Weekend films

'Alien: Romulus', the seventh instalment in the saga is a return to basics

Fede Alvarez's long-awaited feature film, the new chapter in the franchise started by Ridley Scott in 1979, arrives in theatres

16 August 2024

3' min read

A sequel to the 1979 masterpiece? This is also how one might define 'Alien: Romulus', the seventh chapter in the saga begun by Ridley Scott forty-five years ago, positioned chronologically after the parent film.

More precisely, it is a midquel, being a film sandwiched between two previous feature films in the franchise, in this case the first and the second (the 1986 one directed by James Cameron and titled in Italian 'Aliens - Scontro finale'), but with completely new characters, except for a... surprising return.

At the centre of the narrative is a group of young colonists, willing to do anything to leave the degraded planet they find themselves on to seek their fortune elsewhere. Fleeing across the universe in search of a better future, they rummage through the depths of an abandoned space station where they come face to face with a series of xenomorphs.

Directing is Fede Alvarez, a director accustomed to taking over important sagas from the past: his feature debut was with 'The House' (2013), the fourth title in the franchise and remake of Sam Raimi's 1981 cult film, but he had also subsequently directed 2018's 'Millennium - What Doesn't Kill', a sequel to 'Millennium: Men Who Hate Women' and an adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel.

With 'Alien: Romulus', however, he signed the most ambitious and complicated project of his career, given also the disappointing results of the two previous feature films, 'Prometheus' (2012) and 'Alien: Covenant' (2017), prequels to the 1979 film and both directed by Ridley Scott.

One can feel from the very first shots how the new film looks very much back to the origins of the saga, through an interesting vintage atmosphere and a series of reflections (the theme of motherhood, first and foremost) that take us back to all the archetypal symbolism of 'Alien'.

“Alien: Romulus” e gli altri film della settimana
Photogallery3 foto

Good rhythm but few original ideas

While several insights and twists will please fans of the saga, one still feels the dearth of truly original ideas within a franchise that has been plundered perhaps too much.

The references to Romulus and Remus are rather simplistic, and a concluding part with a 'different' creature from the usual is not enough to breathe new life into a production that now offers very few surprises.

It must be said, however, that the film has a good pace and is easy to follow, despite everything being largely predictable, thanks to effectively realised action sequences and an overall well-crafted staging.

Worthy of note is the leading actress Caileey Spaeny, increasingly launched on the Hollywood scene after Sofia Coppola's 'Priscilla' and Alex Garland's 'Civil War'. We will see her again next year in the new chapter of the "Knives Out" saga.

The Instigators

The Instigators, a new film by Doug Liman starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, recently arrived on Apple TV+.

The two play two men who are recruited for a robbery that does not go as planned: they will thus begin an escape full of unexpected events.

After the successful 'Edge of Tomorrow' in 2014, Doug Liman has strung together a series of unsuccessful feature films, and 'The Instigators' is unfortunately no exception. This is a timid film that mixes detective and comedy with little polish and plenty of narrative problems. The film never manages to take off and ends up making the audience lose interest after just a few sequences.

The Damon-Affleck duo works poorly: not only because of the uncommitted acting of the two performers, but also because their characters are crudely written and end up being completely stereotypical compared to those of many similar films in the past.