Where does Alien: Romulus rank within the sci-fi franchise?

Ridley Scott first released Alien in 1979. In the past 45 years, there have been seven installments in the film franchise. The most recent iteration, Alien: Romulus, follows the kids who grow up in the space colony of the dystopian world.

Film critic Rad Simonpillai joins Elamin Abdelmahmoud to discuss Alien: Romulus, how the film holds up against its predecessors and the alleged plot twist that has already polarized some fans.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: This movie is directed by Fede Álvarez, who did Evil Dead and Don't Breathe. Overall, how'd you feel about the story that he wanted to tell with Alien: Romulus? 

Rad: Look, I had a good time, alright? I had a good time — in a movie that isn't even particularly good, too!

Elamin: Hey, hey, hey. Watch it. 

Rad: But here's the thing, okay? This movie is very in line with the fan service-y things that we have seen in the past in the sense that it is imitation as flattery, and is largely flattering the audience who think that they want Alien and Aliens — they want to go back to the thrills of those original movies.

For the most part, he does really well in terms of imitating those thrills, and I had a good time with those. He's the director of Don't Breathe, which was a horror movie where people are running around in the dark, they can't see anything, they're being chased by a killer who is blind and who follows them by sound. And Fede Álvarez actually pays homage to himself in this movie! There's a scene where they do exactly that. I enjoyed those moments. Like every Alien movie, I love it when a director brings themselves to it, they bring a bit of their style. He had those moments, especially when you think about the opening — the way he plays with silence and darkness on the spaceship, like, you had me at "hello!" 

Elamin: Stunning opening sequence.

Rad: There's so many little touches like that where I think he delivered, and that's exactly what I wanted. It is when he gets more aggressive with the callbacks where he started losing me.

Elamin: This is the 45th anniversary of the original Alien movie. That's a pretty incredible run. The idea that you've had seven movies in 45 years, people are still holding on to the first two Alien movies as the best in the franchise. How do you think Romulus holds up against those original two?

Rad: Oh, nowhere near them. Come on, now.

Elamin: You're not wrong.

Rad: I've heard people say, "Oh, it's the best since Aliens." I'm like, no, because then you really are diminishing what we talked about, where every movie in this franchise has been good because some director has brought something new to it. People trash Alien 3 all the time. It's like, no, I like Alien 3. I like that David Fincher, the director of Fight Club, brought his whole punk rock, disenfranchised-people-sticking-it-to-the-man sensibility to that movie. Like, that's what I want from Alien movies.

And so no, I will rank it below that. I will rank it below the Ridley Scott prequels, where the creator of the franchise is going back to the franchise he created to take it in a whole other direction, but also to explore creation myth. I'm sorry, that's interesting. I will rank it below that. So this is somewhere near the bottom where Alien: Resurrection is — which again, no such thing as a bad Alien movie. I still enjoy Alien: Resurrection for being its weird Eurotrash, whatever it is. And I enjoyed Alien: Romulus and its imitation game and the Fede Álvarez touches just about the same.

Elamin: Yeah, I think the idea that this is a franchise that has consistently delivered good work, protects even the worst Alien movies, [making them] still worth watching. There's a very specific vision that runs through all of these movies, and the idea that the directors are able to bring themselves to it, that's a beautiful thing.

Rad: Just to add to that, you think about the design of the monster and what they keep talking about: this thing is pure and simple, menace and creation. The very simplicity of the alien concept makes it such a perfect vessel for whatever a director wants to bring to it.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Rad Simonpillai produced by Ty Callender.