As a rule, and one I have stated in many reviews, I avoid horror flicks.  One movie that can get me to break that protocol is an installment from the Alien franchise.  Yet, I have lost track of recent entries in the series.  Ever since the convoluted Prometheus (2012), which apparently tried to take the overarching story in a difficult to understand direction, I lost interest.  Unfortunately, Alien: Romulus was the only movie of note to come out in theaters, so there I was for opening weekend.  The trailers did not help my sense of dread for what I was about to watch.  In 1964, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart gave a loose definition of obscenity on film when he said, “I know it when I see it.”  There are a lot of problems with that phrase, and yet the preview made me think of it because it is basically pornography.  I will not detail what happens, but if you are familiar with the creatures in these pictures, specifically the ones referred to as “face-huggers,” and how they “impregnate” a human host with an alien, then you will get the gist.  With this in mind, this Catholic reviewer was prepared to write a scathing treatment of why such shots are unnecessary.  While still not great, there are other aspects to address from a Catholic perspective.  This might set you up, too, for a negative discussion, but I actually did not hate what is an intense, if derivative, space thriller.

You would think that by now in this franchise that humans would stop messing with space creatures they do not understand, but apparently Alien: Romulus is set between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), so they have yet to fully learn this lesson.  I am not sure how you would be expected to know this about Alien: Romulus.  I only found out with a little research.  I bring this up because the first sequence is of a Weyland-Yutani Corporation vessel picking up a floating object in deep space.  Once they have it back on the Romulus and Remus space station, hence the title, they open it up to reveal the xenomorph that fans of the franchise will recognize.  We next shift to Rain (Cailee Spaeny), a miner on a Weyland-Yutani colony planet, as she is waking up from a dream.  Her vision is of a peaceful sunrise.  This is in stark contrast to the eternal night of her actual surroundings.  Her one constant companion is Andy (David Johnson), a slightly defective synthetic being whose prime directive is to protect Rain.  Andy had been programmed as such by Rain’s father before he had passed away, complete with a repertoire of dad jokes.  Part of why Rain sees such landscapes in her sleep is because she wants to leave this awful life for another colony that is not so harsh.  She believes she has completed the service she owes to Weyland-Yutani when they arbitrarily raise the number of hours she must log.  As she is trying to imagine another five years of toiling on this rock, she gets a call from her close friend, Tyler (Archie Renaux).  He tells her that she needs to come to his place to discuss an opportunity that has come his way.  Once she and Andy arrive, Tyler tells them about a derelict ship they have discovered in orbit above the planet.  Turns out, she is not the only one with aspirations of living some place more hospitable.  On this floating wreck are cryogenic tubes they need to make the trip to their desired destination.  There is, of course, a hitch: they need Andy.  Further, being a robot, Andy will not be allowed to carry on with them to where they are going, and will have to be left behind.  Rain puts aside these problems, and her trepidation about doing something illegal, for the chance of leaving.  In case it is not obvious, where they are going in the aforementioned space station.  Once they dock with the facility, Andy, Tyler, and Tyler’s cousin, Bjorn (Spike Fearn), head into the facility.  Upon restoring gravity, they are able to examine the tubes they need for hibernation, but the devices do not have the energy to complete the nine-year journey.  There is, however, more cryo juice deeper in the hulk.  Unfortunately, the reactivation of the power leads to a rise in temperature.  You know what else can be cryogenically frozen?  Face-huggers, and they start stirring once they thaw out.  Making the situation worse is that Andy, Bjorn, and Tyler are stuck in the room with the face-huggers, but for the moment are blissfully unaware.  Coming to the rescue is Navarro (Aileen Wu), their pilot, and Rain.  To get the door open, Rain takes the chip off a defunct android they locate in an adjacent lab and give it to Andy.  This works, but only as dozens of face-huggers come to life.  Bjorn and Tyler make it un-hugged, but one slips out and attaches to Navarro.  They watch in horror as it does its thing.  Looking for answers, they reanimate the non-functioning synthetic, Rook (Ian Holm, voiced by Daniel Betts).  He fills in everybody as to the situation, and they manage to get the face-hugger off Navarro.  Bjorn takes Navarro to the ship, but Andy cuts off Rain and Tyler from joining them.  The chip has caused Andy’s allegiances to switch to Weyland-Yutani, guiding Rain and Tyler to another laboratory inside the station.  Once there, Rook gives them a liquid he has synthesized from alien and human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which he claims is key to human evolution into a proper space-faring people.  Meanwhile, Navarro’s alien bursts through her chest, eventually killing Bjorn and going after their last crewmember, Tyler’s sister Kay (Isabela Merced).  They have also crashed their ship into another part of the station, which is now where Andy, Rain, and Tyler’s must go.  Rook offers to guide them to their vessel and remotely pilot them to safety in exchange for taking his creation to Weyland-Yutani officials on the colony.  Along the way, they are able to rescue a severely injured Kay, though Tyler is killed in the process.  Rain and Kay are about to leave behind a malfunctioning Andy, but Rain sends Kay to the ship while she goes back for Andy.  Before Kay makes it aboard, she injects herself with some of Rook’s serum, which is supposed to have regenerative properties.  When Rain returns to Andy, she removes the Weyland-Yutani chip, and he is back to his caring self.  The same cannot be said for Kay.  There is an intense sequence with the aliens and Andy and Rain before they are able to join Kay and take off.  However, the goo she put in her body turns the baby she is carrying into a half alien/half human monster that Rain must blow into space.  She then puts a critically damaged Andy into cryo-freeze before doing the same herself, apparently bound for her dream destination.

There are a few plot holes in Alien: Romulus, but nothing too major.  I will not repeat the scenes I touched on in the introduction, but they are certainly in the movie.  One point I will elaborate on from the beginning is it being derivative.  The story is pretty similar to the original film that launched this franchise, even bringing back the late Ian Holm’s character, albeit in a slightly different form.  Most of the time, I might rail again the lack of originality.  I give it a pass here because the more recent additions have veered so far away from the source material that this one feels refreshing in its return to some of what made it popular, even if it does throw in modern references.  Sometimes, it is good to stick to what you know.  This is a formula that has guided the Catholic Church for millennia.  That is not to say that the Faith is without new ideas.  Coming up with something different has its benefits and drawbacks.  Spiritually speaking, doing something out of the usual simply for variety’s sake is not a good thing, as counterintuitive as that might seem in today’s culture and society.  Catholicism has been a repository of Jesus’ Word and Body over the centuries, and it has saved billions.  It is strange to compare it to a movie franchise, but without the first, you would not have this latest installment.  Again, so far, so obvious.  Hollywood, particularly lately, uses familiar titles in order to better ensure the success of a production.  Think of it as brand recognition.  If you have “alien” in the title, you are going to draw interest.  Those pioneers in the story set a precedent that can be tweaked, but rarely do well when fundamentally reworked.  Those reworkings should be tested against the original to see if they fit well.  If so, then why not add it into the mix of tropes that make up a series?  If not, they should be rejected.  This is all applicable to how the Church has addressed proposed changes to any number of aspects to how it operates.  Contrary to popular belief, Catholicism is not close minded.  It is guarded, or discerning, and I take the same attitude into the cinema.

The one character by which I was disappointed in Alien: Romulus is Kay.  An aspect of her character I did not mention is the fact that she is pregnant.  She also has a Marian pendant around her neck.  Thus, she has two features bound to get the sympathies of a Catholic film reviewer.  I also appreciated Rain and the care she has for Andy.  Life is life, and it should be protected.  That notion is why I rooted for Kay, and was so aggrieved with how they treated her character.  I wanted her to live because her death would mean her baby’s death.  She is not showing, but then they make a perversity of her delicate condition when she is pulled out of cryogenic sleep after only a few minutes because she gives birth to the half alien/half human monster that Rain destroys at the end.  It also attacks Kay, ostensibly its mother, killing her.  One other reason I reacted so negatively against this sequence is because of its connection to Prometheus, a movie of which I am not too fond.  It also needlessly extends the movie, aside from being gross, though the same thing is done in the closing minutes of Alien and Aliens.  So, again, Alien: Romulus is derivative.  Tense, but derivative.  It is disturbing from a Catholic perspective because it makes a mockery of the miracle of birth.  There is a lesson here in that man (or manmade androids, I suppose) should not play God with evolution.  This is Rook’s motivation for creating the serum, and the consequences are catastrophic.  Evolution is something that is up to God, as is the creation of new life.  You can accuse me of being hypocritical for not placing the same value of life on the monster, or the aliens for that matter.  Yet, their primary raison d’être is to end all other life but theirs.  That is not good either, and even the Church would agree that is acceptable to defend one’s own life when threatened.  Martyrdom is an option, too, and you see that with Tyler.  Still, I could have done without witnessing Kay’s fate.

In sum, Alien: Romulus was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  It was terrible in ways I did not expect going into it, which is why I am not wholly taken by it.  It must be admitted that, while it sticks to what had first worked for the franchise, it will regardless have you on the edge of your seat.  Thus, I will leave this one to your call.