Nothing Alien here, just re-vitalising the franchise with familiar template

There have been nine editions in the ‘Alien’ franchise, and the story has nowhere to go except to mirror and reference past events with newer younger actors. The template remains the same, with a few diversions here and there. ‘Romulus’ stays faithful to the ‘Alien’ franchise’s gold standard. But the Xenomorph creature has been stripped of all mystery. It does much the same as it has done before. It sees humans only as food and ideal hosts for egg incubation.

The setting is simple, the premise involves escape only to find themselves in greater peril. They are orphans all — Navarro (Aileen Wu), Tyler (Archie Renaux), Tyler’s sister Kay (Isabella Merced), cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and Andy (David Jonsson), whom Rain considers as a brother even though he is an outdated version of a “synthetic person” and defective to boot. They are the ones hoping to migrate to a better future because their ringed planet has been overtaken by corporate marauders, who have bought an unending cycle of disease and death to the inhabitants.

This sequel is a return to an old-fashioned simpler ‘Alien’ schema as compared to Ridley Scott’s two prequels: ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Covenant’. The young hopefuls become aware that a decommissioned WY ship with functioning cryopods is floating in space, not far off. They plan their escape from Jackson’s Star. Once onboard, they realise the pods don’t have enough juice for all of them to survive the long journey, so they scramble on to a conveniently decommissioned space station, divided into halves, named Romulus and Remus. And that’s when the action begins.

Everything happens a little too easily for the group, to be wholly convincing. They don’t have permission to leave, so their take-off from their oppressive colony without any restrictions from their oppressors is a bit baffling. Every clanking industrial noise, movement, turbulence and rocky tethering is amplified enough to keep the audience distracted. But there’s a sense of urgency developing around frequent computer-generated warnings that the station is expected to crash into the ring-system surrounding the planet in several hours.

Romulus, as per Alvarez’s vision, has rusted exteriors and primitive computer interfaces. So, you are clearly evidencing ancient ‘Alien’ cinema history being rehashed. The characters are broadly sketched and have little backstory and the nihilistic action comes to the fore before you even get familiar with any of them. The derelict station was obviously abandoned years before and only a half-ruined corpse of Rook (the late Ian Holm) has a clue of what happened. But then, he still has a memory with a corporate agenda to fulfil.

The performances are efficient. The effects and treatment are what make this experience appealing. It’s a very minimalist, linear representation with Naaman Marshall’s effective production design, effusively orchestrated industrial sound design, and Benjamin Wallfisch’s score, which leans familiarly to earlier franchise instalments.

The practical effects, the dark visuals, the building up of suspense and the vigorous attacks from the alien Xenomorphs — the acid-blooded murder machines — keep the audience interested.