Alien: Romulus is the seventh film in the Aliens franchise, ninth if you include the Predator crossovers. The series began with Alien in 1979, a classic sci-fi that merged the genre with horror and became a model for future feature films, novels, TV series, and even radio dramas. Alien: ‘Romulus’ carries in the tradition of Alien, albeit with younger lead characters than any other Alien film. And, instead of hired crew members can be better described as scavengers trying to escape a lifetime of hard labor on their home planet.
In terms of story, ‘Romulus’ offers an anxiety-filled narrative with several plotlines carrying obstacles the characters must face. The main ticking time bomb, realized towards the end of the first act, is the Romulus ship nearing impact event with the rings of the planet LV-410 in 36 hours. A second challenge is placed into the story at 22 minutes, when the scavengers realize gravity generators get purged every few minutes on the decommissioned station. Then, of course, come the Xenomorphs and the hell they unleash, leading up to a climax you might not expect.
Seeing Alien: Romulus in the theater was a great audio and video adventure. But, let’s talk a bit about how the home theater experience adds up, thanks to a Digital copy provided by 20th Century Studios.
Video
The color depth of Alien: Romulus is spectacular in Dolby Vision HDR. The rich colors and blackness of space render quite well in digital, even at an average 25Mbps (about the highest bitrate we could get from Apple TV 4k) which is much less than what can be delivered on 4k Blu-ray Disc. No degradation or banding of gradients was evident (usually, the first sign of over-compressed video). Sharpness is exceptional.
The ship models are beautifully built, with careful attention to every inch, it would seem. Camera movements guide viewers around the vessels, which are gorgeous structures that harken back to the architecture of the original Alien film (‘Romulus actually takes place between the events of Alien and Aliens (1986). The floating acid at zero gravity (around 1:59) is a chilling digital effect that renders beautifully in HDR and 4k resolution.
Audio
Offered in Dolby Atmos, Alien: Romulus is an excellent example of how the object-based format can place sound in a 3-dimensional space. Atmospherics fill the sound environment and immerse the viewer as if on the ship with the characters. The sounds of the Parasitoids creeping around at 58 minutes (after they escape from the lab) move from speaker to speaker, and the dripping water around Rain as she tries to escape the Xenomorph are just a couple of moments to highlight.
When Rain shoots all the Xenomorphs at 1:30 the floating acid emits a unique sound that creeps through the audio space. The impact event with the planetary rings offers excellent subwoofer frequencies, albeit distant from where the characters sit. It’s really intriguing how the engineers played with spatial effects in this film.
The music composition from Benjamin Wallfisch (who worked with Hans Zimmer in Blade Runner 2049) is both triumphant and horrifying, taking listeners on a rollercoaster of emotions from scene to scene.
Bonus Features
An abundance of extras take you through some of the filmmaking process, including behind-the-scenes footage, alternate and extended scenes, and more.
“Cast and filmmakers take us inside the sci-fi horror thriller of ALIEN: ROMULUS. Go behind the scenes for an intimate look at how the movie came to life, and explore everything from crafting the perfect story and finding the right cast, to recreating iconic creatures and building massive practical sets. Also learn how one of the film’s biggest sequences was achieved, and enjoy alternate/extended scenes and more.”
Summary
If you’re not a disc collector and want to know if you should purchase Alien: Romulus in Digital we cannot recommend it more. We will, of course, be waiting for the 4k disc to give the film a proper high bitrate watch. But in the meantime, this digital presentation of Alien: Romulus is quite impressive and might even get a couple more watches before December 3 when physical media editions hit stores.
