Worst special effect of the century

Yeah... you could probably fill up a top 10 list with just moments from Wolverine.  That scene with Jackman checking out his CG claws infront of the mirror.  Atrocious.

I still dig the movie but a lot of the big effects driven sequences in PJ's King Kong have aged very very poorly.  The brontosaur stampede in particular looks flat out terrible.

And while technically it may not be among the worst effects of the decade, CGI Jeff Bridges from Tron is certainly one of the least convincing effects committed to screen in recent memory.

Have you seen attack of attack of the killer tomatoes, dark star, the blob(58), or Starcrash? Don't get me wrong I love the blob and Dark Star, but come on.

The Blob(58) is perfect! Get outta here, eenin.

I Am Legend is basically Who Frames Roger Rabbit? thanks to the cartoonishly rubbery 'vampires'.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuzzy dunlop 

 

 

I still dig the movie but a lot of the big effects driven sequences in PJ's King Kong have aged very very poorly.  The brontosaur stampede in particular looks flat out terrible.

 

 

 

Ageed. Awful, awful compositing. Took me right out of the movie and I never reinvested.

How about the big fight between Neo and Agent Smith in The Matrix Reloaded. You know the one I'm talking about. Totally took me out of that movie because of how rediculously bad that scene was.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJ Dylan 

How about the big fight between Neo and Agent Smith in The Matrix Reloaded. You know the one I'm talking about. Totally took me out of that movie because of how rediculously bad that scene was.

Keanu's disappearing sideburns on the CGI Neo is shockingly sloppy.

I never noticed the sideburns, going to have to keep an eye out for that one next time.

The real shame about that scene(other than how pointless it ultimately is) is that it's got some genuinely great choreography, and some neat/funny shit going on. When it turns into a total video game, the main things that let it down are some silly camera moves, and CG Neo looking like utter shit. I still enjoy the energy and silliness of the scene, and yeah the tech wasn't quite there yet, but I actually think the CG Smiths look fine, mostly. No idea how they bungled Neo so bad.

Along the lines of the matrix stuff is Blade 2 stuff. Some fights scenes there with snipes & Goss are matrix bad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Electrichead 

Along the lines of the matrix stuff is Blade 2 stuff. Some fights scenes there with snipes & Goss are matrix bad.

Actually, I kind of like the "unreality" of the Snipes/Goss fights and some of the other shots, but even del Toro hates the CGI in the ninja fight.

And the only effects in Kong that don't hold up are in the aforementioned stampede. Everything else is fine.

Other than the CG fight in front of the flood lights, I give the Blade 2 stuff a pass for some really cool shots and dynamic staging.  That, and I don't recall those fight scenes going on anywhere near as long as the Burly Brawl.

Everything in A SOUND OF THUNDER.

I understand what they were going for, with the destruction caused by them throwing each other around, but having watched it a few times lately, I'm not digging it as much as I did back in the day. 

Not as bad as the 30min matrix big brawl render farm circle jerk we saw though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by felix 

Everything in A SOUND OF THUNDER.

That's one's funny because they just recycle the same bad cgi scenes over and over. They only had like three cars and they keep looping that same scene again and again. I've seen video games with better graphics.

The scene of James Bond surfing a tsunami in Die Another Day, surely?

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuzzy dunlop 

Yeah... you could probably fill up a top 10 list with just moments from Wolverine.  That scene with Jackman checking out his CG claws infront of the mirror.  Atrocious.

 

My draw literally dropped when I saw that scene.  I couldn't believe it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexus-7 

I never noticed the sideburns, going to have to keep an eye out for that one next time.

 

The real shame about that scene(other than how pointless it ultimately is) is that it's got some genuinely great choreography, and some neat/funny shit going on. When it turns into a total video game, the main things that let it down are some silly camera moves, and CG Neo looking like utter shit. I still enjoy the energy and silliness of the scene, and yeah the tech wasn't quite there yet, but I actually think the CG Smiths look fine, mostly. No idea how they bungled Neo so bad.

Yeah, it was mainly the horrific CG Neo that did it for me. Not even close to looking realistic. I didnt really mind the CG Smiths, but CG Neo looked terrible.
 

Or it was intentional with all the cheats and hacks that Smith and Neo was using the Matrix couldn't render "reality" properly and stuff didn't look real.

The Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns is the only instance of CGI in a film where I have literally said 'What the fuck?" aloud.  I've seen cut scenes in video games with better rendering.

King Kong Way Too Long does have some dodgy effects work at times.  Naomi Watts seems to have a blue halo about her head in a lot of the Skull Island scenes, particularly in the bits at the end of the V-Rex fight.  There are shots where it cuts back to Ann watching Kong, and you can clearly see blue screen in her hair.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarleyQuinn22 

The Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns is the only instance of CGI in a film where I have literally said 'What the fuck?" aloud.  I've seen cut scenes in video games with better rendering.

 

The only film that tops this level of shittiness is 'Van Helsing'.  There isn't a single believable special effect in the entire film.

- Mr. Hyde

- Dracula's wives

- Dracula's offspring

- The werewolf

- fucking Dracula himself

Simply terrible from beginning to end.
 

worse non-use of CGI would have to be Revenge of the Sith I think.  According to the 'making of' the stunt co-ordinators had choreographed the fight to end all fights between Windu and Palpatine, which would have CG'd in Jacksons and McDiarmids faces over the stunt fighters bodies.  And been kick-ass.

Last minute Lucas decides he doesn't like the idea of CGI in this scene (what the actual fuck? by the way) and so we get the crappy waving sticks at each other fight in the final film.  And then a CGI Emperor fighting a CGI muppet.  Way to go George.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Bain 

worse non-use of CGI would have to be Revenge of the Sith I think.  According to the 'making of' the stunt co-ordinators had choreographed the fight to end all fights between Windu and Palpatine, which would have CG'd in Jacksons and McDiarmids faces over the stunt fighters bodies.  And been kick-ass.

 

Last minute Lucas decides he doesn't like the idea of CGI in this scene (what the actual fuck? by the way) and so we get the crappy waving sticks at each other fight in the final film.  And then a CGI Emperor fighting a CGI muppet.  Way to go George.

Somehow, this makes me hate George Lucas even more. I shouldn't even care at this point, and we would probably instead be complaining about the shitty CGI Mace Face at this point instead, but ...

I bet that fight would have been awesome.

Quote:

Originally Posted by neoolong 

Or it was intentional with all the cheats and hacks that Smith and Neo was using the Matrix couldn't render "reality" properly and stuff didn't look real.

I KNOW I've heard that justification before.  WAS IT YOU, ALL THOSE YEARS AGO, neoolong!?

Or they could use the Shrek rationalization.

"Oh, it just looked TOO real.  So we toned it down.  Yeah... that'll tide over those SOBs..."

And HOW could I have forgotten about the Rockorpion King in The Mummy Returns!?  Hahahahahah.  I think that one wins the thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcnooj82 

I KNOW I've heard that justification before.  WAS IT YOU, ALL THOSE YEARS AGO, neoolong!?

 

Or they could use the Shrek rationalization.

 

"Oh, it just looked TOO real.  So we toned it down.  Yeah... that'll tide over those SOBs..."

 

And HOW could I have forgotten about the Rockorpion King in The Mummy Returns!?  Hahahahahah.  I think that one wins the thread.

 

Honestly, most of the CGI in Mummy Returns is inexcusably terrible: the Rockorpion King (we should use that term from now on, nooj), the Anubis Warriors, the pygmy mummies... it all looks "bleh". What's even weirder is that the CGI from The Mummy actually holds up pretty well. Sommers *did* mention somewhere that Returns was a rush job effects-wise, so I don't know...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Electrichead 

Along the lines of the matrix stuff is Blade 2 stuff. Some fights scenes there with snipes & Goss are matrix bad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexus-7 

I never noticed the sideburns, going to have to keep an eye out for that one next time.

 

The real shame about that scene(other than how pointless it ultimately is) is that it's got some genuinely great choreography, and some neat/funny shit going on. When it turns into a total video game, the main things that let it down are some silly camera moves, and CG Neo looking like utter shit. I still enjoy the energy and silliness of the scene, and yeah the tech wasn't quite there yet, but I actually think the CG Smiths look fine, mostly. No idea how they bungled Neo so bad.

The sentiment's been mentioned already but really, these are cases where the technology wasn't up to the filmmaker's ambition. I'm really forgiving when it comes to that stuff. Now, that CG Scorpion King? Fucking unforgivable.

Im also gonna throw X3's young Xavier/Magneto in there. The Uncanny Valley is a fucked up place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by felix 

Everything in A SOUND OF THUNDER.

Yup. Nothing here even touches that train-wreck.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcnooj82 

And HOW could I have forgotten about the Rockorpion King in The Mummy Returns!?  Hahahahahah.  I think that one wins the thread.

 

That's the only one that comes to mind for me. I bet it would win a poll for worst CGI. I'll never forget the extremely deflated look on the face of my friend watching the movie with me when that atrocity showed up. We'd been enjoying the movie up to that point. I was just shocked that a filmmaker could accept and put on screen something so awful as a 'finished' effect. I always think of it as a refugee from a Playstation video game (that reference is appropriate to the time period in which the movie was made) suddenly showing up. Not the best way to render what is supposedly the scariest creature in the movie, ominously rumbling towards us out of the darkness for the big action climax. The giant spider from "Lord of the Rings", it wasn't. Hell, even Goro in "Mortal Kombat" years earlier was more scary and intimidating.

I still say this thread should be renamed to shitty movies I watch with shitty CGI. Really I think the problem is not so much the shitty CGI, as it is just the shitty movies. As my case in point, the Blub is a great movie with bad effects.  Starcrash is just a shitty movie.

Other than a lack of time, I can't see a possible reason for them not hanging Johnson from wires or something and replacing his bottom half. It really is the worst high-profile CG effect* I can think of off the top of my head.

*By ILM, no less! Granted, their CG work was a really mixed bag at the time.

Obviously we're talking high-profile here. Otherwise we'd just name Birdemic and be done with it.

The SF greenscreen backgrounds used for the rooftop scenes in The Room.

I think the Centaurs in the first Harry Potter film are right up there with the Scorpion King. Okay its not that bad, but why is it when filmmakers have  half animal half human creatures in films they go all CGI instead of hiring an actor to be the human half?

Didn't CHUD do a series on bad CGI a year or so ago?

Yes, they did.

A lot of the stuff in Ultraviolet. Especially the motorbike scenes.

jar jar binks yo

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCatfishCommander 

jar jar binks yo

I'm going to get lynched for this, but I honestly don't think Jar Jar was rendered poorly or even integrated badly. He was just fucking annoying in every other aspect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naisu Baddi 

That's the only one that comes to mind for me. I bet it would win a poll for worst CGI. I'll never forget the extremely deflated look on the face of my friend watching the movie with me when that atrocity showed up. We'd been enjoying the movie up to that point. I was just shocked that a filmmaker could accept and put on screen something so awful as a 'finished' effect. I always think of it as a refugee from a Playstation video game (that reference is appropriate to the time period in which the movie was made) suddenly showing up. Not the best way to render what is supposedly the scariest creature in the movie, ominously rumbling towards us out of the darkness for the big action climax. The giant spider from "Lord of the Rings", it wasn't. Hell, even Goro in "Mortal Kombat" years earlier was more scary and intimidating.

  There's a point in that fight where the creature looks right at the camera and almost does The People's Eyebrow, and the ENTIRE theater let out this audible noise of disapproval.  The only reason that I was there was because I was a big fan of The Rock, and good Lord have mercy, my friends joked on me for ages after that movie came out, asking me what the fuck that thing at the end was.

The Mummy running into frame and crying out "NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY" after Brendan Fraser killed it was the cherry on top of the poorly-rendered cake.  Fucking hilarious.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sleeplesslumber 

I think the Centaurs in the first Harry Potter film are right up there with the Scorpion King. Okay its not that bad, but why is it when filmmakers have  half animal half human creatures in films they go all CGI instead of hiring an actor to be the human half?

 

 

 

 

The Scorpion King is worse than the Centaurs because it's not hidden by a nighttime setting.  It's right there in a brightly lit room, and there's no denying the shitty quality.   As far as half-human, half-animal creatures, I think Narnia did a pretty good job with Mr Tumnus in the first film.

Yeah, Mr. Tumnus was pretty good. I think they used a combination of prosthetics and blue-screening his legs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarleyQuinn22 

 

The Mummy running into frame and crying out "NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY" after Brendan Fraser killed it was the cherry on top of the poorly-rendered cake.  Fucking hilarious.

The film's most excellent moment.  I love it so much.

Could we, just for once, have a bad PRACTICAL effects thread? I swear sometimes it's like chewers think any effect pre-cgi is flawless and wonderful.

Jan de Bont's 1999 remake of The Haunting. I worked in a movie theater when it came out and saw it for free and still felt like I got ripped off. It's loaded with grossly ill-conceived CGI, clearly the mark of a director who neither understood the limitations of the technology or how to direct a proper horror film. That it isn't like the 1963 film isn't the problem, it's that it was such a 180 degree shift in the wrong direction, that it blows my mind. It was really interesting to see this tactless film throw all of this expensive cartoon imagery at a completely unresponsive audience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarleyQuinn22 
The Mummy running into frame and crying out "NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY" after Brendan Fraser killed it was the cherry on top of the poorly-rendered cake.  Fucking hilarious.

 

 

My friends and I still re-enact this whenever we can.    Wolverine is just terrible CG, and I was beyond disappointed in X-Men First Class. Even though I really enjoyed it.

I am floored nobody has brought up the ending of Mission to Mars. The alien had to be ported over from a bottom-shelf Sega Genesis game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jacob Singer 

Could we, just for once, have a bad PRACTICAL effects thread? I swear sometimes it's like chewers think any effect pre-cgi is flawless and wonderful.

But that would be counter to the internet's position that practical is always good, CGI is always bad.  And we just can't go against that.

By the way, saying Jar Jar Binks is a bad special effect is nuts.  He's an annoying character, but from an effect standpoint, he still looks quite good.

Since the Scorpion King and VanHelsing beasties and Harry Potter Centaurs and the very unfortunate-looking Mo-Cap in both TRON: Legacy and Matrix Reloaded have been mentioned, I'm going to have to put in a vote for the crappy CGI wolves in Day After Tomorrow.  The craziest thing in a movie chock full of them.

Robert Zemekis' output for the last decade or so?   Not even sure if his animated films really qualify for this thread but the mocap work he's been putting out has been truly horrific CGI and genuinely disturbing.   At least we can laugh at Wolverine or Mummy II but who doesn't get creeped out when thinking of the Hot Chocolate song from Polar Express?

Or this one works too but it seems a little low budget for this thread....

<iframe width="853" height="510" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kPPRB6ErOIU?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>