Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios, August 16, 2024)

To begin, I’d like to review two important facts. First, with the 2019 acquisition of Fox, Disney became the owners of the long-running Alien sci-fi franchise. Second, in 2012 Ridley Scott, who created the original masterpiece that was Alien (1979), decided to leap back in after five other directors had a go at some portion of the story. This effectively scuttled the planned Alien movie we all deserved, which would have been a sequel to Aliens (1986) directed by Neill Blomkamp and would have ignored the movies which followed Aliens. This story would have reunited Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Hicks (Michael Biehn), and probably would have been awesome.

Instead, what we got was Sigourney Weaver permanently bowing out from the franchise, and two prequels from Scott, which were anything but awesome. Though nostalgia and eternal optimism caused die-hard fans to make Prometheus (2012) a technical box office hit ($130M budget against a $403M take), we’d learned our lesson by the time Alien: Covenant came around in 2017. It was considered a disappointment by Hollywood standards, bringing in less than half the ticket sales of its predecessor. Personally, I wished Scott would have kept his hands to himself.

One year ago this month I wrote an article about how Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe director Fede Álvarez would be directing the next installment in the Alien franchise and the first Alien film released by Disney. For better or worse, Scott is still involved as the producer, but Álvarez co-wrote the script with his partner from Evil Dead, Rodo Sayagues.

Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny (The Craft: Legacy, Pacific Rim Uprising), Isabela Merced (Transformers: The Last Knight), David Jonsson (Deep State), Archie Renaux (Morbius), Spike Fearn (The Batman) and Aileen Wu (Rendezvous). What all these actors have in common is their age, which is in their twenties.

1986 vs 2024: Look familiar…?

According to IMDB, the idea of an Alien film centering on younger characters was inspired by a deleted scene from Aliens (1986) that was later restored in the Special Edition. Fede Alvarez explained,

There’s a moment where you see a bunch of kids running around the corridors of this colony. And I thought, ‘Wow, what would it be like for those kids to grow up in a colony that still needs another 50 years to terraform?’ So I remember thinking, ‘If I ever tell a story in that world, I would definitely be interested in those kids when they reach their early twenties.’

IMDB also states Alien: Romulus takes place between the events of Alien and Aliens.

Okay, interesting and potentially exciting for those of us who are fans of the original films. But then we got the trailer…

I’m not sure what I expected given the director and producer, but this isn’t it.

Yes, Alien: Romulus does seem to harken back to the original claustrophobic atmosphere of being trapped in a confined space with the deadly Xenomorphs, but much of it looks very familiar and not in a good way. Many of the shots we see in the trailer look like they could have been lifted straight from one of the other movies.

And at the risk of making a sweeping generalization based on 2 minutes and 47 seconds of footage, this installment seems to rely far too much on the gross-out factor. I mean, after all this time we know how face-huggers work: do we really need to see someone slowly pull it out of their own throat?

The art that was the first couple of films came from suspense and the race against the unknown. Though there was some ick-factor, it wasn’t what drove the story. From what we see here it’s the precise opposite for Alien: Romulus. It seems that even the cast was grossed out. Isabela Merced told Film Stories,

Fede Álvarez gave me the iPad where he watches playback, and he had the movie pulled up. So I told him I wanted to see parts of it, and he showed it to me. I was the one holding the iPad, and there were ten people around me watching it on the iPad. So there’s a scene that I’m in, and they all had to turn away. Not one person stayed looking at that iPad because it was so disgusting.

So at this point I wish everyone would just leave Alien alone, but apparently we aren’t going to get that lucky. Disney plans for a Hulu series called Alien: Earth with Scott once again producing, and headed our way early next year.

A is for Alien (Little Golden Books/Disney, July 9, 2024)

I also had to look this one up, thinking it was a joke. But on July 9th Disney released a “Little Golden Book” entitled A Is for Alien: An ABC Book.

Seriously Disney… just stop.

Alien: Romulus will be in theaters August 16.