Alien: Romulus Director ‘Fixed’ The Movie’s Most Controversial Element In Home Release

After the original “Alien” in 1979, every subsequent film seems to have featured certain elements that immediately resulted in backlash among audiences. James Cameron’s sequel was criticized for stripping away the horror and replacing it with dumbed-down action, while “Alien 3” represented fan discontentment on a grand scale by killing off beloved heroes Newt and Hicks … before doing the same with its own leading lady, Ripley. (The less we say about “Alien: Resurrection,” a movie I actually have a lot of fun with, the better.) Both of Ridley Scott’s prequel films rubbed many viewers the wrong way, despite gaining more and more appreciators over the years, but it’s safe to say that last year’s “Alien: Romulus” was meant as a much-needed return to form.

In many ways, it did exactly that — perhaps a little too well, as /Film’s Chris Evangelista wrote about in his review — but it also continued the franchise’s grand tradition of alienating (pun most definitely intended) audiences with another divisive creative choice.

This time around, it had to do with the spoilery twist roughly halfway through “Alien: Romulus” where our new protagonists discover a very familiar face aboard the derelict space station Romulus. Meet Rook, a newer model of synthetic being still bearing the same face as the late, great Ian Holm, who memorably portrayed Ash all those years ago. Although not exactly the same character, that same ol’ Weyland-Yutani malevolence remained hardwired in his system. But the scene didn’t come without all sorts of controversy, with fans crying foul at the sketchy-looking visual effects work, along with the entire idea of digitally recreating yet another dead actor. For the home release, however, director Fede Álvarez is claiming that he’s “fixed” the issue … but that doesn’t tell the whole story.

What’s the Xenomorph equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig? Whatever that is, that appears to be the “solution” to what easily became the biggest flashpoint surrounding the release of “Alien: Romulus.” Although many fans (myself included) took issue with the very concept of Ian Holm’s likeness used as a cheap Easter egg in a legacy sequel, it appears that the ire directed at this scene has been slightly misunderstood on its way to landing on Fede Álvarez’s doorstep. Rather than addressing the actual issue, the filmmaker merely addressed the most surface-level criticisms in a new interview with Empire. Admitting that the visuals weren’t up to par, Álvarez explained:

“We just ran out of time in post-production to get it right. I wasn’t 100% happy with some of the shots, where you could feel a bit more the CG intervention. So, for people that react negatively, I don’t blame them.”

So what’s different this time around? Apparently, 20th Century Studios (now owned by Disney, of course) made the rare commitment of pouring further resources into improving the VFX, post-release. According to the director:

“We fixed it. We made it better for the release right now. I convinced the studio we need to spend the money and make sure we give the companies that were involved in making it the proper time to finish it and do it right. It’s so much better.”

That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t exactly fix the main issue at hand. It’s worth pointing out that Ian Holm’s estate signed off on the decision (and, in all likelihood, agreed to receive compensation for the movie’s success at the box office), but does that automatically make it okay? This very discussion proved to be a major sticking point in the Screen Actors Guild strike of 2023 and the debate, to say the least, isn’t dying down anytime soon.

Now that I’ve gotten off my soap box, readers may be wondering: How exactly did the creative team recreate Ian Holm’s likeness for “Alien: Romulus” in the first place? Helpfully, director Fede Álvarez sheds further light on that in the same interview with Empire. Much of the film brought back the same sense of tactility that the original “Alien” boasted, opting for practical effects and sets as much as possible that were then enhanced by VFX work. The same applied to the character of Rook, though Álvarez admits that the balance between practical and digital in the final cut didn’t fully reflect their intentions from the start:

“[Animatronic puppeteer] Shane Mahan actually did this animatronic of Ian Holm based on a head cast from ‘Lord Of The Rings,’ and that was the only one in existence. What we did [for the home entertainment version] was revert a lot more to the puppet. It’s way better.”

Apparently, during the course of production, this initial “mix of techniques” ended up skewing far more towards digital as the creative team hurried to get the film done in time for release. In addition to Mahan’s animatronic, actor Daniel Betts was credited for providing the facial and vocal performance on set. Add the digital work used to actually recreate Holm’s face and expressions in motion, and it truly took a village to bring this entire sequence to life. Was it worth it, in the end? Again, I’d argue that it very much wasn’t and actually cast a pall over the entire film, which otherwise was an enjoyable (and really, really gross) watch. In any case, you can experience “Alien: Romulus” all over again on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, and digital right now.