CGI is an amazing art, really, and when it’s done well, you don’t even notice! That being said, when it’s done wrong, it sticks out like an onion in your cereal.
Sometimes it can ruin moments in otherwise great films, and other times it’s the whole friggin’ film that just looks like garbage. Whether outstandingly terrible or subtly strange, these are the CGI moments that are unforgivable.
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“Green Lantern” — pretty much all of it, but mostly Ryan Reynolds’ costume
There are some decent scenes in the film, I’ll admit, but an entire super suit made of CGI just made us wonder why ?!
Ryan Reynolds, you are GUILTY!
Well…luckily, Deadpool “fixed” everything in Deadpool 2 .
“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life” — shark punching
Before Alicia Vikander proved that Tomb Raider movies could be decent, we had Angelina Jolie as the titular Lara Croft.
The first movie was bad enough, but the sequel stepped up the cringe, especially when she straight-up decks a pathetic CGI shark in the face. It’s actually kinda hilarious.
“Justice League” — Superman’s lip
Acting contracts are tough to deal with, man — so when Henry Cavill had to keep a mustache for another role he was in, the solution was (for some reason) to CGI Superman’s lip to be smooth. I think his expression in this shot matches our reaction pretty well.
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2” — the uncanny baby
Honestly, the alternative was to have a creepy animatronic doll as Bella’s child, but they opted to go full CGI instead. This is one CGI fail no one would mind yeeting out the window!
“The Mummy Returns” — the Scorpion King
Believe it or not, there was a time when people were uncertain whether or not they should put The Rock in movies. So, the final fight of this passable* sequel featured an all-CGI Rock/Scorpion mashup nightmare.
*arguable.
“TRON: Legacy” — young Jeff Bridges
This CGI trick has gotten better as of late, but back when this flick was released in 2010, we got a really warbly lookin’ Jeff Bridges.
Honestly, it was hard to take your eyes off him, and not in a good way.
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” — the claws
When you think of Wolverine, there’s probably one feature that stands out — excessive use of the word “bub.” That and his claws, of course.
So, how do we ruin one of the most iconic superpowers in the franchise? That’s right — make them appear as if they were drawn in last second.
“Die Another Day” — James Bond’s X-treme sports!
Pierce Brosnan blew us away when Goldeneye came out, and it wasn’t just for the fire N64 game that came with it.
We all thought he had the chops and charm to be the 007 our generation deserved! And then the sequel started off with this scene…and we lost all hope until Daniel Craig.
“Fantastic Four” — a lot of things, but mostly Dr. Doom
It seems like this franchise is just always doomed from the start — no pun intended.
But here’s proof that DC isn’t the only one committing CGI crimes! Just…just skip this movie entirely.
“Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” (re-release) — Jabba’s palace
As a die-hard Star Wars fan, there were so many scenes I could’ve chosen — but we’re all sick of hearing how Han shot first.
Honestly, one of my biggest gripes with this one was they took out one of my favorite songs from the franchise to replace it with this totally weird scene and crummy song. And they removed “Yub Nub,” which is a worse offense, but didn’t have much to do with CGI…it just sucked.
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” — troll rodeo Harry
They used practical effects and CGI on the troll, and really, it works! The CGI Harry riding on top, however, is still pretty laughable when you’re rewatching this classic.
“The Amazing Spider-Man” — The Lizard
Before Tom Holland and after Toby McGuire, we had two Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films…both were, meh, and had pretty ridiculous CGI villains.
The awkward, noseless Lizard, however, takes the cake for being weirdly done and not very intimidating at all.
“I Am Legend” — the zombies
This movie has a lot of mood, interesting shots, and commentary on the modern world.
Its pacing and unsettling horror, however, is all stripped away in the last act, which is basically composed of Will Smith running and gunning down some poorly done zombie-type enemies.
“Freddy vs. Jason” — creepy, crawly, caterpillar
I know this is a pretty obscure one to put on the list, but as an avid horror fan, I thought Freddy Vs Jason held up pretty well!
That is, except for this really weird, needless scene where Freddy is messing with the stoner kid by turning into this horrible, CGI mess of a monster. He then blows smoke in his face because, well, they’ve been blowing smoke at the audience the whole time, so why not?
“Spy Kids” — the sweetest burn of all time
A really weird, oddly fun kids’ movie ends in a final fight between the heroes and villains. Carmen Cortez calls out the antagonist on his bull…oney and catches herself before dropping a radical swear word diss.
Then these skeletons act like she’s Super Hot Fire and go nuts over it. Honestly, nothing’s even that wrong with the CGI here, I just thought it was unnecessary and dumb…and yet, I kinda freakin’ loved it?
“The Matrix: Reloaded” — Neo fighting
What was supposed to be an incredible climax to a much-anticipated sequel ended up being a cluster-chuck of CGI weirdness.
The first film had incredible practical effects, so how do they top that? With a fully digital Keanu Reeves…cool.
“Hulk” — the uh, Hulk
Another seemingly doomed Marvel franchise, Hulk was an early attempt at bringing the mean green machine to the screen.
Thing is, not only is the film boring AF, but Hulk is done up in this CGI that was bad for even 2003 standards!
“The Polar Express” — all of it
This whole movie takes place in the uncanny valley!
Sure, it’s an entirely computer-animated film, but this came out almost 10 years after Toy Story and looks 10 times worse. Definitely skip this one during the holidays.
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” — monkey swinging
A lot of people find this whole movie to be unforgivable in the fist place — but this scene, ugh, this scene is just cringeworthy.
Shia LaBeouf swings around on vines with some monkeys and it looks like someone literally cut and pasted his body into a cartoon world! It’s weird, comes outta nowhere, and just fails at every second of it.
“The Ring Two” — deer attack
So, most of us weren’t expecting much when we walked into this film — but it’s beyond bad. This scene in particular is so random and so poorly done that I actually laughed out loud.
“Lost In Space” — alien encounter
This old TV show has had a ton of adaptations since it came out — but the ’90s version definitely stands out.
Matt LeBlanc encounters this weird, chameleon/monkey thing that could easily have been done with practical effects. BUT it was the ’90s and CGI was just so exciting that they had to go for it. Smh.
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” — Legolas leaps
Instead of the award-winning practical effects used in Lord of the Rings , Peter Jackson gave us three movies filled to the brim with CGI.
The most ridiculous scene — arguably — is probably Legolas here literally defying the laws of physics by Mario -jumping his way up a crumbling bridge.
“Ultraviolet” — motorcycle chase
Not that we’d expect anything less than a CGI-filled mess of an action film, but the motorcycle chase scene is particularly laughable.
It literally looks like it was directed by a 5-year-old who’s just smashing their action figures together.
“Air Force One” — plane crash
An incredibly cringeworthy CGI mess at the end of an otherwise pretty great film!
I guess people really were just excited to try the technology out back in the ’90s, but it stands out like a clown in a nunnery and looks simply ridiculous.
