Alien: Romulus was generally well received by critics and fans of the Alien franchise. The movie was “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed over $350 million worldwide. A sequel is already in the works.
But one aspect of the movie garnered a more mixed response, even among people who liked the movie overall: The appearance of the late Ian Holm, sort of reprising his role from the original Alien, where he played a menacing android named Ash.
In Romulus, Holm’s likeness appeared in the form of a nearly identical synthetic lifeform named Rook. Found by Romulus’ human characters in the remains of a derelict space station, the reactivated Rook warns them about the xenomorph menace, and attempts to manipulate the heroes into serving the Weyland-Yutani corporation in its sinister goals.
The real Holm passed away in the summer of 2020, but he appears in Alien: Romulus through a variety of special effects technologies. An practical animatronic puppet was created for his scenes, and was used on the actual set of the film. Some shots of the character were then augmented with assorted computer generated images and deepfake technology.
Putting aside whatever moral qualms you might have about resurrecting an actor after their death, the concept sounds impressive. The results, however, were a little awkward. It didn’t look like the real Ian Holm was sitting on a table speaking to the rest of the cast; it looked like a special effect. (Granted, Rook isn’t an actual human being, which could arguably justify a little of the artificiality, but Rook didn’t even look like a mass of tubes and fake skin. He just looked like CGI.)
But recently someone on social media watched Alien: Romulus at home, and thought that the CG on Rook’s face was “tweaked” and now looked “incredible.” They then asked Romulus director Fede Alvarez if this was true; if the effects for Rook had been altered for the release on home video. To which Alvarez replied “Yes.”
READ MORE: Alien: Romulus Is Getting a Sequel
You can see a little of the work that went into creating Rook, and the impressive animatronic with Holm’s likeness, in this featurette on the making of Alien: Romulus.
Apart from a couple very brief glimpses in that clip, I couldn’t find any footage of the original Rook special effect online, so it’s hard to compare it to whatever is currently streaming. But i just took a look at Alien: Romulus on Disney+ and … it still looks like an obvious effect to me? Perhaps at some point we’ll get a side-by-side comparison that will show us the full scope of the changes. I’d certainly be curious to see that.
Alien: Romulus is currently available for streaming on Hulu (or on Disney+ if you also pay for Hulu). For more on the film, you can read my original review of the theatrical release, Rook effects and all, here on ScreenCrush.
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