A CGI Michael Myers mask? What a waste of money.
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00:00CGI can be an incredible, immensely versatile tool in the hands of smart filmmakers who
00:06know when to use it, but as we've all seen countless times, it's all too often used as
00:10a crutch or an indulgence where the results can prove extremely off-putting to audiences.
00:16And though literally hundreds of movies can be ripped to shreds for their embarrassingly
00:20cheap visual effects, we're looking specifically at movies that needlessly employed visual
00:25effects artists who work on scenes and shots that absolutely didn't need them.
00:29If nothing else, this is a testament to the thoughtless pervasiveness of CGI throughout
00:34Hollywood over the last two decades in particular, and that even enormously talented filmmakers
00:39aren't beyond overdoing it with the computerized flourishes and touch-ups.
00:44So I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, here with the 10 most pointless CGI movie shots ever.
00:4910.
00:50$5,000 dog poop, John Wick
00:53John Wick is an incredible action film which makes extremely minimal use of visual effects,
00:58though the producers did stump up a princely sum to include a wildly unnecessary pile of
01:03dog crap during one early scene.
01:06Shortly after John has been gifted a puppy by his dead wife, the dog is seen leaving
01:09John's house to relieve itself, and the audience is treated to a shot of the healthy deposit
01:14the canine leaves behind.
01:16And while you probably assumed this was just a $2 plastic poop lobbed on the lawn, it was
01:21in fact a digital creation rendered to the tune of a mind-boggling $5,000.
01:26With the production unable to feed a laxative to their dog performer to get a practical
01:30poop, there was apparently no other choice than to rely on VFX.
01:34Given the utter pointlessness of the shot and the film's modest $25 million budget,
01:38it makes no sense at all to be so frivolous with dog poop, of all things.
01:43And the irony is they made it look so perfect that it looks fake.
01:479.
01:48Cold Breath, The Social Network
01:49Though David Fincher's 2010 masterpiece carried out many feats of sheer VFX magic, some of
01:56the more subtle instances of CGI are a bit, well, pointless.
02:00During an early scene where Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield's characters are talking
02:04outside in the middle of a party, it's blindingly obvious that their cold breath has been digitally
02:10superimposed in post-production.
02:12Rather than warm moisture faintly escaping from their mouths when they speak, they look
02:15closer to Superman deploying his ice breath like the fate of the world depends on it.
02:20Though Fincher's commitment to the details is admirable, in this case the botched execution
02:24is distracting enough that he probably should have just ditched it entirely.
02:27It's not like the temperature of the scene contributes in any way to the character or
02:31story beats we're watching unfold.
02:338.
02:34Johnny Depp's Face, Public Enemies
02:36Michael Mann's Public Enemies largely focuses on good old-fashioned practical set pieces,
02:41so Mann's decision to include one especially noticeable CGI stunt proves all the more jarring
02:47as a result.
02:48During the focal bank robbery sequence, John Dillinger is seen vaulting over a bank desk,
02:53and there's no two ways about it, it looks totally badass.
02:57Or it would if not for the fact that Depp's face is clearly just a crude digital mask
03:01pasted over that of a stuntman.
03:03Apparently, the notorious perfectionist Mann had a very specific idea of how the shot should
03:09look, and when Depp couldn't quite get it right, he brought in a stunt double to execute
03:13it with the correct physicality while fixing the face in post.
03:17The irony, of course, is that the entire shot is ruined by the distracting CGI, which resembles
03:22Depp only as though he were rendered in the cutscene of a mid-budget PS1 game.
03:27Given that the shot could have easily been captured from behind the stuntman and likely
03:31still look just as cool, it's an utterly baffling act of stubbornness on Mann's part.
03:367.
03:37Green Screen Rooftop, The Room
03:39It's fair to say that Tommy Wiseau's The Room is a film rife with questionable creative
03:44cause, though nothing quite raises the eyebrows like his decision to use extensive and totally
03:49unconvincing green screen effects to shoot the film's rooftop scenes.
03:53These scenes were shot on a set hastily thrown together in a car park with a green screen
03:58erected so that they could composite a shot of Los Angeles skyline in post-production.
04:03But what makes this use of CGI truly pointless is that there was actually a rooftop available
04:08to shoot the scenes on, but for reasons that none of the film's crew members have ever
04:12been able to ascertain, the director opted for gaudy chroma key instead.
04:17If James Franco's The Disaster Artist is to be believed, it's probably because Wiseau
04:20wanted to make a real Hollywood movie, and nothing says Hollywood like needlessly splashing
04:25cash on perfunctory CGI.
04:28Given that the film's budget somehow ballooned to an absurd $6 million, it's fair to assume
04:33that this sequence ended up accounting for a sizable chunk of that price tag.
04:376.
04:38Henry Cavill's Digital Shave, Justice League
04:41Now, on the face of things, you might protest that Warner Bros. spending roughly $3 million
04:46to digitally shave Henry Cavill's face for Justice League reshoots was absolutely necessary.
04:52After all, Cavill was contractually prevented from shaving his bushy tash until Mission
04:57Impossible Fallout had completed filming.
04:59But there were several options that Warner Bros. had available to them instead, and pretty
05:03much all of them were better than just fixing it in post.
05:06Shutting down production for a few weeks was obviously the most sensible.
05:09Though it wouldn't have been cheap, it ultimately would have prevented the film from becoming
05:14a laughingstock, and perhaps even helped its box office in the long run.
05:18Secondly, given how badass Cavill's facial hair actually was in Fallout, and that many
05:22fans expected to see a resurrected Superman with facial hair anyway, they could have leaned
05:27into it and reshot Cavill's entire role with a full, grizzled face of hair.
05:32When you've already sunk $300 million into a project, it really doesn't pay to skimp
05:37on the big picture stuff, and that's exactly what Warner Bros. did by over-relying on VFX.
05:425.
05:43The Rat, Daredevil
05:44The Ben Affleck-starring 2003 Daredevil movie is a baffling production for many reasons,
05:50not least its general excess of frivolous, often unconvincing CGI.
05:54And this much is made clear in the movie's very first shot, as a digital rat is shown
05:59scampering through the streets of Hell's Kitchen before being blasted by a steam grate.
06:04Director Mark Steven Johnson originally intended to use a real rat for the shot, but when it
06:08didn't move across the scene as intended, the decision was made to move on and pass
06:12it off to the CGI artists.
06:15The actual rendering of the rat isn't too bad, aided by the scene being extremely dark,
06:19but given the utter lack of storytelling necessity for the rat to even appear in the movie, it
06:24just feels like a daft, unnecessary indulgence.
06:26But in the very least, it's emblematic of the film's entire misguided fascination with
06:31CGI, and lets audiences know early on what they're in for.
06:364.
06:37Replacing Practical Effects with Digital, The Thing 2011
06:42Now, this one really hurts.
06:44While the 2011 The Thing was far from a good movie, it was at least shot with an emphasis
06:49on practical creature effects in tribute to John Carpenter's 1982 original, which remains
06:54one of the best-crafted creature features of all time.
06:58And despite the film largely being shot with animatronics during post-production, the studio
07:02increasingly mandated use of CGI, ultimately replacing most of the original practical effects
07:08digitally through reshoots and literally tracing over the original in-camera work.
07:13Footage of the practical effects have since been found online, and considering how great
07:18they looked, fans were left outraged by the utterly charmless nature of the final digital
07:22result.
07:23There have even been calls for Universal to release a practical effects cut of the film,
07:28though with the film's practical effects artists confirming that no such cut exists, it would
07:33require Paramount going back into the editing room and assembling it.
07:37For a film that bombed at the box office and also reviewed badly, that doesn't seem very
07:41likely.
07:423.
07:43Digital Tire Smoke, Ronin
07:45John Frankenheimer's Ronin is a ludicrously entertaining action thriller that boasts some
07:50of the most impressive car chases ever put to film, and Frankenheimer himself even boasted
07:55that the chases were all achieved in-camera, quote, not in green screens, not with computer
08:01tricks.
08:02Well, that is ultimately about 99.7% true, because while cars really were filmed hurtling
08:07through the streets of France, the legendary filmmaker strangely decided to inject some
08:12wildly unnecessary CGI into a Paris chase sequence.
08:16As Sam and Vincent burn rubber while making their escape, a tonne of repulsive CGI smoke
08:22is layered over the top of the vehicle, intended to imply an extremely severe tyre burnout.
08:27Unfortunately, it looks laughably ugly and slightly undermines a sequence that's otherwise
08:32an epic triumph of technical filmmaking.
08:342.
08:35Michael Myers' Mask, Halloween H20, 20 Years Later
08:39The seventh Halloween movie was actually a pretty decent return to form for the series,
08:44for the most part, and given how little the franchise has relied on VFX over its tenure,
08:49few expected to see noticeable CGI in it.
08:52Surprisingly, the filmmakers were still tinkering around with the new design of the Michael
08:56Myers' Mask even during shooting, and once post-production had been completed, a total
09:02of four masks had been used.
09:03If you keep your eyes peeled, you can even pick out shots where earlier iterations of
09:06the mask appear, while most of them were replaced in reshoots.
09:10And there's one especially obnoxious moment that occurs when poor Charlie comes face to
09:14face with Myers.
09:16Because the production wasn't able to reshoot the scene with the final mask design, a CGI
09:21model was instead pasted on top of the rejected practical one, the results of which are absolutely
09:26hideous.
09:27Though the shot lasts just a merciful second or two, was this method of problem solving
09:31really preferable to just sticking to the over-the-shoulder shot of Michael and avoiding
09:35all that fan outrage?
09:371.
09:38The Prairie Dogs, Indiana Jones, and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
09:43The fourth Indiana Jones gets a ton of flack from fans for a number of reasons, and though
09:48nothing will ever quite top the nuke-the-fridge controversy, many were dismayed by the film's
09:53excessive reliance on low-rent visual effects.
09:56Just like Daredevil, this is made apparent in the film's very first shot, and again,
10:00like Daredevil, it involves a totally unconvincing and pointless digital rodent.
10:05The film's opening shot shows a rough CGI prairie dog emerging from its mound, surveying
10:10the area and quickly scurrying off before a car runs over the mound.
10:14And perhaps if this were a one-off, it might have been easy enough to tolerate.
10:17However, the awful digital abomination reappears during the infamous fridge-nuking scene, popping
10:22out of its hole to stare gormlessly at Indy for a moment before diving back in.
10:26And there you have it, that's our list.
10:28If you think we've missed something, then do let us know in the comments down below.
10:31And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification
10:34bell.
10:35Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
10:39just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
10:40I've been Ellie with WhatCulture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you
10:44real soon.