These FX don't hold up.
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00:00When you see some next-level special effects, it can be a magical moment.
00:04So when you re-watch these scenes, you expect to have that same wonder ignited within you.
00:08But this isn't always the case.
00:10When you give some classic films another go, you'll notice the visuals aren't as great
00:14as you remember.
00:15At one point, these moments were impressive, even jaw-dropping, but it's time to take
00:19off the rose-tinted glasses and see these eyesores for what they really are.
00:23So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with What Culture here with 10 groundbreaking
00:27movie special effects that aged terribly.
00:3110.
00:32Poltergeist
00:33Poltergeist has so many mind-blowing special effects, it's baffling how it didn't win
00:38any Oscars, although it did lose out to E.T.
00:41But after 40 years, you'd assume a lot of these visuals would be pretty ropey nowadays.
00:45Amazingly, most of these optical tricks still look top-notch.
00:49The way the house collapses into itself is one of the coolest visuals of the 1980s.
00:54The elongated corridor sequence is just as mesmerizing now as it was when Poltergeist
00:58was released.
00:59But there's one scene that has aged worse than Mickey Rourke.
01:03When the parents open their children's bedroom door, they see all sorts of paraphernalia
01:07spinning throughout the room.
01:09As they gaze in horror, records twirl around, books fly towards them, and a lightbulb places
01:14itself into a lamp by itself.
01:16Although this scene should be scary, it feels like it was only put together to show off
01:20these gimmicky visuals.
01:21Not only that, the camera lingers on every shot, making the stop motion and green screen
01:26painfully obvious.
01:27Because this scene doesn't add anything to the story, it feels self-serving.
01:30Also, did we really need to see a floating Hulk action figure riding a toy horse?
01:369.
01:37Total Recall
01:38The CGI in Terminator 2 was so awesome, people forget Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in another
01:44film that pushed the boundaries of special effects the previous year.
01:48Total Recall.
01:49Scott Verhoeven's sci-fi thriller has some of the best animatronics ever put to screen.
01:53The x-ray sequence looks stunning, even though computer effects were in their infancy at
01:58the time.
01:59Ironically, what was once regarded as Total Recall's best visual effect is now perceived
02:03as the worst one.
02:04In one scene, double agent Quaid attempts to sneak through the immigration office on
02:08Mars by disguising himself in a hyper-realistic woman's costume.
02:12When the outfit malfunctions, the woman's head splits open, revealing Quaid.
02:16Well, it's supposed to be Quaid.
02:17In reality, it's an unconvincing dummy head of Arnie.
02:20Upon watching this scene for the first time, most people don't realise how fake this
02:24puppet looks because they're distracted by the woman's head disconnecting, which
02:28still looks amazing.
02:29But when you clock Arnie's papier-mâché-looking noggin, it ruins this iconic scene.
02:33His eyes aren't even symmetrical.
02:35Also, why did this shot need a dummy head?
02:37Surely the real Arnold could have been behind the animatronic or something.
02:418.
02:42The Matrix Reloaded
02:44The hype for The Matrix Reloaded was so overwhelming, there was no way the Wachowski sequel could
02:49live up to the expectations.
02:51And it didn't.
02:52The expository dialogue was repetitive, the performances were flat, the pacing was all
02:56over the place, and the ending was anticlimactic.
02:59But there was one element that received universal praise.
03:02The visuals.
03:03Even though the bullet-time technique popularised by The Matrix was groundbreaking, many believed
03:07the CGI in Reloaded was just as good, if not better.
03:11The harshest critics couldn't fault the VFX, especially during the burly brawl where
03:15Neo faces off against 100 Agent Smiths.
03:18However, the overuse of CGI is blatant if you rewatch the iconic fight now.
03:23While Neo batters the snarling Agents, there's many shots where every character is obviously
03:28computer generated.
03:29What's more annoying is that this problem could have been remedied if the scene didn't
03:32contain slow motion.
03:34By slowing down the action, Neo's rubbery texture and Smith's copy and paste faces
03:38are more flagrant.
03:39The choreography looks fantastic, but the fight starts resembling a cartoon once the
03:43actors have swapped out for their digital doppelgangers.
03:467.
03:47Tron Legacy
03:49Tron Legacy failed to win critics over, nor did it make a splash at the box office.
03:54However, the long-awaited sequel was commended for its kaleidoscopic visuals, especially
03:59during the light cycle chases.
04:01But in hindsight, some of the visuals aren't up to par.
04:03The main villain, Clu, is a digital program designed to resemble Jeff Bridges' character
04:08in his 30s.
04:09Because Bridges was 61 during filming, the creative team utilised the same de-aging tech
04:14used for Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
04:17Sadly, Clu is rendered so badly, you swear the effects team did it on purpose.
04:21Now, you could argue that the de-aging technology wasn't perfected yet.
04:25However, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has superior effects, despite coming out two
04:30years earlier.
04:31The difference is the production team behind Benjamin Button knew the technology's limitations,
04:35and obscured the titular character when he was de-aged.
04:38Tron Legacy shows off Clu in all his glory, making no effort to hide how unfinished he
04:44looked.
04:45When you see the de-aging effects in films like Captain Marvel, Gemini Man, and Spider-Man
04:48No Way Home, Clu is embarrassing by comparison.
04:526.
04:53Spawn
04:54Even though CGI was considered to be potentially gimmicky at first, everything changed in 1999.
05:01After the release of The Matrix, The Phantom Menace, and The Mummy that year, moviegoers
05:04finally understood this groundbreaking technology was here to stay.
05:09However, people forget the superhero flick Spawn predates all those movies.
05:13Released in 1997, Todd McFarlane's comic book adaptation was one of the first films
05:18with fully computer-generated characters.
05:21Although critics loathed it, the special effects were regarded as Spawn's only positive quality.
05:25But when you watch it now, it seems inconceivable that anyone thought these visuals looked good.
05:30And it's not just one specific visual.
05:32All the CGI is terrible.
05:33Spawn's billowing cape is so appallingly rendered, you wonder why the crew didn't
05:37just make a real one.
05:38Because the actors can't see the cape, they have no reference point while looking at Spawn,
05:42making the visual even less believable.
05:45But that's not all.
05:4622 digital companies worked for 11 months to design the hell dimension, and yet it looks
05:51like it was cobbled together in 5, maybe 6 minutes.
05:54But the worst aspect of the film's VFX has to be hell's ruler, Malabolgia.
05:59This demon looks so incomplete because, well, he is.
06:02The visual team ran out of time before fine-tuning Malabolgia's design, so they didn't get
06:07a chance to make his mouth move when he talks.
06:105.
06:11Hulk
06:12Just because a special effect looks bad, doesn't mean the visual artists didn't work their
06:16arse off putting it together.
06:18And few films exemplify this fact better than Ang Lee's Hulk.
06:22This film was in development hell for 12 years, since the studio had to wait until they believed
06:27CGI had advanced enough to bring the mean green machine to life.
06:31During production, 180 technicians worked round the clock for 18 months to ensure the
06:36Hulk looked like a real creature, rather than a computer-generated image.
06:41Because 2.5 million hours went into creating the jade giant's movements, hair, muscles
06:46and facial expressions, you'd expect the final product to be out of this world.
06:50Although the Hulk was impressive in 2003, the emerald-skinned monster pales when he's
06:55compared to his MCU counterpart.
06:58In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Hulk was brought to life with motion capture, making
07:02his movements far more realistic, especially in his face.
07:05But since the Hulk in this movie is a pure CGI creation, it moves unnaturally, even cartoonishly
07:11most of the time.
07:12Although most of the visuals have aged terribly, don't get me started on that mutant dog,
07:17the titular hero definitely looks the worst.
07:204.
07:21The Terminator
07:23With the Terminator's exemplary visuals, gritty action and beautiful score, no one
07:27can contest this film is sci-fi at its best.
07:30Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance may be iconic, but that shouldn't take away from
07:34the blood, sweat and tears that Stan Winston put into the special effects.
07:38Despite having little money and even less time, Winston's creations in the movie turned
07:43out flawlessly.
07:44Well, most of them.
07:45After the Terminator sustains heavy damage, he performs surgery on his face, exposing his
07:50metallic interior and laser eye.
07:53The puppet of Arnie's face took six months to construct, and yet it looks slightly more
07:57convincing than a melted mannequin by today's standards.
08:00But that's not all.
08:01Director James Cameron worried that using stop-motion for the T-800 would be unconvincing.
08:06Sadly, he was spot on.
08:08When the endoskeleton is a puppet, it looks brilliant, but when it switches to the janky
08:12stop-motion model, you can tell the Terminator isn't really there.
08:16Even though these visuals looked astounding in the 1980s, the superior special effects
08:20in Terminator 2 utterly put them to shame.
08:23Although people debate which movie is superior, there is no question that the sequel is superior
08:28when it comes to visuals.
08:313.
08:32Final Fantasy The Spirits Within
08:35Final Fantasy The Spirits Within was a massive deal upon its release, since it was the first
08:39CGI film with photorealistic characters.
08:42It took so long to make the visuals look right, the development team had to redo the
08:46earliest visuals again to ensure they were on par with the latest rendered shots.
08:51After all the animation was completed, the footage was fed to a separate render farm,
08:55where the textures were sharpened further.
08:57It may have been an exhausting process, but it was worth it in the end, since the visuals
09:01in The Spirits Within were considered indistinguishable from real life.
09:05People got so hyped by the movie's animation, there were rumours that digital performers
09:09could become commonplace in cinema.
09:11There was also speculation that the Spirits Within protagonist Aki could appear in other
09:15movies alongside real actors.
09:17But if you put the photorealistic characters beside actual people, it's clear the special
09:22effects aren't as seamless as they first appeared.
09:24This is demonstrated on the DVD bonus feature when Aki interacts with the film crew.
09:29The visuals on the characters' facial expressions are excellent, but it's clear the technology
09:33had yet to perfect certain features such as eyes, teeth and hair, making most characters
09:38look soulless and creepy.
09:402.
09:41The Lawnmower Man
09:43The Lawnmower Man was torn apart by pretty much everyone when it came out.
09:47It also didn't help that Stephen King sued the studio, forcing them to remove his name
09:51from the title.
09:52The trippy sci-fi flick was criticised for its wooden performances, slow pace and the
09:56done-to-death Frankenstein plot.
09:58But there was one element that the harshest disparager couldn't fault.
10:02The psychotropic visuals were truly awe-inspiring.
10:06Because the story centres around virtual technology that can enhance the human mind,
10:10the filmmakers injected the movie with as much psychedelic effects as they could.
10:14Even though the film was badly received, these kaleidoscopic images were regarded as mesmerising
10:18and dazzling.
10:20Critics from Empire Magazine went so far as to call these computer-generated displays
10:24genuinely visionary.
10:26But the years have been unkind to The Lawnmower Man.
10:28When you look at the VR scenes now, you would think they were from a 1980s movie or a Sega
10:33Saturn game.
10:34Even though these variegated sequences were once perceived as The Lawnmower Man's only
10:38redeeming feature, they are now viewed as the film's most glaring flaw.
10:431.
10:44Star Wars The Original Trilogy Special Edition
10:47Do you know what the saddest thing is about the Star Wars Special Edition trilogy?
10:51Originally, it actually sounded like a great idea.
10:54Even though the visuals in George Lucas' work were light years ahead of every movie
10:58in its heyday, some special effects have aged very badly.
11:01So when Lucas announced he would re-release the Star Wars movies with refined effects,
11:06added CGI, unseen footage, and newly recorded dialogue, fans were over the moon.
11:11And when you first watched the Special Edition versions, it was nice to see fully rendered
11:15CG characters rather than an amateur-looking puppet or a crummy animatronic.
11:19But when you look at these sequences now, the computer-generated imagery feels forced
11:23and jarring.
11:24What's most infuriating is how the majority of these effects are utterly redundant.
11:29Why was there a music number in Return of the Jedi?
11:31Did we need to see a stormtrooper ride a dewback?
11:33And why did Lucas feel obligated to insert more rocks in the scene where R2-D2 hides
11:38from Jawas?
11:39The only good thing that came about this experiment is that movies should be left untouched, even
11:44if they seem outdated.
11:45And that concludes our list.
11:47If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
11:50And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification
11:53bell.
11:54Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there at WhatCulture, and I can be found across
11:58various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
12:01I've been Ellie with WhatCulture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you
12:05real soon.