This post contains spoilers for the movie “Alien: Romulus”.
In the long-running Alien film series, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation can't seem to give up on its terrible idea, as the company continues to try to make a profit by exploiting the deadly Xenomorphs.
No matter how many times they fail, no matter how many people die in the process, whenever their company stumbles upon a familiar, heart-rending, acid-blooded alien, corporate executives can't help themselves. They keep saying, “This timeWe will make it happen.”
Unfortunately, as much as I loved “Alien: Romulus” (I really did!), the new sequel (or “interquel”) isn’t free from its own terrible idea: Hollywood’s obsession with using CGI to make beloved actors look younger or resurrect them.
The youthful look has become more common as filmmakers try to emulate a young Harrison Ford in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” a young Will Smith in “Gemini Man,” and a young Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in “The Irishman.”
But the effect has also been used to bring back actors and characters from the dead, such as Grand Moff Tarkin, played by Peter Cushing in “Rogue One.” “Alien: Romulus” tries a similar trick. While it doesn't resurrect the exact same murderous android from the original “Alien,” it does feature an identical model played by the same actor, Ian Holm, who died in 2020.
The filmmakers used animatronics and actor Daniel Betts' performance to capture Holm's appearance on screen, and he said it was clearly CGI. Replacing actors with digital simulacra was one of the hot topics during last year's actors' strike, so it's no wonder that “Romulus” director Fede Alvarez recalled hearing something similar during filming. “I remember someone saying, 'That's it, they're going to replace us as actors.'”
But Alvarez believes such fears are overblown.
“‘Dude, if I hire you, it’s going to cost one man’s money,’” he said. “‘I literally have to hire 45 people to do this. And I have to hire actors to do the show!’”
So from an end result standpoint, working actors may not have much to worry about yet. And there's this. Every example I've seen, including “Romulus,” is like this. Terrible.
There are certainly many talented visual effects artists out there who can handle these effects, and I'm sure they've made some progress over the years. There's something almost noble about the way they keep diving into the problem and coming up with the same eerie results. No matter how close they get to reality, I've never seen a de-aged actor or a digital ghost that wasn't immediately obvious. Every single one of them makes you realize their artificiality every second they're on screen.
“Romulus” provided a particularly striking example. When the audience first saw Holm's new/old character, Rook, his face was obscured. We saw him only from behind and from the side, and heard a familiar, distorted voice, Creepy. The proposal did everything and no digital resurrection was needed (at least not visually).
But unfortunately, the film cut to his face and I immediately groaned and recognized him. Rather than focusing on the obvious CGI on the screen, my mind wandered to some studio executive who said,This timeWe will make it happen.”
