Get ready for a cringe-fest of digital disasters! We're diving into the most jaw-droppingly terrible CGI effects that made superhero movies look like they were rendered on a potato. From floating heads to rubbery limbs, these visual effects will make you laugh, cry, and question Hollywood's budget allocation!
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00:00If you won't lead my army, then you must die.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most uncanny valley CGI
00:14scenes from superhero films. We'll be getting into spoilers, so consider this your warning.
00:20The bigger you are, the quicker you burn.
00:2330. Ghost Rider's Flaming Skull
00:31Ghost Rider. For a character who's basically just a walking, talking,
00:35flaming skeleton, Ghost Rider doesn't look too hot in this film.
00:44It's not the worst CGI, and some wider shots look fine. But when you see him up close,
00:50you can just tell that the spirit of vengeance needs to have some more work done on him.
00:54Sure, Ghost Rider was released almost 20 years ago, but in close-ups,
00:58he looks less semi-demonic Soul Hunter and more boss in an old video game cutscene.
01:04Let's just hope old Johnny Blaze doesn't hunt us down for going all scorched earth here.
01:2429. Doctor Strange's Third Eye
01:27Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
01:30Sam Raimi's foray into the MCU received mixed reviews, with Multiverse of Madness's heavy
01:36reliance on CGI coming under fire. Given the magical and multiversal themes,
01:41this was somewhat inevitable. The movie had an estimated 2,000 VFX shots.
01:54Not all of them looked bad, but not all of them looked good either.
02:00Arguably, the worst culprit comes at the end of the movie, when Doctor Strange develops a third eye.
02:10Sure, it's brief, but all too memorable. And we see it again in the post-credits scene.
02:15It looks flat and plastered on, and bigger than his other eyes.
02:24Hopefully, you and I can agree that this looks rushed.
02:2928. Everything About MODOK
02:32Ant-Man and the Wasp – Quantumania
02:34This actually raises an interesting question. Can CGI be bad if the character that it's
02:40applied to looks terrible on purpose? Yes, sorry, it's still bad.
02:47MODOK was never easy on the eyes or anything, but he also didn't look like a bootleg Mr. Electric.
02:52In the comics, his head looks odd but far more distorted, and in turn, horrifying.
03:04But the MCU's MODOK is just a giant, poorly rendered face and nothing else.
03:09It's like they booted a picture of Corey Stoll's head into MS Paint,
03:13and went a little crazy stretching him out. We don't want to burst any bubbles,
03:17but MODOK in Quantumania was rough.
03:2227. Axl's Floating Head – Thor Love and Thunderer
03:31This CGI has gone down in history, but for all the wrong reasons.
03:36To deliver a message to Thor about a mysterious god butcher,
03:39Heimdall's son Axl appears to him as a floating face.
03:45The moment was jarring, to put it mildly. You might expect VFX like this from a low-budget
03:50fan film, but from Disney? Really? To make matters worse, when the movie went to digital,
04:00the new and improved version of Axl was arguably even worse. Sorry Marvel,
04:05but maybe you should stick with more thundering gods rather than shimmering heads.
04:1226. Parallax Being a Glorified Cloud – Green Lantern
04:18Parallax was going to be a difficult beast to tackle in CGI,
04:22but the design choices for this adaptation probably weren't the right ones.
04:26A comic-accurate giant space bug wouldn't have been great,
04:30but the weird cloud with a face that we got definitely was not an improvement.
04:43It's just this awkward clump of digitally constructed mass
04:46that looms over the entire movie like a bad omen,
04:50or smell. Parallax looks far from the physical embodiment of fear in this film.
05:02Seriously, what is it with terrible looking floating heads in superhero movies?
05:06Like, there's gotta be a pattern here now.
05:1725. Fighting Deacon Frost – Blade This Wesley Snipes vampire hunting
05:23superhero movie is undeniably a cult classic, but it's also a product of its time.
05:28One of the final scenes where Blade battles Deacon Frost is a good example.
05:38The overly stylized sword fight sees the two whacking at each other's blades,
05:43and Frost getting sliced in half. The blood rippling out as Deacon's upper half reattaches
05:49to his lower half is so comically bad it's like we're suddenly watching a parody.
05:54CGI was still sort of in its infancy during the 90s, so we'll cut the movie a little bit of slack.
06:05But yeah, these effects have not aged well.
06:0824. Cyborg's All-Digital Look – Justice League
06:19Victor Stone had the potential to look amazing during this superhero team-up.
06:23It might have made sense, at least on paper, to incorporate CGI into how he'd appear.
06:29However, the problem is that they used too much CGI, which left him looking uncanny and
06:35just not really there in the final version.
06:44It's like he's just a face pasted onto a shiny silver mess.
06:48The way his robotic limbs appear make it painfully obvious that
06:52everything about him was added in post.
06:54A blend of practical effects and CGI could have made Cyborg look way better.
07:1323. Everything About Killawog – Green Lantern
07:18This intergalactic action movie is well known for its bad CGI,
07:22and the Green Lantern, Killawog, is no exception.
07:26Not only is Killawog stuck with that terrible all-CGI suit,
07:30his hulking design makes him stick out even more.
07:39Yeah, Killawog is a giant alien, but he doesn't look like he belongs in any natural setting,
07:44extraterrestrial or otherwise.
07:46When you see him training Hal Jordan, for example,
07:49you can just tell that something doesn't look quite right.
07:52This is another scenario where maybe practical effects could have helped make him look a little more real.
08:0722. Tying Up The Thing – Fantastic Four
08:11When tempers flare between Mr. Fantastic and The Thing,
08:14an all-out brawl between the two friends ensues.
08:17But Reed manages to win the fight by tying his own body around The Thing.
08:22You stay out of this, Susie!
08:24Stop it or I will!
08:27Get off me, rubber boy!
08:29It's a surprisingly tense scene with some real dramatic weight to it.
08:33But unfortunately, the CGI involved here really undercuts the emotion.
08:41We want to feel bad for The Thing, but the cartoonish display is distracting.
08:46In close-ups, Reed's head just looks like it's floating.
08:49Calling this CGI good would be quite a stretch.
08:53Good thing you're flexible enough to watch your own back.
09:0021. The Multiversal Cameos – The Thing
09:05With the use of a chronobull, Barry Allen is able to peer into different points of time,
09:10but things get complicated when he battles a dark variant of himself.
09:14Throughout all the chronobull chaos, we get glimpses of other heroes from the multiverse.
09:19Really bad glimpses.
09:35Up until now, the CGI was already pretty dicey.
09:38But this brought it down to a new low.
09:41Further complicating things was how the film digitally resurrected
09:44several dead characters for soulless cameos.
09:48So not only are the CGI effects really bad, they're downright disrespectful.
09:53Look at what's happening.
09:55These worlds.
09:59Director Andy Muschietti tried to defend the CGI,
10:02but the damage had already been done.
10:05You have to stop.
10:06It stops with a fixture!
10:1120. Pipe Organ Fight – Daredevil
10:14You. Let's play.
10:21We wanted to excuse some of the shoddy CGI of Daredevil,
10:24because it was released in 2003.
10:27However, when you consider that the excellent visuals of Jurassic Park
10:31were released 10 years earlier,
10:33a few special effects from this superhero film become inexcusable.
10:37Daredevil's cinematic and awe-inducing climactic fight
10:41turns into laughable nonsense thanks to truly atrocious CGI.
10:46While computer-generating humans convincingly is still hard to do today,
10:51it really didn't work in 2003.
10:53Both Daredevil and Bullseye look like rubbery blocks.
10:57There's also a very clear difference between the live-action actors and the CGI.
11:02While we should have been cheering for Daredevil to win,
11:05we ended up rooting for this fight scene to end.
11:07I'm without fear.
11:10Looks like I found something you're afraid of.
11:1319. Seven Deadly Sins – Shazam
11:16Oh, Reed.
11:20You can have him.
11:22No.
11:23No.
11:25Shazam's first solo outing is filled with lots of humor and some great character work,
11:30so we were excited to meet the sinister Seven Deadly Sins.
11:34Unfortunately, these antagonists are largely let down by their derivative design.
11:39Since they are little more than brownish-gray monsters with red eyes,
11:43they're extremely boring to look at.
11:46The CGI used to render them isn't bad,
11:48when the monsters are the only things on screen.
11:51But when the Sins attack humans, the attacks themselves don't look that threatening.
11:56Help!
11:57Somebody!
11:59Help me!
12:02You can't go crying to other people all the time.
12:04Our brains can tell that these actors are really fighting nothing.
12:07Although the arrival of the Sins should have made for a compelling finale,
12:11they were let down by uninspired creature designs.
12:14What do you got?
12:15Well, that's terrifying.
12:21Number 18.
12:22Black Panther vs. Killmonger
12:24Black Panther.
12:28What's up?
12:29I never yielded!
12:31While the MCU has given us awe-inspiring CGI,
12:35they're also guilty of a few dips of visual quality.
12:38One of the biggest offenders is the big clash between Black Panther and Killmonger.
12:43While the daylight section of the battle is quite epic in scope,
12:46things devolve quickly when Black Panther and Killmonger fall inside of the Vibranium Mine.
12:52The surrounding environment, obviously digital characters and unnatural movements,
12:57take a lot of bite out of their emotional bout.
13:00I learned from my enemies. Beat them at their own game.
13:03You have become that!
13:04Sections of the fight look more like a video game cutscene than a tentpole Marvel film.
13:09Even Chadwick Boseman's and Michael B. Jordan's floating heads
13:13can't help make this final confrontation feel more real.
13:16Maybe we can still heal you.
13:21Why?
13:22Number 17.
13:23Steppenwolf.
13:24Justice League.
13:25You were born of her. A creature of chaos.
13:31Not how I see it.
13:32Give it time.
13:34One of 2017's Justice League biggest special effects missteps
13:38revolved around the title villain Steppenwolf.
13:41Although this entirely CG creation relied on motion capture from actor Kieron Hines,
13:47nothing about the antagonist felt remotely real.
13:50Steppenwolf doesn't carry a sense of weight, boasts a drab design,
13:54and his mouth doesn't always seem to line up with his dialogue.
13:57Millennia in exile, searching. At last you call me home.
14:04Whenever he stands next to a live-action actor, we're instantly taken out of the scene.
14:09Multiple reports suggest that the post-production process for this 2017 movie was very rushed.
14:16This could explain how a movie that cost millions to make had Steppenwolf look so awful.
14:21You will join my legion and you will know the righteousness of power.
14:31You will love me.
14:33Number 16.
14:34The spotlight fight.
14:36Blade 2.
14:37Motion sensor zone 3, gentlemen.
14:40Human.
14:42Uh, body temperature 50.
14:44As we stated before, digitally rendering human beings is difficult.
14:48A minor detail can make a scene unbelievable in an instant.
14:52Audiences experienced this phenomenon when enemies stormed Blade's compound.
14:57Although we might have accepted him doing battle in front of an
15:00inexplicably large wall of spotlights, the movements push us past our breaking point.
15:05Despite the interesting choreography, the uncanny physical moves look absurd.
15:15This scene gets even worse when it cuts between CGI and live-action stunts.
15:20It's a shame that actual stunt work was ruined by digital effects that absolutely bite.
15:25You have been our most feared enemy.
15:28But now there's something else loose on the streets.
15:32Something worse than you.
15:33Number 15.
15:35Doomsday.
15:35Batman vs Superman, Dawn of Justice.
15:38Born to destroy you.
15:43You're Doomsday.
15:44What should have been an epic clash of heroes was criticized for being overlong,
15:49overwritten, and overly CG'd.
15:51Doomsday perfectly represents all of those problems at once.
15:55After the heroes confront each other and Lex Luthor,
15:58Doomsday comes crawling into life at the last second.
16:01English actor Robin Atkin Downs performed the motion capture and voice work for this abomination.
16:08The design itself of this massive and vaguely humanoid monster is horrifically boring.
16:13What did you bring him back to the city?
16:15The port is abandoned and there's a weapon here that can kill it.
16:18If you asked someone watching the film live to name one of Doomsday's
16:22distinguishing characteristics, they'd still struggle to pick something out.
16:26This middle-of-the-road rendering wouldn't have been so bad
16:29if its appearance didn't extend the movie.
16:31The bad CGI truly spelled doom for an already divisive story.
16:36This thing is from another world.
16:40My world.
16:41I've killed things from other worlds before.
16:45Tattoo's Wolf.
16:46Elektra.
16:47She's down the street, three blocks over in the parking lot.
16:53We need to kill the Gaijin assassin first.
16:55Few movie fans were pining for an Elektra spinoff from Ben Affleck's lackluster Daredevil outing.
17:01Unfortunately, this heroine's horrible-looking tale still arrived in cinemas.
17:05One of Elektra's lowest points came courtesy of a villain with the fantastic name of Tattoo.
17:11The thought of an antagonist that sports ink that can come to life sounds awesome,
17:15but our enthusiasm faded when a wolf appeared out of Tattoo's belly.
17:19Not only does the villain's skin look like cheap plastic,
17:22but the animal's actual appearance is horribly edited.
17:26It's so choppy that it feels like the filmmakers were ashamed to show the wolf for too long.
17:31The terrible visual effects turned this Tattoo into ink we'd definitely get removed.
17:36Nice trick.
17:37I've seen it before.
17:38Number 13.
17:40Incubus.
17:40Suicide Squad.
17:42Irvab.
17:51The original concept for Incubus was quite something.
17:54It was visually striking and instantly memorable,
17:57while inspiring an otherworldly type of fear.
18:00What we got instead was this horrific creation
18:03that looked little more than a tall, computer-generated actor in a crappy costume.
18:08The physical design is silly, and the CGI is equally underwhelming.
18:12What is this?
18:14It's gonna be bad!
18:15We should run.
18:17His very fake-looking human face made it impossible to take
18:21anything coming out of his mouth seriously.
18:23Ironically enough, the production of 2016's Suicide Squad
18:27won an Oscar for makeup work on other villains.
18:30Maybe sending an actor to the makeup department and putting them on stilts
18:33would have been better than the final Incubus effect.
18:36Get the team guys to the way.
18:38Irvab!
18:46Number 12.
18:47CGI Hell.
18:48Spawn.
18:49Spawn was huge in the 1990s.
18:52Todd McFarlane's uniquely dark and gritty comics reeled in a sizable readership,
18:57with the first issue selling 1.7 million copies.
19:01So imagine the anticipation when an animated series and live-action film were announced.
19:08I feel much better now.
19:10The animated series was well-received.
19:13The movie?
19:13Yeah, not so much.
19:15One of the main targets of criticism was the CGI.
19:18Fans were divided over the cape,
19:20which to be fair was reportedly very difficult to animate.
19:29But it was Malibulja who really stole the show.
19:32And not in a good way.
19:34The Lord of Hell burns our eyes just to look at.
19:37So perhaps in a way that's a success.
19:39If you can't animate something, just don't show it.
19:42Find a creative solution.
19:46Never!
19:47Bring me Spawn's head.
19:52Number 11.
19:53Gamma Dogs.
19:54Hulk.
20:02Long before the Avengers redeemed the Hulk,
20:04Eric Bana starred in an origin film with notably poor special effects.
20:09While the Hulk himself looks quite goofy in places,
20:12he's nothing compared to the nightmarish monstrosities that are the Gamma Dogs.
20:16The canines were once David Banner's pets, but thanks to a little of Hulk's DNA,
20:21the creatures become mutated, violent, and extremely rough to look at.
20:26Nothing about the protracted fight sequence between the Hulk and the evil canines works.
20:30The creatures look silly, the Hulk looks silly,
20:33and it just reeks of poor early 2000s CGI.
20:36Scenes like this keep Ang Lee's Hulk firmly in the doghouse.
20:42Number 10.
20:43Bruce in the Hulkbuster.
20:44Avengers Infinity War.
20:49For the most part, Avengers Infinity War looks spectacular.
20:52And it better, considering the 400 million dollar budget.
20:56But there's one glaring visual flaw,
20:59and that's Mark Ruffalo's head inside the Hulkbuster.
21:02This isn't gonna be like New York, pal.
21:03This suit's already kicked the crap out of the Hulk.
21:08Pretty much every single shot of Bruce's head inside the Hulkbuster needs work.
21:13And it has a certain floaty quality to it that is never made convincing.
21:18I'll sue you, you big green asshole!
21:21I'll do it myself!
21:23Come on!
21:24It almost looks like Ruffalo's head is photoshopped onto the Hulkbuster itself,
21:30and the results are borderline laughable.
21:32It stands out in a movie filled with otherwise great CGI,
21:36and is a blemish on an otherwise excellent movie.
21:39Number 9.
21:40Not-so-fantastic stretching.
21:42Fantastic Four.
21:50That's gross.
21:51Mid-2000s Marvel was certainly not the Marvel we know and love today.
21:56Case in point, the 2005 adaptation of Fantastic Four.
21:59Produced by Marvel Enterprises, as it was then known,
22:03Fantastic Four starred Yoan Griffith as Mr. Fantastic.
22:07The founding member of the Fantastic Four,
22:09Mr. Fantastic has the bizarre ability to stretch his body and elongate his limbs.
22:14It looks a little goofy on the page, and it looks even goofier in live action.
22:22No!
22:24The CGI of Griffith's elongated limbs looks more like something out of a cheap television show,
22:29rather than a 100 million dollar blockbuster.
22:32Fantastic Four isn't a good movie, and the CGI certainly doesn't help.
22:37Oh my god, Reed, what did you do?
22:40I can make it work.
22:41No!
22:42Number 8.
22:43Ruined Rhino.
22:44The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
22:46I am Rhino!
22:49I told you I would be back!
22:51This is often considered the weakest Spider-Man movie,
22:54and that's saying something considering the legacy of Spider-Man 3.
22:58A part of its negative reputation stems from the bland and visually embarrassing
23:02villains Electro and Rhino.
23:04And everyone will be able to see me for who I truly am.
23:09And who are you?
23:12Don't you know?
23:14I'm Electro.
23:15Both villains are plagued with poor CGI work,
23:18with Rhino in particular suffering from Bruce Banner's floating head syndrome.
23:22On behalf of the fine people in New York City and real rhinos everywhere,
23:26I ask you to put your mechanized paws in the air.
23:29Never!
23:30I crush you, I kill you, I destroy you!
23:34Much like Bruce Banner, it consistently looks like Rhino's head is floating in his mech suit,
23:38and it completely eliminates the sense of danger and menace that a good superhero
23:43antagonist should always embody.
23:45Paul Giamatti is a great actor, but he was utterly wasted as Rhino.
23:50Number 7.
23:51Hellboy vs. Giants.
23:53Hellboy.
23:54Wait a minute.
23:57I thought there was supposed to be three.
24:05There's something to be said when the Hellboy from 2004
24:08often looks better than the Hellboy from 2019.
24:11Hellboy fights three giants at the beginning of the film,
24:14and while this should have made for an epic sequence,
24:16the CGI ruins any semblance of excitement.
24:26The mixing of practical effects and CGI was not a good decision,
24:29as the CGI is incredibly easy to pinpoint amidst the real footage.
24:33Perhaps the worst offender is Hellboy's stone fist.
24:36In one particular instance,
24:38Hellboy is knocked to the ground and his stone fist is clearly visible on his right hand.
24:43After he dodges a giant's blade, the stone fist is suddenly on his left hand.
24:48It's stuff like this that makes Hellboy seem unfinished.
24:59Number 6.
25:00Super Hyde.
25:01The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
25:08Talk about wasted potential.
25:17We love the concept of classic literary characters fighting evil in Victorian Europe.
25:22However, this 2003 movie adaptation completely bungled it,
25:26and is even responsible for bringing about the end of Sean Connery's film career.
25:31God, I hate getting old.
25:34The climax of the film sees Mr. Hyde and Captain Nemo
25:37fighting some type of mutant Hyde.
25:39And the mutant Hyde looks, well, like this.
25:49We can't fault the work too much,
25:51as the quality of early 2000s CGI is usually spotty even on the best of days.
25:56But this pretty much ruins what could have been a really exciting sequence.
26:07Number 5.
26:10Blade's Eyes.
26:11Blade Trinity.
26:12The third entry in the Blade series was widely maligned,
26:16and while we're not blaming the CGI eyes in particular, they're indicative of a bigger problem.
26:31In the movie's final scene, Blade is lying on a slab and about to be cut open
26:36when he suddenly opens his eyes and attacks.
26:51If the sequence looks a little off,
26:53it's because the eyes have actually been computer-generated onto Wesley Snipes' face.
26:58The story goes that Snipes and director David S. Goyer did not get along,
27:02and while filming this climactic scene, Snipes refused to open his eyes,
27:07seemingly just to spite and frustrate Goyer.
27:10Goyer essentially said, fine, whatever, and decided to go with CG eyes instead.
27:24Number 4.
27:25Leaping Catwoman.
27:27Catwoman.
27:33What a purrrrrr-vent idea.
27:38Not so hot take?
27:39Catwoman isn't just one of the worst superhero films ever made,
27:42it's one of the worst films ever made, period.
27:45Well, it is, according to many, many critics anyway.
27:55The infamous basketball scene has been well and truly covered,
27:59and many consider it the weakest scene in the whole movie.
28:02But may we also suggest all the leaping around, including the robbery scene?
28:11This sequence features some truly uninspired CGI, with Catwoman's wall-jumping looking like
28:16something out of a PS2 game. This movie reportedly had a budget of $100 million,
28:21and it's scenes like this that make us wonder where the money went.
28:253. The Suit – Green Lantern
28:34Ryan Reynolds has enjoyed one of the biggest career revivals in movie history. It was looking
28:39quite dour for a minute there, and that minute encompassed the now-notorious Green Lantern.
28:44For some bizarre reason, the team behind Green Lantern decided to ditch the traditional costume
28:50in favor of a CGI suit. And despite hiring Academy Award-winning costume designer Nyla Dixon,
28:56we got this as a result. The CGI suit makes Hal look otherworldly, not in a good way,
29:09but a he-looks-like-a-video-game-character kind of way. They couldn't even bother making a good
29:14green eye mask, and the CGI clashes with Reynolds' very real face.
29:262. Superman's Lip – Justice League
29:29Rather than being the DCEU's magnum opus, Justice League was instead a calamity that
29:34became more famous for its CGI than anything else. Despite a $300 million price tag,
29:40Justice League isn't up to snuff, with Steppenwolf being a particularly egregious example,
29:46as we've already mentioned. But it's Superman's lip that always incites mockery.
30:04As most people know by now, Henry Cavill was sporting a mustache from Mission Impossible
30:08Fallout and couldn't shave it for the Justice League reshoots, so Paramount executives decided
30:14to digitally erase it in post. It was the worst decision they could've possibly made,
30:18and the results look like a goofy Snapchat filter.
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30:441. Wolverine's Claws – X-Men Origins Wolverine
30:48Even the most diehard superhero fans admit that X-Men Origins Wolverine leaves a lot to be desired,
30:54particularly the visual effects.
30:57Wolverine's computer-generated adamantium claws earned widespread derision from fans and critics
31:12alike. Most people point to the bathroom scene as the culprit, as the CGI on display here is
31:17like something we would've seen back in 1992. It doesn't blend with Hugh Jackman's fists at all,
31:23and the texturing is so bland and simple that it looks crudely photoshopped. It's
31:29one of the most infamous scenes in superhero movie history, and for good reason.
31:36Are there any horrific CGI moments we missed? Let us know in the comments.
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