A home video release change relating to one of Alien: Romulus‘ most controversial visual effects was reviewed by VFX artists. Alien: Romulus earned positive reviews this past summer and made over $350 million worldwide, representing strong returns on its estimated $80 million production budget. One of the most celebrated aspects was its technical achievement, which earned the film an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects, competing against Wicked, Dune: Part Two, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and Better Man.
Now, the Corridor Crew breaks down one of the most iconic and contested elements of Alien: Romulus: the visual recreation of Ian Holm. Specifically, the team looked at the VFX changes enacted by the team upon the film’s digital release. Niko Pueringer explained that the teeth were the main issue with the “deep fake” recreation of Holm in the theatrical version. For the home release, the Alien: Romulus team darkened the lighting on the face and potentially used more of the puppet to correct this. Check out the full analysis from the Corridor Crew below:
Wren Weichman: There’s also this whole sequence in this movie where this android gets brought back online. And he’s played by a deceased actor, Sir Ian Holm. Since we filmed that episode, they actually went back and changed some of the visual effects of that sequence for the Blu-ray release.
Niko Pueringer: In the original version that we looked at, it was pretty decent, but the teeth were a little weird. Because they were running basically a deep fake process to do the face replacement. And the perspective of the teeth is tricky. And also, the resolution was just a little low, it’s like they had punched in a sH๏τ that probably would have been better on more of like a medium wide.
[The team views the difference between the theatrical and Blu-ray version]
Pueringer: The lighting’s a little less bumped up. It’s a little more natural. The mouth is animated a little bit less. Maybe it’s more of the actual puppet underneath coming through here.
Weichman: That’s what I’m wondering. I’m wondering if they actually went through and they de-composited the mouth. On the deep fake you can see there’s like this weird blurry line between the lip and the teeth. It’s like the lip itself blurs before it gets to the teeth.
Pueringer: And everything else is pretty good. Like the eyes are pretty decent. Darkening the face was the right call. Because you can kind of make the effects look fake with the color grading. You just boost something ‘oh the face is too dark.’ Boost it up it’s like ‘now the compositing looks weird.’ It seems like they chilled that out.
Jordan Allen: It’s interesting, I don’t know if it’s just the grade, but there is a stronger specular coming from the bridge of the nose as well. A lot more puppet I think is coming through on the left side. And there’s more of a like a softer bloom to him too.
Weichman: We don’t actually know what was changed. We’re just kind of looking at it here. So we don’t know if some of the deep fake was removed, or if they actually did a completely new pᴀss and redid it. But at the end of the day, the mouth is slightly less articulate.
Pueringer: And they’re also slightly more zoomed out.
Weichman: Exactly.
Pueringer: They didn’t abandon the techniques they were doing. It feels like they are still doing the deep fake stuff. But just a little more tuned, a little more understood by the whole team, how it’s going to look, where its strengths and weaknesses are. Like some sH๏τs are zoomed out. But at the same time, like the eyes still have that deep fake life that CGI struggles to capture, that deep fake does really well. It still looks like deep faked teeth to me to be honest, like on the left, on the Blu-ray release. But they’re not as weirdly bright, they’re composited a little bit better, the perspective’s better. So just yeah, it’s an improvement.
What This Means For Alien: Romulus
The Use Of VFX For Facial Recreation Is Extremely Controversial
Holm was in the original Alien movie, where he portrayed Ash. The actor himself died in 2020, making him unable to appear in the 2024 film Alien: Romulus. However, the team decided to bring back his likeness for the sequel, with the help of AI and CGI. This was a controversial addition to the film, as audiences were uncomfortable with AI recreations of real-life, deceased actors. This debate has been rampant in recent years as visual effects tools have been used to replicate late stars, such as Carrie Fisher and Robin Williams.
Corridor Crew does not focus on the controversial nature of the creative decision, but rather the effect itself. The Alien: Romulus team took the film’s home release as an opportunity for improvement, slightly altering aspects of the scene to improve the effect. These aspects included effects relating to lighting, color grading, and compositing, all of which were achieved in the post-production process. This version was created far into post-production, but the Corridor Crew’s analysis suggests that the effort was well worth it.
Director Fede Álvarez revealed that Holm’s family gave permission to allow his likeness to be seen in the movie.
Our Take On The Alien: Romulus Effect Change
This Will Continue To Be A Source Of Debate
It is interesting that the Alien: Romulus team altered this Rook detail for the home release, given all its controversy. Even with technical refinements, there is bound to be a conglomerate of people who do not support the posthumous recreation of Holm’s likeness due to more ideological reasons. The fact that this deep fake technology can be improved, as evidenced by Alien: Romulus, is fascinating and terrifying, giving filmmakers more tools to recreate the faces of those who have pᴀssed on.
Source: Corridor Crew
