8 Biggest WTF? Special Effect Moments in Film

We’ve all been there.  We’re watching a (for all intents and purposes) good movie — or at least entertaining.  We’re enjoying ourselves, taking it all in when — WHAM! — we see something on screen that forces us to pause.  The movie continues to move forward but the scene was already carved into our minds and we refuse to just let it go.

I’m speaking, of course, about bad CGI moments in films.  Well, maybe that’s not right.  There are TONS of bad CGI in various movies but for the most part we go with it because we understand that it’s probably the best the producers could do.  The moments I’m speaking of, though, are the ones that come in the midst of a film where the producers should have KNOWN better than to allow such distracting effects to be placed in their films.  And just so we’re clear, again, I’m not speaking of straight up B-movie and/or direct-to-video features.  I’m talking about the work of talented directors who should know better!

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Moment:  To Gopher or Not to Gopher

People seemed to give this film a lot of grief when it was released but I actually found it to be very much in the spirit of the earlier films (though I will agree that Shia LeBeouf going Tarzan in the jungle was a bit too silly).  Despite what you may think about the film itself, there is still one very distracting moment at the very beginning of the film when we’re viewing a wide shot of a vehicle riding along a highway when, suddenly, a gopher pops his head out its hole to examine what’s going on.  OK, this is Steven-effing-Spielberg we’re talking about here.  A man with this kind of class and experience should know better than to put such a cheap looking CGI animal in the midst of his film — and yes, it does look bad.  It makes the audience wonder how Spielberg didn’t notice how distracting it was, himself, and why exactly did it even need to be there anyway?  Here’s a tip: If you can’t make your CGI effect look good enough for an otherwise good-looking picture (ESPECIALLY if the effect itself is irrelevant to the plot), lose it.

2.  Superman Returns

Moment: Superman (Not Himself)

This moment comes at the very end of the film.  Superman, having just left the house of Lois Lane (and their love child) flies off towards the sun.  We follow him as he glides through the sky and space and suddenly we’re on a close up of his face, and we stop… What exactly was Bryan Singer thinking when he decided that during a CLOSE UP shot, which could have been done with the actual actor, we should be brought face to face with Superman’s huge fake-looking head?!  Sure, its a superhero movie with tons of effects anyway, but come on, this is just uncalled for!

3.  Hulk

Moment: Dogfight

Here’s another movie I enjoyed that many others thought was kind of silly.  Sure, Ang Lee’s Hulk was a little too big at times but I thought it worked in terms of the story that was being told.  That said, despite the fact that the Hulk was completely CGI himself which plays into the audiences suspension of disbelief, there comes a moment in the film where a pack of gamma-radiated dogs attack Bruce Banner and his girl, leading to one of the silliest looking fights in cinematic history.  The entire time I was watching I kept being reminded of Milo the dog from The Mask when he finally dons the mask himself — it worked in that film; I’m not sure what the hell I’m supposed to think in this one.

4.  Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (2004 DVD)

Moment: The Ghost of Hayden Christensen

Here’s a pretty popular one (well, most of these are, I guess).  For the 2004 re-re-re-release of Jedi, George Lucas decided that the ending scene where Luke sees the ghosts of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and his father should be tweaked to match his NEW vision of Star Wars.  Instead of Sebastian Shaw, the original face of Darth Vader, standing beside his old friends as ghostly holograms, Lucas instead digitally removed Shaw and replaced him with New Vader, Hayden Christensen.  No, I’m not here to hate on Hayden as I’m sure played absolutely no hand in such a stunt.  This poorly conceived idea was, once again, all George Lucas.  The man has still yet to learn.

5.  No Country for Old Men

Moment:  “That’s a dead dog…”

The one flaw in an otherwise stellar film.  Several times throughout the picture, we follow characters back to the scene of a shootout.  People lie dead all over, as do a number of dogs as well.  With the film’s gritty textures, and the classiness that the Coen brothers always bring to their pictures, why did they allow such out-of-place looking CGI dogs to remain in the final cut?  Couldn’t there have just been dummies made or something?  Anything? Again I must stress the previous tip: If the effect isn’t necessary to the story’s plot, and looks that out of place, LOSE IT!

6.  The Incredible Hulk

Moment: Dr. Rubber Head

No, not even this supposed “reboot” of the Hulk franchise (coming a mere 5 years after the Ang Lee original) could learn when and when not to use CGI — or at least use it properly.  Take the end of the move when Dr. Sterns, who has been helping Bruce Banner all throughout the film, is knocked to the ground and receives a head injury.  Not long after a drop of mutated blood drops from a counter top and into his open wound.  The blood then causes Sterns head to warp… I guess?  It honestly looks like a giant rubber ball that someone has squeezed on one end, making it grow larger on the other.  They could have just had the actor twitch his head a bit and it would have been just as effective and far less silly looking.

7.  The Thing

Moment: Tossed Around Like a Rag-doll

There’s a lot we will forgive The Thing for.  It was made in the 80s for chrissake, special effects could only be so good.  Some of the effects came off as cheesy to be sure, but they mostly just seemed to add to the movie’s charm more than anything.  However, there still is one particular scene that no matter how many times I see it, I always think, “Really?  That’s the best they could do?”  It comes during the infamous blood test scene MacReady gives to the remaining members of the crew.  Upon discovering one of the infected among them, the Thing begins shaking and eventually breaks free of it’s ropes and soon comes face to face with the character of Windows.  Before Windows can fight it off, though, the Thing suddenly opens its jaws and takes a huge bite out of his head, lifting him from the ground as he does so.  Throughout the scene, which lasts somewhere around ten to twenty seconds, we get several shots of the crew panicking and the Thing tossing Window’s body this way and that…. But COME ON, that’s not Window’s body!  Look how tiny that thing is — oh, and how much the body itself is not moving!  I get that budgets are tight, but all Carpenter had to do was cut several frames so that the audience only gets the tiniest bits and pieces of what is happening, and not a bunch of wide shots of a rag-doll being tossed about.

8.  I Am Legend

Moment:  ZOMBIES! (All of them!)

I’m always conflicted with this film.  The first half is set up to be something special, but just falls apart in the last half.  With the wonderful CGI effects of New York in the beginning, not to mention lots of quiet, subtle direction from Francis Lawrence, the build up only leads to a massive letdown when we finally see what it is that Will Smith is hiding from.  Upon revealing the creatures in full form, we the audience realize we’ve been tricked into seeing a zombie movie all along!  What’s more, though, is that these zombies just look ridiculous.  We’re supposed to assume that the drug that was a cure for cancer caused some recipients to mutate… I guess?  The story never really says, other than they just changed.  The zombies themselves, while still somewhat threatening-looking, just do not fit into the picture properly — and I mean that literally.  There is something about the tone of their skin, or just their overall appearance, that just doesn’t seem to be really there.  I mean of course they’re not “really there” to begin with but, dammit, I’m not supposed to “know” that!