How did these films get away with CGI this bad!
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00:00 So, until recently, computer-generated imagery was mainly used for movies that focus on action,
00:05 fantasy, or superheroics. But as cinema keeps on evolving, so too do the tools of the medium.
00:11 In today's world, green screen, motion capture, and CGI are used more than ever.
00:16 But what's interesting about this development is how you can usually tell if a movie is good or not
00:20 based purely upon the quality of their special effects. If the computer-generated imagery is
00:25 unpolished, it's a sure sign the film isn't up to snuff. But every now and again, a movie will
00:30 come along that the whole world will fall in love with, despite the fact that the VFX really aren't
00:34 up to standard. And that's what we're here to talk about today. As I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:38 and these are 10 Great Movies With Terrible CGI.
00:42 10. Deep Blue Sea
00:44 In Deep Blue Sea, a group of marine explorers battle a school of super-intelligent sharks.
00:49 Now, based on that storyline alone, you'd assume that this would be a dumb bee movie in the same
00:53 vein as Birdemic or Maximum Overdrive, right? But even though Deep Blue Sea could've been trashy
00:58 schlock, it's elevated by an excellent cast, including Samuel L. Jackson, LL Cool J, and
01:04 Thomas Jane. On top of that, it's got some genuinely great jump scares, including when
01:08 Stalin Skarsgard's character gets his arm ripped off by a great white. But let's not forget what
01:13 Deep Blue Sea is best remembered for, which is after Jackson's character gives an uplifting monologue,
01:18 a shark comes out of nowhere and rips him to pieces. Because you genuinely don't see it coming,
01:23 this moment is regarded as one of the best jump scares in cinema. That's why it's rather ironic
01:28 how the film's defining moment happens to have the worst special effect. Not only does the
01:32 computer-generated shark look like it's composed of rubber, Jackson's CG counterpart looks hilariously
01:38 unfinished and contorts its limbs like a ragdoll rather than a human being.
01:42 9. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
01:45 Contrary to popular belief, there was way less computer-generated imagery in Harry Potter than
01:50 you would actually believe. Many moments that seemingly rely on CGI use alternative SFX like
01:55 scaling, animatronics, puppetry, green screen, wire work, and forced perspective. The reason
02:00 why the directors of the franchise limit digital effects is because they're expensive and time
02:05 consuming. But another reason why CGI wasn't commonly used is, well, it makes everything look
02:09 a bit crap, especially in the first film. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,
02:13 Harry and Ron get into a scuffle with a troll in a bathroom. Because this is the first monstrous
02:18 creature that we've seen up close, this should feel like a magical and scary moment for the
02:23 viewer. But because of the ogre's janky movements and blurred animations, he looks downright shoddy.
02:28 To add insult to injury, Harry is blatantly replaced with a CG image in certain shots,
02:33 making the whole scene feel less believable.
02:35 8. Spider-Man
02:37 Sam Raimi's Spider-Man was the first movie in history to earn $100 million in its opening
02:42 weekend. Even though the trilogy ended on a bit of a downer, there are legions of fans who prefer
02:47 this incarnation of Spidey over the MCU version. But the biggest lovers of the first film can't
02:52 deny the fact that the visual effects are subpar. Ironically, most of the worst CGI moments come
02:57 from Peter Parker being, you know, Spider-Man. When the web-slinger leaps from building to building,
03:02 he looks like a rubber man with Tobey Maguire's face stitched on. When Green Goblin is terrorizing
03:07 the citizens, his unnatural movements make him resemble a cartoon character. Even though we
03:11 should be in awe watching the wall-crawler soar through the sky, most viewers are wondering why
03:16 Spider-Man looks more like his video game counterpart than the actual video game equivalent.
03:20 Even though there are a couple of solid shots of the web-head swinging through the city,
03:24 the bad far outweighs the good. Even though the special effects in the sequel are light
03:29 years ahead in quality, this just makes the CGI in the first film look more than a little
03:33 underwhelming. 7. Rogue One – A Star Wars Story
03:37 Now, Star Wars fanatics were so psyched to see Darth Vader in Rogue One that they never considered
03:42 the possibility that the prequel would contain other iconic figures from the beloved franchise.
03:46 So when Moff Tarkin revealed himself, viewers were blown away. Nobody expected to see the
03:51 architect of the Death Star since the actor portraying him, Peter Cushing,
03:55 was suffering from a severe case of, well, you know, being dead for 22 years.
03:59 But thanks to the wonders of CGI and motion capture, the VFX efforts resurrected the
04:04 legendary British actor, allowing him to portray his most famous role. But with the benefit of
04:09 hindsight, it seems that fans originally watched this scene with rose-tinted glasses. Viewers got
04:14 so caught up on seeing the deceased actor on the big screen again that they didn't realise that the
04:18 special effects, well, they aren't as mesmerising as they initially thought. Although Tarkin's facial
04:23 tics and voice is spot on, his mouth? It's just weird. Not only does it move unnaturally, his lips
04:29 don't move in accordance with his voice, making him look like he's being dubbed. Now, you have to
04:33 commend the visual crew for pushing the effects as far as they could, but the scenes with Tarkin
04:37 prove that technology still isn't quite there yet.
04:40 6. The Social Network
04:43 Nobody exemplifies this philosophy that "the best visual effects are the ones we don't notice"
04:48 better than David Fincher. And viewers of the Social Network were baffled when they learned
04:52 digital trickery was used to make Armie Hammer depict the Winklevoss twins. However, there's one
04:56 visual in the Social Network that, well, just doesn't work. While Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo
05:01 are speaking outside a party, their breath is actually all digital. Although the visual was
05:06 inserted to illustrate how cold it is, it looks like the pair have freeze breath like Superman
05:10 or Iceman. What's worse is this visual is completely inconsequential. We can see the
05:15 characters are shivering, so we know it's chilly. Why did the visual team have to force such an
05:19 unconvincing effect to hammer this fact in? The sad thing is that once you notice the CGI breath,
05:24 it becomes so distracting that you don't even listen to a word that either character is saying.
05:28 5. The Hobbit Trilogy
05:30 Now, The Hobbit did not live up to Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. Nobody is going to deny
05:35 that, nor did anybody think that it could reasonably happen. But it doesn't change the
05:39 fact that Jackson crafted a satisfying trilogy in its own right. The action sequences in The Hobbit
05:44 are innovative, the battle sequences are epic, and the performances are astounding. Even though
05:48 Lord of the Rings set the bar unnaturally high in terms of special effects, you'd expect The
05:53 Hobbit's visuals to surpass it, right? I mean, since technology had advanced over 10 years and
05:57 the prequels had over doubled the budget of its predecessor, how could The Hobbit's CGI not be
06:01 out of this world? Well, ironically, the visuals are the trilogy's biggest detriment. Everything
06:06 looks so artificial that you can practically see the green screen. Instead of using CGI to
06:11 add to the spectacle, Jackson's crew here relied on the technology like a crutch,
06:15 swashing every shot with a smorgasbord of cartoonish VFX. This issue is extra noticeable
06:21 when characters are substituted for CG doppelgangers. Because their bodies just
06:25 don't move in a natural way, you never believe that they are really there for a second.
06:30 4. Forrest Gump
06:31 For the most part, the special effects in Forrest Gump are absolutely breathtaking.
06:35 Most viewers didn't have an inkling that the feather in the opening shot was actually computer
06:39 generated. People are gobsmacked when they learn that every single ping pong ball that Forrest
06:43 plays with are digital. The green screen used to depict Lieutenant Dan without legs looks just as
06:48 good now as it did back then. But there was one special effect that, let's face it, looked bad,
06:54 even when the film was released. Throughout the movie, Forrest rubs shoulders with many
06:57 famous people throughout history, including John Lennon, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon.
07:02 Instead of relying on body doubles, the film digitally inserted Tom Hanks' character into
07:06 archival footage to make it look like he was meeting these historic figures. Although these
07:11 scenes look convincing at first, the VFX is all over the place when it comes to each character's
07:15 mouth. If you analyze the lips of Nixon, Johnson, or Kennedy's in these moments, they clearly don't
07:20 match with what they're saying. And sometimes digital trickery is used to make the lips move
07:24 in a certain way, which makes it look all the more superficial.
07:27 3. I Am Legend
07:30 I Am Legend takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a retrovirus has either killed humans or
07:36 turned them into vampiric mutants called the Dark Seekers. The story follows a virologist called
07:41 Robert Neville, who does everything in his power to find a cure for the creatures to save what's
07:45 left of humanity. It's common knowledge that this adaptation is quite the departure from
07:49 Richard Matheson's novel of the same name. Nevertheless, the 2007 movie's long shots and
07:54 slow build-up helps to keep the viewer on edge. Unfortunately, all that tension disappears the
07:58 moment you see the Dark Seekers. Their movements and facial expressions are exaggerated to the
08:03 point where they feel more at home in a comedy over a sci-fi horror. These visual effects are
08:09 so heinous that viewers couldn't understand why the film crew didn't bring the creatures to life
08:13 with actors wearing prosthetics instead of CGI. Well, that was apparently the original plan,
08:18 but during the test screenings, the director worried that the Dark Seekers resembled angry
08:22 mimes, so switched to CGI at the 11th hour. But upon watching this screen test, there's no
08:28 question the original design of the monsters is vastly superior.
08:31 2. Black Panther
08:33 Black Panther was an unprecedented success on every level. It was the first film with a black
08:38 director to earn a billion dollars and ushered in a new age for Marvel. Although Michael B. Jordan's
08:43 fantastic Ford tanked, the young star redeemed himself in the eyes of Marvel fans by playing
08:48 one of the best villains in the franchise. All in all, there is a lot to love about this film,
08:52 but one thing that stops this film from possibly being seen amongst the MCU greats
08:57 is the rather atrocious special effects. This is ironic, since Marvel has always prided itself with
09:02 pushing visual technology as far as it can go. After all, it was the first studio that pretty
09:06 much perfected de-aging, but in Black Panther, the VFX are astonishingly shabby, especially in
09:12 the final battle. Because the visual team only had six weeks to animate the fight with T'Challa
09:16 and Killmonger, simple things like shadows and textures were compromised. Also, it's nearly
09:21 impossible to know what's happening since the scene was really, really dark.
09:25 1. The Irishman
09:27 In terms of acting, directing, story structure, and editing, The Irishman is almost perfect.
09:32 Sadly, the de-aging effects used for Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino never stop
09:37 getting in the way of Martin Scorsese's remarkable movie. To make these actors look up to 50 years
09:42 younger, each of them wore motion capture sensors on their face and body. However, the final results
09:47 look so awful that you'd swear the characters on screen are pure CG creations. Even when the
09:53 effects look impressive, the characters just don't move correctly. When we see De Niro's
09:57 character in his 30s, you just don't buy it because he moves like a man in his 70s.
10:01 If this special effect was an issue for only one of two scenes, then viewers would be more forgiving.
10:06 But since the de-aging is noticeable throughout the entire 219-minute runtime,
10:10 it stops The Irishman from being better than it should be. The fact that there are YouTubers and
10:15 freelance VFX artists who are able to create more convincing de-aging effects for these
10:19 scenes without a $200 million budget does make The Irishman all that more disappointing.
10:24 And there we go my friends, those were 10 great movies with terrible CGI. I hope that you enjoyed
10:28 that and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section below.
10:31 As always I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter @RetroJWithA0, or you can swing
10:35 by Liv and Let's Dice where I do all of my streaming outside of work and it'd be great to
10:39 see you over there my friends. But before I go, I just want to say one thing, hope you're treating
10:43 yourself with love and respect both physically and mentally because you deserve all of the best
10:47 things in life alright? And do not let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise. You are a
10:52 massive ledge and I want you to go out there and utterly smash it today, I believe in you.
10:56 As always I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that and I'll speak to you soon, bye.