CHUD LIST: THE WORST CGI IN HISTORY - DAY 10

Yeah, really bad. Looks like a bunch of rubber dolls flying around. The audience went from awestruck to laughing openly and loudly during the scene.

The coat was so bad. The texture on it looked like complete crap.

Hey Renn, I like the continuity on the second .gif. Things are a bitch to do well. Good choice by the way. This wasn't even the most interesting fight in the film. I much prefer the rumble with Merv's henchmen...which was done oh so practically. I really wanted to see how Neo would have done against the two ghosts, though.

Eh, I liked this one back in 2003 and defended it to my friends. That may be because I'd read an interview with John Gaeta who said that the effects were photo real and that digi-Neo was indistinguishable from Keanu-Neo but all the same I found that fight thrilling. I thought Neo spinning around with the pole in slo-mo was pretty bad ass, personally.

PS The PATH OF NEO xbox game had a great level based on this scene. It's loads of fun and you can do all sorts of cool moves with the pipe

Well written, and kudos for not going into yet another Matrix sequel diatribe.

Personally, though, I'm okay with the Brawl as is, if only for the fact that the Wachowskis are trying so damned hard to push the envelope past the point of anyone following and running it into the ground like Bullet Time was, and the tech just wasn't keeping pace. But when it comes to CG, ambition is crucial. Use it to show me something that's not just incredible, but would be impossible as a practical effect. And thats what this is. So, I give it a pass, while realizing that suspension of disbelief is being curb stomped right around the midpoint.

If I had a penny for each "Keanu looks more fake than normal" joke I've heard about this.
Also, the slow motion moments are truly stupid...its like they really wanted the audience to see how bad the CGI was.
The "home run" is the moment when you realize you're watching shit.
Also, "Kung Fu Hustle" pretty much defeated this travesty at doing the same.

Heh, the comments are going to give me shit for picking on a movie I don't like, even though this franchise sent me to film school.

Same here! The ghost dudes were my favorite part of the movie, I wish they had shown up again. I don't think the explosion should have taken them out.

I too heard the comments that the Burley Brawl was "photo-real" but then after seeing in theater I saw the real deal with the plastic men.

Take out the slo-mo, mid air spins and mid-air grabs and you remove 90% of the fugly CGI.

At least they had the good sense to make it visually consistent with the videogame.


Those tires are HOT

I know it's suppose to inspire "awe", but the whole fight plays out like a brawl from a Zucker film. Probably more Nick Rivers'* style than Lt. Frank Drebin's.


*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puVHLWlPQc4

I gues technically, since it's in the Matrix, it's all CGI... nevermind.


Looked terrible then. Still looks bad. I remember liking the closeup punch from REVOLUTIONS at the time though.

Your appearance in the Matrix is determined by RSI (residual self image). It would mean that Neo thinks he looks plasticy

I thought one of the biggest problems was that they made the CGI Keanu more expressive and animated than the real Keanu.

Of course, it didn't help that not too long after this we saw more exciting stuff in Equilibrium and Ong-Bak, both which were produced with much smaller budgets.

This is a great choice because WORST should be about context as well.

I liked it too, but more for the fact that they showed it rather than how good it looked. Looked pretty funky then as well.

In the context of 2003 era effects, can you point to a better looking digital stunt double? If we're going to assail the CGI stuntmen of the world, how does BLADE 2 not enter into the conversation?

The same problem plagues quite a few films where they used digital stuntmen (not to name names, but a certain second movie about some dude with a Blade....). It's generally because most CG animators didn't really understand or get prompted to adhere to physical performance until Gollum.

I read the comments. I think it's safe to say that many of them didn't actually read the article.

Good points Renn, I really liked this writeup. I agree that the Burly Brawl is more of a "noble failure," however, in that it was at least TRYING something groundbreaking, even if it fell on its face at the end.

Personally, I thought the highway truck fight looked worse than the Burly Brawl; every shot w/Lawrence Fishburne looked so horribly green-screened that it completely took me out of the scene. It's supposed to be a desperate fight to the death, but the fakeness of it made it less suspenseful than just about any battle from the first film.

Kate, I meant context in terms of The Matrix Reloaded matching the expectations meant for The Matrix Reloaded. In terms of what a huge production it was, how Gaeta pimped the Burly Brawl as photo-real, how good the actual practical footage looked in comparison, and how the visual FX varied in quality in the film itself... the Burly Brawl stands out worse than it would have had circumstances been otherwise.

But yea, that one wide-shot fight in front of the big lights in Blade 2 was pretty bad. Agree with you there. However, there were certain CG stuntmen shots that didn't always look that great but had a great energy to them.

I thought the fights involving CG stuntmen in Reloaded were actually pretty bland in terms of how they were put together.

EDIT: That shot of Neo helicoptering himself with the pole? Ugh. Instead of using slow-motion and CG to punctuate the sequence with high points, those two things became the entire point of the sequence. As someone said above, a lot of that dodgy CG would've been more forgivable had they not been in your face with the speed-ramping. SPEED-RAMPING!

One of the best parts of seeing real people in slow-motion is seeing just how much the body moves and changes even in the most mundane of motions. Full CG animation has yet to achieve that kind of subtle dynamism (talking out of my ass here!) even with big epic fight choreography.

Don't sell yourself short, all those words mean what you think they do and you put them in the right order to make a valid point.

I would've been willing to forgive this scene, had Geata and Silver not said the actor scans were so perfect I wouldn't be able to tell the difference in Empire interviews.

Neo's disappearing sideburns almost killed the entire film for me. Just like everything else in M:R, this scene was great in concept but piss-poor in execution.

As much of a fan I am of the sequels, this fight has aged pretty badly. That said, when I saw the fight, I was into it and never really felt pulled out of the movie as much of the other scenes in the list.

I guess I don't look actively for crap, its own smell has to get to me.

Ohhhh, how this video used to give me a severe case of the giggles back in the day...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvEibGgp-GA

One more thing to add... while I'm ragging on the CG now and didn't think they were up to snuff back in 2003, I did find the fight effective in just how relentless it came across. It just kept coming and coming and coming...

I'm having flashbacks to Justin Timberlake vs Stifler here.

I'm The Rain Dog and I approve of this message.

GDT says on the commentary that he hates that shot too (that's a great commentary by the way). I do think the last fight between Nomak and Blade is truly great and has some nice subtle CGI in it.


Re The Matrix Reloaded, I think the Burly Brawl is actually shamed by the staircase fight. Apart from the fact Neo is seemingly unkillable, that's probably my favourite fight in the trilogy.

Ever since the first time I saw MATRIX RELOADED, I could not understand the point of the totally-CGI Keanu. I mean, even if the entire purpose of using CG stuntmen during the brawl was to keep it all in one crazy, fluid, constantly moving but never cutting camera shot (which is how its been defended to me before), I still don't see why they didn't shoot the fight practically and then blend multiple shots using CGI. Turning many shots into seemingly one long shot has been done well, even before MATRIX RELOADED came out.

I don't know if this, or the Blade II lamp fight was worse.

I had already seen Kill Bill Vol 1 by the time I saw the second Matrix. The Bride fighting the Crazy 88 is ten times better. Its not just because of the bad cgi. Neo fights the Smiths, then just flys away. The Bride takes on everyone, and isn't done until they are dead or had limbs hack off.

I'm sort of in the minority that feels that the Matrix didn't shit the bed until Revolutions and appreciated what Reloaded tried to do, but you're right. The Burly Brawl was misguided, unnecessary, moronically overambitious and overall detrimental to the experience.

And Burly Brawl is an awful name.

That is exactly how I feel about Reloaded as well. Revolutions is where it lost me.

The Burly Brawl I mean who comes up with that?

Thanx for the entry.

And you're right... it *is* the only scene I remember from the movie.
Eeek.

I mean I got out of Reloaded and after that ending I was ready to slinghot myself around the sun in warp drive so I could travel in time and see what they were going to do. Having a background in computer engineering I even liked what they did with the Architect. Only to get great answers like "Just because" and tired Jesus analogies.

Yeah that reminds me of the epic Reloaded thread we had here where Slater and many other gents and gals pondered what was next for Revolutions. Short story it was better than what we got with Revolutions.

Anyhow its a shame that the CGI went nuts in that fight Keanu worked out hard for the film and it shows in the fight at the end of the film.

The Ultimate Matrix Trilogy special features had an interview with Reeves about that sequence. He was sitting on a stool while being interviewed and he started showing off the complex choreography from that sequence while sitting. It looked absolutely goofy, but was completely endearing. How can you not like Keanu!?

I still think the Smiths look pretty great, but they really dropped the ball with Neo and some of the shot choices/slow-mo. I'm not sure what it is exactly, the textures or contrast, but he sticks out like a sore thumb. I'm not sure if it's the uncanny valley or not because I usually associated that with eyes, and Neo's got his shades. So do the Smiths, and like I said I think they still hold up pretty well. Maybe it is primarily the coat, like Neoolong mentioned.

The fight is of course totally preposterous by the end, but I still wish they had gone a little crazier with Smiths getting wrecked(think the one flipping up into the apartment building).

God, remember when big summer action movie fight scenes were VISIBLE? When you could SEE the people fighting? No shaky cam to hide a lack of fight choreography? Good times.

And I think I'm going to pick up copies of the other two Matrix movies and give them a try. I haven't seen them since they first came out and I needed parental accompaniment to see a rated R movie in theaters.

HA! I remember that, I love that man.

I still love this scene, but only when removed completely from the film. I remember salivating over the trailer but the fight just has nothing to do with anything. It adds nothing to the story and ends with Neo flying away having seemingly gotten bored with fighting.

Having said that, dodgy CGI aside (and please don't ban me for saying this) the "Burley Brawl" is a brilliant action sequence and a showcase for some phenomenal choreography. It plays more like some proof of concept video than anything else but I still find it thrilling.

I don't disagree the CGI Neo looks pretty terrible in many of the shots, but I'm with Rain Dog and Justin on this one. Ambition and other factors, for me, give it a pass.

I'd think most of y'all have already seen this, but the fact CGI Keanu and CGI Timberlake are pretty much interchangeable in that ridiculous coat and shades shows how poor the digital double was.

Unrelated, but the only thing I actively HATE about Reloaded was the comedy sound effects during the Burly Brawl (bowling ball Smith and the tomato squelch).

Can't disagree with that, the bowling pin sound effect was just baffling.

I'll look forward to your next installment of The Miseducation of Patrick Ripoll for the Matrix sequels.

I think the fight got so ludicrous near the end that the bros. were just like "sure why not?!" with the bowling sound effect. I also recall dominoes at some point.

During the freeway sequence there's a bit where an agent jumps out of his car, smashes the front of another car then... (I forget what exactly happens after that). Anyway, I remember watching that in theaters and being so baffled by how horribly bad the CGI agent looked in that bit. Much worse than Rubber Neo.

To this day, whenever i see the part where the Smiths pile on Neo, I cant help hear Sean William Scott saying "DOGPILE!" in my head.

That was another shot that probably would have looked okay in normal speed, but the speed ramping made it look worse. Not great, mind you, but better.

The first film was super smart and efficient when it came to effects, too bad about what happened in the sequels. A lot of the effects shots were either too ambitious for the time, or looked dazzling but were ultimately boring(the dock seige). Those sequels are the source of a lot of geek frustration for me, much moreso than the prequels.

There is of course this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4lxoqAVm00

Absolutely agree with you there, Mr Nooj.

Also agree with you here! The fight in front of the lights looks awful, but at least what Del Torro was using the doubles for was usually pretty cool. I especially like Blade's dive off the fire escape during the film's first 10 minutes.

Eh, well, I think they were used well in places. We can agree to disagree on that point. I do think that the practical stuff in the BB is cooler than the CGI stuff though (with the execption of a few select shots)
I agree with you about why slow motion is cool, and I'm generally pretty adverse to speed ramping, but I still thought the helicoptering was cool