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Alien: Romulus was a hit with critics and fans, and its box office success has already spawned a sequel. But there’s one part of the movie that was universally panned: the Ian Holm CGI.
Holm, who died in 2020, famously played android Ash in Ridley Scott’s seminal sci fi horror Alien, and controversially returned for ‘interquel’ Alien: Romulus via CGI that was slammed for being distracting and unrealistic by moviegoers. It was so bad that a popular fan-edit removed Holm’s Alien: Romulus character from the narrative completely.
However, director Fede Alvarez “fixed” the Ian Holm CGI for the Alien: Romulus home release. In an interview with Empire, he admitted: “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.”
For the home release, Alvarez insisted: “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.”
As a result, the home release Ian Holm leans more into puppet work than CGI. But is it actually better? Now fans have seen the results, they’re having their say on this new and improved Ian Holm. And for many, while there’s a slight improvement, Holm still looks distracting, and some are still questioning the need for Holm’s return in the first place.
“Better, but still awfully uncanny… and for no sound reason,” said Kwtwo1983 in a thread on reddit. “Should’ve messed his face up much more,” added thelastcupoftea. “It looked awful in theaters and it looked awful when I rewatched it on Blu-ray.” “Still such a needless and distracting part of the movie…” commented Smug_amoeba. “Both look bad and one is a bit darker lol,” said Worried_Bowl_9489.
What’s clear from the comparison is that the home release pulls the shot of Ian Holm so viewers see more of the practical puppet Alvarez mentioned, and the CGI face is less… in your face.
“Let’s be real, it’s still awful and garish to resurrect a dead man so needlessly,” TheUrPigeon commented. “They can only improve upon it so much because the initial effort was so poor.”
Still, Alien Romulus revitalized the franchise when it debuted this past summer, with an impressive $350 million at the global box office. And in October, 20th Century Studios said it was working on an idea for Alien: Romulus 2 that would continue the story of the first movie, with Fede Alvarez potentially returning to direct.
Photo by Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty Images.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
