While some films overuse CGI in a way that makes it extremely obvious, there are plenty of movies that mix special effects with live-action brilliantly. In fact, you might be surprised at which shots in some of your favorite recent movies actually feature heavy CGI, because they look so realistic. We're about to pull back the curtain to show you what these movies look like without their special effects, so don't say we didn't warn you. From the truth about that bear scene in The Revenant to the CGI you didn't even notice in Passengers, here's what some amazing movies look like without special effects.
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00:00As technology has made special effects more accessible and CGI sets have become cheaper
00:05to build than real locations, studios are more and more tempted to rely on computerized
00:09effects to tell their stories.
00:11Movies have become so reliant on digital effects that their original footage is often completely
00:16unrecognizable from what you see on screen.
00:18Here's what these movies really looked like before the special effects were added.
00:22The Revenant
00:24Leading man Leonardo DiCaprio and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu weren't the only ones
00:29to gain recognition for their work on 2015's The Revenant.
00:33From riding a horse off a cliff to an epic bear attack, ILM, the digital team behind
00:37the film's special effects, had their work cut out for them.
00:40The true hero of this film, though, was Glenn Ennis, the 6-foot-4 stuntman who played the
00:44iconic bear.
00:45It was hard on the body, so, you know, on your hands and feet, picking someone up, throwing
00:50them around."
00:51Ennis also admitted that DiCaprio was a pretty intense co-star.
00:55Jay Lister's agony was so believable that Ennis thought he was actually hurting him.
01:00Passengers
01:01Despite failing to recoup its $110 million budget, nobody could deny that 2016's Passengers
01:07looked great.
01:08Director Morten Tilden wanted to keep the visual effects as subtle as possible.
01:13Effects company MPC was behind many of the film's iconic shots, including a beautiful
01:17zero-gravity water sequence.
01:19However, though special effects may be accessible, they certainly aren't cheap.
01:23MPC's visual effects supervisor Pete Dion told Art of VFX,
01:27"...Morten's aesthetic is definitely biased towards invisible effects, and where they
01:31couldn't be invisible by nature, to keep them restrained and to never distract from the
01:35drama."
01:37Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice
01:40Warner Bros. maxed out their $250 million budget for Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice,
01:45and although the film made tons of money, critics still weren't impressed.
01:49Director Zack Snyder received a lot of flack, but he claimed that he and his effects team
01:53actually went out of their way to pay homage to the source material.
01:57Take Superman's cape, for instance.
01:59VFX supervisor Brian Hirota told Art of VFX,
02:02"...it had to act and feel natural, but on the other hand behave in an art-directed way
02:06and create appealing shapes that remind the viewer of the original comics."
02:10That may sound like a nice detail, but it's a safe bet that everyone was too busy trying
02:14to spot actor Henry Cavill's CGI-erased mustache in Justice League to go back and notice.
02:20The Hunger Games' Mockingjay Part 2
02:22The Hunger Games franchise split its final book into two movies, and most fans agree
02:26that the second was far more exciting than the first.
02:29VFX supervisor Charles Gibson described Mockingjay Part 2 as a war film with massive set pieces,
02:35saying,
02:36"...we had to enhance battle action and create believable environments that would hold up
02:40for extended coverage."
02:41Working closely with production designer Phil Messina, Gibson agreed on a mix of shooting
02:46on location and building digital sets, saying that Messina's input on the project and his
02:50design approach were invaluable.
02:53Okja
02:54South Korean director Bong Joon-ho turned countless Netflix users vegan in 2017 with
02:59Okja, the touching story of a girl and a super pig.
03:02VFX supervisor Eric Iondeboer explained that the success of the film hinged on whether
03:07the audience believed that Okja, a genetically engineered pig, was real.
03:11As he explained to No Film School,
03:13"...the only way that people are really going to believe Mija and Okja and their little
03:17pet friendship is if we have a lot of contact, and if that contact is truly believable."
03:21In order to achieve this physical contact, the VFX team created a range of phone props
03:26for young star Ahn So-hyun to interact with, including a full body suit for the most intimate
03:31interactions.
03:32Fortunately, the effort paid off, as Okja struck a chord with both viewers and critics
03:36alike.
03:38Blade Runner 2049
03:40The sequel to Ridley Scott's seminal sci-fi classic Blade Runner was a long time coming,
03:44and the VFX team felt the weight of the 80s cult classic on their shoulders.
03:48Overall visual effects supervisor John Nelson told Art of VFX,
03:52"...any fan of science fiction or cinema has a great deal of reverence for the original
03:56Blade Runner, myself included.
03:58Blade Runner 2049 cityscapes in particular were a huge job, and multiple VFX companies
04:03were hired to craft this world in miniature."
04:06While the film fell below box office expectations, it did at least manage to capture the neon
04:10noir feeling that resonated with fans of the original so strongly.
04:14Arrival
04:15Before Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve directed a sci-fi outing that was a little
04:20more grounded in reality.
04:222016's Arrival follows a linguist and a physicist as they attempt to communicate with an alien
04:27species.
04:28The VFX style was the polar opposite of the Blade Runner sequel, seeming drab and washed
04:32out in comparison.
04:34VFX supervisor and regular collaborator Louis Morin told VFXblog,
04:38"...Villeneuve wanted nothing to do with any kind of sci-fi movie that we've been seeing
04:42recently from Hollywood.
04:44He just wanted this movie to feel so real and so boring in so many ways, like, ordinary
04:49looking."
04:50Louis then talked about a cold, cloudy day in Montreal, where Villeneuve explained that
04:53this was what he wanted Arrival to look like.
04:55Considering how gray and drab the film looked, it's safe to say he nailed it.
05:00Ex Machina
05:01Alex Garland's indie sci-fi drama Ex Machina beat out many big-budget films to win the
05:05Best Achievement in Visual Effects Oscar in 2016.
05:10According to VFX supervisor Andrew Whitehurst, the shoot was so well-organized and efficient
05:15that they had extra cash to spend on making Ava, the AI, look amazing.
05:19He explained that the initial budget would have only allowed them to animate Ava's torso
05:22and limbs, and that the extra money let them animate her head and neck as well.
05:26Garland also wanted to make sure Ava had romantic appeal.
05:29Costume designer Sammy Sheldon-Differ explained that her suit, which left little to the imagination,
05:34was a massive group effort.