Alien: Romulus was generally well received by critics and fans of theAlien 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 originalAlien, where he played a menacing android named Ash.InRomulus,Holms likeness appeared in the form ofa nearly identical synthetic lifeform named Rook. Found byRomulus 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, buthe appears inAlien: Romulus through a variety of special effects technologies. Anpractical 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 conceptsounds impressive. The results, however, werea little awkward. It didnt 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 isnt an actual human being, which could arguably justify a little of the artificiality, but Rook didnt even look like a mass of tubes and fake skin.He just looked like CGI.)Butrecently someone on social media watchedAlien: Romulus at home, andthoughtthat the CG on Rooks face was tweaked and now looked incredible. They then askedRomulus 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: RomulusIs Getting a SequelYou can see a little of the work that went into creating Rook, and the impressive animatronic with Holms likeness, in this featurette on the making ofAlien: Romulus.Apart from a couple very brief glimpses in that clip, I couldnt find any footage of the original Rook special effect online, so its hard to compare it to whatever is currently streaming. But i just took a look atAlien: Romulus on Disney+ and ... it still looks like an obvious effect to me? Perhaps at some point well get a side-by-side comparison that will show us the full scope of the changes. Id certainly be curious to see that.Alien: Romulusis 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.Get our free mobile appEvery Alien Movie, Ranked From Worst to BestFiled Under: Alien, Alien: Romulus, Fede Alvarez, HuluCategories: Longform, Movie News