Some movies were so close to perfection, but terrible CGI dragged them down. We're diving into good films that got sabotaged by their own visual effects, exploring how digital magic went wrong and turned potentially epic moments into unintentional comedy.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're looking at movies we wouldn't have any major qualms
00:12with if only it weren't for some truly distracting TGI.
00:24Number 10 Blade
00:32Blade was a milestone for comic book movies with the superhero genre ice skating uphill
00:38ever since.
00:39The film still holds up thanks to Wesley Snipes' charismatic performance, the gothic atmosphere
00:44and slick stunt work.
00:46Whenever the film incorporates CGI though, we're suddenly reminded that this came out
00:50in 1998.
00:52At least Blade doesn't drape itself in digital imagery like some other superhero movies at
00:58the time.
01:07This fleeting moments of dated CGI stick out like a pair of cheap vampire fangs however.
01:13The CG shoddiness is unfortunately at its most apparent during the final fight between
01:18Blade and Deacon Frost.
01:25As pumped as we are watching these two duke it out, Frost's bloody CG hand and explosive
01:30fate take us out of the climax.
01:37Number 9 The Matrix Reloaded
01:49With the original Matrix being such a special effects game changer, the pressure was on
01:54for its sequel to be even more ambitious.
01:56To an extent it was with the highway chase raising the bar.
02:01Then you have Neo's fight against a horde of Agent Smith.
02:12The setup is promising and the choreography is inventive.
02:16Once Keanu Reeves is replaced with a digital double though, we question if this was a scrap
02:21section from the Animatrix.
02:31Admittedly the burly brawl could have worked as a fully animated sequence.
02:35If the filmmakers wanted to go live action, they might have considered dialing back some
02:39of the more complicated shots.
02:41They tried to have it all with a mix of practical stunt work and CGI, but the technology wasn't
02:47Number 8 I Am Legend
03:03The I Am Legend marketing team wisely downplayed the mutants in the advertising.
03:08The premise and Will Smith's presence were already enough to get us into the theater.
03:13Only seeing glimpses of the mutants in the trailer helped build suspense.
03:16Then again, there might be another reason that the ads didn't show much of the infected
03:21dogs and darkseekers.
03:23They looked like PlayStation 2 characters when we had already moved on to PlayStation
03:273.
03:34Initially director Francis Lawrence wanted to take a practical approach, even shooting
03:38footage of the performers in makeup.
03:40Unable to get the look right, they opted to use CGI late in the game.
03:44CGI could have worked here, but there clearly wasn't enough time left in the production
03:49schedule to nail it.
04:02Number 7 Spider-Man
04:10Tobey Maguire made us believe he was Spider-Man, and Willem Dafoe became the Green Goblin.
04:15It's a good thing the casting for the first Spider-Man movie was so spot on, because the
04:20effects weren't quite on the same level.
04:22Don't get us wrong, many moments still make us feel like we're watching a comic book
04:27brought to life.
04:28Yet even in 2002, a handful of key scenes looked a little half-baked.
04:38The two most egregious examples are when Peter Parker tests his newfound abilities
04:43leaping from building to building, and when our hero first faces off against the Gliding
04:46Goblin.
04:47As awkwardly as some shots age, the filmmakers perfected their craft by Spider-Man 2, which
04:52won an Oscar for its effects.
05:00Number 6 Air Force One
05:10Air Force One lives up to its awesome premise of die hard on a plane, despite showing some
05:15cracks in the third act.
05:16Up until this point, most of the action has been contained to close quarters, creating
05:20claustrophobia as tensions rise.
05:24Once the characters are seen hanging out of planes, it becomes more obvious that they
05:28aren't really thousands of feet off the ground.
05:31While we give the movie credit for using multiple model planes, they went all in on CG for the
05:36climactic crash.
05:38Not exactly the money shot the filmmakers were hoping for.
05:47As VFX supervisor Richard Edlin described it, we couldn't get it more than maybe 80%
05:52of where we wanted to get it, and we just ran out of time.
05:59Number 5 The Irishman
06:14In an epic spanning decade, Martin Scorsese turned to de-aging technology.
06:19Throughout The Irishman, we see Al Pacino's character from age 44 to 62, and Joe Pesci's
06:25character from 50 to 83.
06:28Star Robert De Niro goes through the most phases, having to play a 24-year-old at one
06:32point.
06:33Even at this technology's most effective, this so-called kid looks like a middle-aged
06:38man.
06:39A late middle-aged man.
06:40It doesn't help when you compare the de-aged De Niro to his actual younger self in movies
06:44like Taxi Driver.
06:56As phenomenal as the performances are, the digital facelifts make us wish they'd just
07:00cast younger actors for these scenes.
07:03Or maybe they should've hired the people behind those deepfakes, which were surprisingly
07:07more convincing.
07:16Number 4 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
07:25Watching the first Harry Potter movie, it truly felt as if we had been transported to
07:29Hogwarts.
07:30The sets, costumes, and casting were just as we envisioned when reading the books.
07:36We'd be lying if we said that some of the digital effects didn't suck out the magic,
07:40however.
07:41The Quidditch sequences would get more convincing as the franchise went on, but this first attempt
07:45struggled to fly beyond the green screen.
07:47The digital characters like Firenz the centaur and especially the mountain troll look more
07:52like animation tests by today's standards.
08:03Then there's Voldemort emerging from the back of Quirrell's head.
08:07This might've scared us as kids, but now we find ourselves snickering at the CGI and
08:12asking why Voldemort has a nose.
08:19Number 3 Black Panther
08:27To give credit where credit's due, the CGI in Black Panther can look impressive whenever
08:32used to showcase the vastness of Wakanda.
08:34However, the film begins to lose us whenever it replaces living, breathing characters with
08:39digital stand-ins.
08:41We get why they didn't employ real rhinos for the climactic battle, but it's only slightly
08:46less cartoony than Paul Giamatti doing a bad Russian accent.
08:55We could forgive that if it weren't for the final fight between Black Panther and Killmonger,
09:00turning what should be an emotionally charged showdown into something out of The Lawnmower
09:04Man.
09:06It's telling that a film this beloved was able to attain a Best Picture Oscar nomination,
09:15although Best Visual Effects is one category it couldn't break into.
09:26Number 2 Wonder Woman
09:36The DCEU finally produced a winner with Wonder Woman.
09:41Featuring an inspirational story, a touching romance, and rousing action, the film was
09:46super in virtually every department except for one.
09:50For most of its runtime, the effects in Wonder Woman are solid enough.
09:55They don't always look realistic, but it's not a huge distraction… until the third
09:59act.
10:10Once Ares reveals his true self, it no longer feels like we're fighting alongside Diana
10:15during World War I.
10:17It feels like we're watching actors make funny poses in front of a green screen.
10:22Speaking of silly, Ares' armor could have used a redesign.
10:26While we can't say it destroys the entire experience, it's a shame that the most important
10:30set piece is the most visually underwhelming.
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10:59Number 1 Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition
11:10The Star Wars Trilogy might be the most significant landmark in special effects history.
11:15When George Lucas gave the trilogy a digital makeover two decades later, it seemed like
11:19the next step in evolution.
11:34In the long run, though, the special editions would be a step backward.
11:38While some refinements were better received than others, most would agree that the CGI
11:43changes were the worst.
11:44A New Hope suffered the most, with pointless CGI shenanigans at most easily and a digital
11:50who looks better suited for the Clone Wars animated series.
12:02The additions to Cloud City and Empire admittedly look alright, but that musical sequence in
12:07Return of the Jedi is why we still have the original VHS tapes and 2006 DVDs.
12:25Which good movie do you think lost the most points for bad CGI?
12:29Let us know in the comments down below!