Flirting more than ever with the aesthetics of the video game, this new opus directed by Fede Álvarez ticks all the boxes while struggling to truly revitalize the saga.
Always on the right track when it comes to reviving old horror sagas, after having remade theEvil Dead by Sam Raimi and then co-wrote and co-produced the latest opus to date Texas Chainsaw Massacrefilmmaker Fede Álvarez has therefore been designated as the new chosen one to reanimate the xenomorphs in Alien : Romulus. And comeback thunderous for the saga that follows eight years of space horror drought, after the sudden interruption of the prequel trilogy started by Ridley Scott himself with Prometheus et Covenant.
This return to business could not be more studious, as the film seems not only to want to return to the origins of the franchise, by essentially basing itself on an oppressive, closed-door ecosystem, but also to compile all the great ideas to deliver the most accurate measure possible. Nothing or almost nothing exceeds this exercise executed with dexterity and elegance, without ever losing sight of its playful aspect, but unfortunately with very little panache.
Between Alien et Aliens
Chronologically located between the first and second opus, this Alien : Romulus quickly leaves its first biome, a mining planet where enslaved colonists live, to join the original ship of the saga, a new murderous theater. It’s a new game that begins.
Cet Alien is however less a big game of hide-and-seek than a fearful hunt for monsters. It remains of course a film of doors, to open, to close and which hinder the circulation of the crew, and thus exploits its rooms and corridors to diversify its atmospheres and its mechanics, in the manner of a video game. Each room, sometimes in superb yellow or red monochromes, thus dictates its rules and its gameplay : no noise, no sweating, avoid acid sprays like in a platformer levitating… The film even borrows directly from the video game Resident Evil, another great work of doors, with a very clear quote even in its cutting where we have the impression of seeing Jill Valentine facing the first zombie in the opening of the mansion of the original opus on PS1.
Alien superstar
Alien : Romulus is perhaps less to be taken as a tribute of high fidelity to the entire saga, than for the reverence nerd to its monsters themselves. The great rejuvenation of the cast makes the film don its costume of slasher spatial, not opening any new doors on the mythology of the saga but redrawing more modern contours, where the beast fascinates. Locked by its own models, the claustrophobic epic pours out some sparkling moments, not in the avoidance of monsters but in their very confrontation. Not stingy with penetrations, contaminations and other fusions, Alien : Romulus embarks on the fascination he has for his creatures which, in the second part of the film, are at the heart of all the images. Between animatronics, models and prosthetics, the film pours out, groggy, renderings of texture, skin, matter, secretions, shine and black oil. The ballet of facehuggers, chestbusters and xenomorphs then intoxicate, as soon as the doors open, the air circulates. And the monsters are really let in. Full frame.
