I still remember the first time I saw the ‘chestburster’ scene in the original 1979 “Alien.”
The crew of the spaceship Nostromo are gathered around a table eating dinner when a crew member coughs, then starts to choke. Laughter turns to gasps as the crew try to help.
He starts gagging, then flailing, spasming violently when suddenly his chest bursts open and a miniature, snake-like creature rises from the blood.
Four decades later and the scene is still shocking. and not even for the creature itself, but for how quickly an infection inside our body can turn our whole life upside down.
The original “Alien” film spawned a slew of sequels of varying quality over the years but the visual of the skulking monster from the original — known in the series as a Xenomorph — has remained a pop culture icon.
And the latest film to send an unfortunate crew of space travelers to meet one is this month’s “Alien: Romulus.”
The seventh film in the series, “Romulus” takes place story-wise shortly after the events of the original film.
We learn that the Xenomorph ejected out of the airlock in the first film managed to survive the vacuum of space.
Scientists recovered that original alien which then, of course, proceeded to kill everyone onboard the scientists’ orbital research station.
It’s that same ill-fated station that our new heroes find themselves on.
Among the group are Rain Carradine, an orphaned young woman looking to escape her life slaving away in the space mines, and her adoptive brother Andy, a cyborg programmed by Rain’s father to care for Rain.
The pair join up on a rag-tag mission with other miners to steal a set of cryogenic pods from the research station to help them travel to a far-off planet in search of a better life.
What they find instead is a station utterly infested by Xenomorphs.
The set-up of “Romulus” borrows heavily from Fede Álvarez’s 2016 film “Don’t Breathe,” which also saw a young person desperate to escape their circumstances taking on an ill-advised heist job and running into a nightmare as a result.
Still, heist films are fun and hearing the bandits of “Romulus” banter, bicker and curse when they have to climb through tight, rat-infested air ducts makes it enjoyable enough to journey along with them as the film gets set up.
Of course, that also means most of the characters fall into familiar heist team cliches that we’ve seen plenty of times before: “the nervous one”, “the snarky one,” “the leader,” etc.
Rain and Andy’s relationship stands out from those as, in a bit of a “Of Mice and Men in Space” send-up, Andy’s programming sets him up as a warm-hearted but dim-witted companion to Rain.
In fact, newcomer David Jonsson as Andy is easily the standout performance of the film and makes you feel like you could see Andy step out from the screen and take a seat next to you.
That being said, where the acting stands strong, the plot falls thin.
An unfortunate meme around the internet has come to describe “Romulus” as “The Force Awakens” of “Alien” films.
Where “The Force Awakens” essentially retold the story of the original “Star Wars” with different actors, “Romulus” shamelessly runs through many of the iconic set pieces of past “Alien” films beat by beat with none of the emotional impact of the originals.
Among the rip-offs are the alien-human hybrids of “Alien: Resurrection”, the iconic ‘face-to-face’ shot of “Alien 3” and a painfully dull re-use of one of the most iconic lines in cinema: “Get away from her, you…”
That’s especially disappointing since, again, the characters are likable enough to carry a basic sci-fi heist flick without having to slap on CliffNotes references to better movies.
My philosophy for any movie is always that I would rather it be more “weird” than “good.”
I’m a devil’s advocate for one of the more divisive entries in the series, “Prometheus” — which fell further into the “weird” box.
Unfortunately, “Alien: Romulus” ends up just being a “good” mindless monster romp.
I give “Alien: Romulus” 2 1/2 stars out of 5.
Have you seen “Alien: Romulus”? What did you think? Email Ben Rowe at browe@pressrepublican.com with your thoughts and takeaways.