Her brother Andy (David Jonsson) isn’t her biological brother, but an android Rain’s dad programmed to protect her at all costs. He also gave Andy a plethora of dad jokes to draw on, which only accentuates Andy’s already slow-on-the-uptake demeanor.

Andy is the real reason Tyler (Archie Renaux), Kay (Isabela Merced), Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Navarro (Aileen Wu) talk Rain into joining their scavenger mission. Andy’s a product of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and can talk to the ship’s operating system, MU-TH-UR or “mother.” And the ship in question: a space tug named Nostromo.

Directed by Fede Alvarez and co-written by Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues, Alien: Romulus is officially an interquel meant to occur between Alien and Aliens, but it feels more like a fan-fic remake of Alien.

It’s been 40-plus years and a half-dozen installments since the first Alien came out in 1979, and Romulus tries to reinvigorate things by going back to basics and rehashing what worked best in that installment: Being trapped in a haunted house you can’t leave. But it’s not the concept the script rehashes, but the whole kit and caboodle. That makes it feel derivative.

Additionally, Romulus is part of a much larger franchise, one that will probably continue after this installment. The weight of those movies also shows up here in a climax that tries to tie some of the mysteries together. That makes it feel calculated.

Why am I so hard on these kinds of movies? With so many franchises in play these days, it feels like even the most die-hard fans have become inured to the same characters, the same stories, the same locations, the same beats. Movies these days aren’t magic shows; they’re checkboxes.

Alvarez, who did an impressive job with the Evil Dead remake in 2013, isn’t to blame. He is a smart director with an eye for visual flair, but in Romulus, he apes too much of the original for it to be surprising.

Spaney also handles herself well, as does Jonsson, who, through a plot device, gives two different performances. But the resurrected character that makes that transformation possible is one of the more annoying aspects of Romulus, not in the least the CGI involved to make it happen. William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead. It’s not even past.” That’s because Hollywood won’t let it.

Alien: Romulus (2024)
Directed by Fede Alvarez
Screenplay by Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues
Based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusett
Produced by Walter Hill, Michael Pruss, Ridley Scott
Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn,
Aileen Wu
20th Century Studios, Rated R, Running time 119 minutes, Opens Aug. 16, 2024

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