Well-made horrors usually tend to include some form of elegant simplicity. Recently, works like Oddity
excelled in that regard. But, when you're dealing with a massive,
world-famous franchise like Alien, it's a lot harder to keep things
simple. Luckily for all fans of sci-fi and horror, director Fede Álvarez
managed to pull this off with Alien: Romulus.
The simplicity
begins with the plot - on a destitute corporate world where the
Weyland-Yutani corporation turns workers into slaves, a group of young
people wants to escape and find a better life among the stars. The way
to do it is to reach a derelict space station and recover the necessary
gear for their years-long journey. On the same space station, however, a
xenomorph awaits.
The plot is simple, while the elegance of the
film comes from the clever obstacles and dangers that the scavenger
team tries to overcome, as well as some gorgeous cinematography. The
cast is securely led by Cailee Spaeny, who echoes the collected
composure of the much more famous Ellen Ripley. At the same time, the
film does not suffer from injected nostalgia or oppressive homages, even
though it does transplant (pun intended) one of the original characters
into the plot.
The presence of that character, like everything
else in the film, is ultimately very smooth. From start to finish,
Alien: Romulus is probably the most worthy successor to the first film
that was made so far, which is why both the cast and crew deserve a lot
of praise.
