'Alien: Romulus' is Another Legecy Sequel That Fails Its 'Amazing Spider-Man' Test

One engrossing new character and some strong production design cannot justify a shockingly limp rehash that serves mostly to remind you of other 'Alien' movies.

Thursday Box Office:

Alien: Romulus began its domestic theatrical run with $6.5 million in Thursday preview showings, compared to the $4.2 million earned by Alien: Covenant in its pre-release showings in May 2017 toward a $36 million Fri-Sun debut. Looking at recent genre openers on par with this one, we’re likely looking at a Fri-Sun domestic debut between $45 million and $55 million, although extremes on both ends (The Flash and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) offer a $37-$60 million range.

With solid reviews and decent buzz, the main cause for concern is the notion that the Alien franchise is, as frankly, it has often been (going back to Alien 3 through Alien: Covenant), more of a niche franchise than a mainstream attraction. Bemusingly, anything below $43 million for the weekend will mean fewer tickets sold than Ridley Scott’s 2017 predecessor, even with a not-much-cheaper budget ($80 million versus $97 million).

That’s a longer conversation about the declining expectations for what qualifies as a hit franchise installment. Think back at least to Snow White and the Huntsman which was considered sequel/spin-off worthy at $397 million global on a $170 million budget despite mixed reviews and buzz. For The Crow to sell as many tickets as The Crow: City of Angels ($19 million domestically), it would have to gross $43 million in North America.

That’s even while this new version, distributed by Lionsgate domestically reportedly cost closer to $50 million than the mostly forgotten $13 million 1996 offering. Anyway, Alien: Covenant was correctly seen as a commercial miss while grossing $74 million domestically and $236 million worldwide. Will Alien: Romulus A) be able to get to even that level of overall earnings (inflation notwithstanding) and B) be able to be sold as a win if it does so? As Rachel Maddow likes to say, watch this space.

Review:

The “Amazing Spider-Man test” concerns whether a new installment of an ongoing series is good enough and/or different enough to eventually become one that fans and general audiences might grab off their DVD shelf or SVOD queue when they’re in the mood to watch a given franchise title. Sometimes, it’s a matter of a sequel being aggressively bad (Men in Black II). Sometimes, it’s a matter of a film that hews so close to a franchise predecessor (Amazing Spider-Man being a grimdark remake of Spider-Man) that it comes off as an inferior copy and thus negates its mere value as “oh, another one of these.” Sometimes, you get both, like in the 2010 Nightmare On Elm Street remake.

Alien Romulus isn’t a bad movie, but it is yet another glorified legacy sequel that serves little purpose beyond reminding you of other, more ambitious entries in the franchise. Ironically enough, the Fede Álvarez-directed film shines brightest in its opening sections when it’s setting itself up as a loose remake of Don’t Breathe. That 2016 original, which A) spawned its own sequel and B) made far more ($157 million on a $10 million budget) than Álvarez’s well-received Evil Dead remake ($98 million/$17 million) did a banger job establishing why we should be rooting for its non-violent home invaders, vividly capturing the grim circumstances that its protagonist and her innocent little sister wished to escape from. Romulus plays a similar game, offering another young “working poor” protagonist (Jane Levy in the 2016 sleeper hit, Cailee Spaeny here) who wants a better life for herself and her sibling and thus agrees to partake in a seemingly victimless break-in, unaware that the locale isn’t as safe as presumed.

However, once it becomes an Alien movie, it begins to falter. Even with an R-rating, it’s weirdly tame regarding its minimal kills and onscreen carnage. No, not every Alien flick is a carnage-fest; Alien: Ressurection and Alien: Covenant (two of the better post-Aliens flicks in the franchise, natch) are arguable high-water marks in that department. However, it’s stupifying to watch an Alien flick that is positioned as a no-frills slasher flick helmed by the guy who made the openly grotesque 2013 Evil Dead remake that plays like it could easily air on network television with just a few choice edits. However, the lack of eye-averting gore symbolizes its unwillingness to do much more than “play the hits.”

The notion of Romulus being a “back to basics” installment counts on pop culture amnesia as Ridley Scott’s Covenant was also sold as such after the divisive (but $400 million-grossing) Prometheus. Or maybe they meant “almost nothing but the basics.” I didn’t love either of Ridley Scott’s last two prequels, but (especially in retrospect) I appreciated how they were big-scale sci-fi spectaculars that saw the world’s most prolific tentpole director using a well-known IP as an alibi to tell the gleefully nihilistic “humanity’s origins” saga with he actually cared about. Ditto David Fincher’s Alien 3, whose reception in 1992 now feels like a canary in the coal mine in terms of fan entitlement in relation to ongoing geek-focused franchises.

Like the Mission: Impossible franchise before Christopher McQuarrie became its full-time director, Alien films mainly went out of their way to bring aboard different directors who brought their unique visions and sensibilities. However, as befits this modern fan-fiction era, where filmmakers who grew up loving a given franchise can write or direct new installments of that series instead of making something “new” that is merely inspired by that fandom, Alien: Romulus is the first entry (even counting those “comes with a free Predator” flicks) that is only about the fact that it’s an Alien movie.

What does the $80 million budgeted Romulus bring to the table? It offers a spectacular star-turn from Industry co-lead David Jonsson as the “naive sibling” who is actually (as is immediately revealed) a synthetic human. Johnsson’s performance gets to run the gamut from Lenny-like innocent (reminding me of the 1991 true crime drama Let Him Have It) to… not as ruthless as Michael Fassbender’s genocidal android but eventually more of a “company man.” The production design is solid yet it still looks and feels smaller and less “epic” than the $97 million 2017 installment.

There’s one clever action beat in the third act, but an intriguing last-minute turn A) should have occurred much earlier in the movie and B) comes to resemble yet another visual callback to its predecessors. Beyond that, it’s an Alien movie that plays like a youth-skewing redo of the 1979 original. Even its protagonist, Spaeny’s generically “capable” Rain Carradine, is meant to remind you of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley rather than stand out on her own. Conversely, Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey saw Amber Midthunder’s Naru becoming a potential breakout/marquee character unto herself.

This from a franchise that, warts and all, usually nailed the “Ok, what else you got for me?” conundrum. Ironically, Alien: Romulus is strongest when setting up Don’t Breathe… in Space! versus when it’s yet another Alien movie. It almost cannot help but devolve into a glorified remake of an older and better film that is currently available “for free” on Disney+ and Hulu. Lacking that film’s surprise and unique unto-itself existence, along with much of the razzle-dazzle associated with the sequels, it eventually depends on callbacks (including more needless digital grave robbing), fan service and the mere notion that it’s an Alien movie.

I’d be less cranky about these fan-service, “love letter to the franchise” IP installments if we weren’t currently drowning in them. It’s one thing to say that “the fans” prefer Halloween to Halloween Ends, but when all we’re getting is these nostalgia-targeted IP revivals, playing the hits has turned much of the industry, first theatrical and now streaming too, into a glorified cover band. Why bother copying something that has already been defined as “a perfect organism”?