10 Weirdly Distracting Moments In Recent Movies

Gladiator II may not have been able to resist tying its sequel back to the original with a surprise familial link, but Alien: Romulus did. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to make Rain (Cailee Spaeny) Ellen Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) daughter, but the film went in a different direction, and the character was stronger for it.

However, that's not to say that Romulus didn't connect back to the original Alien at all. In fact, the fan service that it did include was worse than a Ripley connection would have been, in that when the group landed on the titular ship, they found a synthetic by the name of Rook, who took the exact form of Ash.

Ash was played by Ian Holm in the original back in 1979, and although the actor's estate gave permission for his likeness to be used, Romulus would have been better without it. Aside from the moral and ethical questions casting a deceased actor raises, and the backlash Romulus received for it, it was totally unnecessary. This was a strong outing in the franchise without it, and even if it wasn't, the CGI work to make the appearance happen was incredibly poor. 

Director Fede Álvarez worked to make it better for Romulus' home release, but even now, it doesn't seem as though there was much improvement.