Blockbuster movies ditched costumes and puppets for the easier route of creating creatures and effects with layers upon layers of CGI sometime in the '90s, and action heroes have been acting against tennis balls ever since.
You can blame James Cameron for that, as he pioneered the use of CG with Industrial Light and Sound for his 1989 movie The Abyss. The early effect of a liquid, shape-shifting alien hasn’t exactly aged like fine wine, be Cameron later perfected the effect for his 1992 Terminator sequel.
After this, blockbuster movies were changed for good. Action superstars like Stephen Spielberg and Roland Emmerich quickly followed Cameron’s lead, combing practical effects with CGI in iconic movies like Jurassic Park and Independence Day. Nowadays, some studios ditch sets, stunts, and even costumes in favour of green screens and motion-capture.
Of course, it doesn’t always work out for the better. We’ve seen some leaps and bounds in movie technology in recent years, but sometimes a particularly unconvincing movie antagonist forces us to check our calendars to make sure we’re not living in the early 2000s.
Whether they’re a blurry behemoth that look more like a video game bosses than like tangible threats or mishandled attempts to recreate the practical effects of villains of yesteryear, there have been a few recent disasters that should be added to the list of worst CG blunders.
Here are the 15 CGI Villains That Hurt Their Movies (And 10 That Saved Them).
25 Hurt: Indominous Rex – Jurassic Park
Dinosaurs were perfected back in 1993 with the release of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. Sure, those Brachiosaurus are a little rubbery, but have you ever seen a better looking dino than the iconic T-Rex in the rain? Didn’t think so.
The long-awaited sequel Jurassic World tried to up the prehistoric ante with a new dinosaur, a genetic hybrid of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a velociraptor.
Not only does the I-Rex cut all of the rules of Jurassic Park to shreds, but it’s also a weak replacement for disgruntled predator that started it all.
24 Saved: Sightless Creatures – A Quiet Place
John Krasinski shocked us all this year with a horrific premise straight out of an episode of The Twilight Zone, which was combined with some convincing family dynamics, all wrapped up with a bow of bite-your-nails thrills.
The world of A Quiet Place has been overrun by an invading force of fast, agile, and hungry aliens who sense their environment through sound alone.
The movie already had legs with its nearly completely devoid of dialogue premise, but it would have stopped working the second an unconvincing CGI creation lumbered on screen. Luckily, the effects were top notch, and the movie was even more scary for it.
23 Hurt: Mega-Kaiju – Pacific Rim Uprising
Guillermo Del Toro made a welcome return to blockbusters in 2013 with Pacific Rim, a Hollywood take on Japanese monsters and robots.
It was familiar and fun, and was just fresh enough to become a surprise hit of the summer. Sadly, the reception to its sequel, Pacific Rim Uprising, hasn’t been so warm.
Aside from its incomprehensible plot and awkward humor, the third act big bad came in the form of the Mega Kaiju, an ugly mutation of three smaller Kaiju that threatens John Boyega and his team of Jaegar pilots.
Unfortunately, it looked like something Godzilla barfed up after a day of destruction during the events of a much better movie.
22 Saved: Davy Jones – Pirates of the Caribbean
Let’s be honest here, the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels are a bit of a mess.
No, not just the last two, in which Johnny Depp has been competing with his own character to see who can be the bigger scumbag. However, the second and last part of that original trilogy are bloated, goofy, and a bit of a waste of time.
It was lucky, then, that Dead Man’s Chest features potentially the most convincing CGI humanoid baddie ever put to screen.
Bill Nighy’s Davy Jones is a revelation, especially for a movie that came out in 2006.
21 Hurt: Xenomorph – Alien: Covenant
Movie-making in the '70s was a little different from what we’re used to today.
For a start, when you wanted a rag-tag crew of space-faring crew members to be terrorized by an intergalactic assassin, the director actually had to find a 7 foot tall guy to wear possibly the most impractical suit ever put to screen.
That said, it looked great. However, while plenty of big blockbusters have made CGI alien creatures look hideously realistic, Alien: Covenant was not one of them.
It’s always a bad sign when the effects look worse than a movie made more than thirty years ago.
20 Saved: Gollum – The Lord of the Rings
Gollum is the character that made Andy Serkis a living legend.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is a cinematic landmark, not least because it’s the middle chapter of the best fantasy epic we’ve ever seen.
For scenes featuring Gollum, Peter Jackson and his team devised the first ever real-time motion capture system, in which the actions of Andy Serkis were fed directly into a character skin, which would mimic his performance.
Without this influential character, we wouldn’t have the array of impressive CG characters we love in movies today, and Gollum still holds his own against the best of them.
19 Hurt: Steppenwolf – Justice League
Justice League was DC’s chance to put some of the most iconic characters in history on screen together for the first time.
Sure, Batman v Superman wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for, but with a meatier role for Wonder Woman and the long-awaited introductions of Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg to the big screen, we all had our fingers crossed for something special.
It’s just a shame that the first threat was a big metal doofus with a face that would look right at home in a Tomb Raider game for the PlayStation 1.
Nobody cared about Steppenwolf before we saw the movie, and after seeing it, he’ll only be remembered as the lump of computer code spewing bad lines taken from your younger brother during his Dungeons & Dragons phase.
18 Saved: Shere Khan – The Jungle Book
Remaking Disney classics is a risky business for the monolithic studio.
Some of them rekindle a little spark of the same magic we felt as kids when we were watching our favorite animated fairy tales. Others make us wish that we had just stayed home and put on our Blu-Ray copy of the original.
The Jungle Book is, so far, a rare example that manages to expand on the original without adding a bunch of unnecessary plot threads.
Idris Elba as Shere Khan is also a big part of why that movie works so well, as he appears as an animated king of the jungle that would eat the tiger from The Life of Pi for breakfast and still have room for man cubs.
17 Hurt: Dormammu – Doctor Strange
The visual effects for Doctor Strange are actually one of the more impressive feats of the movie.
It’s largely disposable as an origin story, but a trippy venture through kaleidoscopic alternate realities that borrowed visuals from your dad’s record collection was undoubtedly a highlight.
However, things took a downward spiral when it came time for Stephen Strange to face off against his inter-dimensional foe, Dormammu, a colorful face in the sky that recalled unpleasant memories of the cloudy Galactus from the Fantastic Four movie we don’t talk about.
Let’s hope that he gets a more tangible presence in the sequels.
16 Hurt: Enchantress and Incubus – Suicide Squad
Here’s something that infuriates us year after year - floating heads on a CGI body.
Sure, it’s necessary for characters like Iron Man, and we can’t exactly ask Henry Cavill to lift his muscular physique hundreds of feet in the air for real, but Suicide Squad went too far.
Cara Delevingne’s face super-imposed onto a near-clothless, jarring CGI body, decorated only with an equally terrible CGI headdress and top is just too much for our uncanny valley-averse brains to handle.
Throw in a big CGI lummocks, Incubus, as a plodding, computerized henchman, and it becomes one of the worst super- powered blow outs we’ve ever seen.
15 Saved: The MUTOs – Godzilla
Loved it or hated it, but most moviegoers had pretty much the same immediate opinion walking out of Legendary’s Godzilla reboot: “wow, that last 20 minutes was awesome.”
While we can’t technically list Godzilla as a villain, every Godzilla movie needs an equally powerful Kaiju to throw down with.
The MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) serve that purpose fantastically and, even though we were kind of touched by their long distance love story, we couldn’t help but cheer when our favorite giant lizard hurled a lightning bolt loogie down one of their throats.
Check out the latest trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters for more evidence that this franchise has some of the best CG baddies in the biz.
14 Hurt: Ghosts – Ghostbusters (2016)
We weren’t among the nay-sayers who immediately turned our noses up at the idea of a female-led Ghostbusters movie, primarily because we’ll watch literally anything that Kate McKinnon is in.
Unfortunately, though, the movie was a dud, despite some spirited performances from its four leads that failed to resurrect any humor back from the long-buried franchise.
While the movie is full of cringey improv that miss the mark on practically every punchline, it didn’t help things when the team of ecto-exterminators traversed a parade of ghoulish visual effects that would look more appropriate in a Scooby Doo cartoon.
13 Hurt: The Lizard – The Amazing Spider-Man
Put your hand up if you were just a little bit excited for 2012’s Spider-Man reboot. It’s okay, we’ve all been foolish before, but, the important thing is that we’ve learned from our mistakes, and so has Sony (hopefully).
The prospect of finally seeing one of Spidey’s earliest villains, The Lizard, come to life after being teased throughout Sam Raimi’s classic trilogy was, admittedly, every fan's dream.
We’ve certainly seen worse, but the fact that the effects team made the bizarre choice to remove the Lizard’s snout made every action scene unintentionally hilarious.
We also couldn’t help being annoyed that he only wears his lab coat like he does in the comics for about two seconds.
12 Saved: Smaug – The Hobbit
Somehow a movie trilogy managed, simultaneously, to have some of the worst CGI ever put to film alongside some of the best.
The first movie brought back Gollum, which was likely the last we’ll ever see of the character that made Andy Serkis the actor he is today, looking better than ever.
When the company of dwarves and their hobbit and wizard companions finally reach Mount Erebor to meet Smaug, Benedict Cumberbatch leans in and gives it his all, lending a wicked personality to the CGI dragon that is already the most lifelike we’ve seen on film.
The mo-cap magic makes his appearance in the third act of The Desolation of Smaug worth sitting through all that nonsense running around the caves, but it’s a terrible pity he’s dispatched so early to make room for more terrible CGI action in part three.
11 Hurt: Juggernaut – Deadpool 2
No, we’re not going to turn around and say that Vinnie Jones’ portrayal of Juggernaut in X-Men: The Last Stand was better than what we got for Deadpool 2.
That said, it felt a little off-brand for the Merc with the Mouth’s second entry in a franchise that built itself on being the scrappy little, foul-mouthed superhero parody that could, to descend into a mindless CGI throwdown.
It didn’t break the movie, but with the new version of Colossus already looking just a little creepy, watching Deadpool go toe-to-toe with another computerized strongman was just a bit too much.
10 Saved: Supreme Leader Snoke – The Last Jedi
Casting Andy Serkis for this role was a no-brainer, as we’ve hopefully made obvious from our glowing praise of his pioneering performance as Gollum.
Yes, you might have been a little let down by the way his early demise was handled in Rian Johnson’s divisive movie, but his part was integral for the film’s rejection of the franchise’s past traditions in favour of breathing life into its new characters.
Not only does Snoke represent the movie's themes of letting go of the past, but his his torturous scenes with Rey are just as scary as any face-off Luke had with the Emperor in the original trilogy.
Thankfully, Snoke wasn't as much of a disappointment as he could have been.
9 Hurt: Calvin – Life
Life was all set to treat Alien fans to a quality imitation after last year’s Covenant let so many of its devoted followers down.
Sadly, though, it didn’t contain a plot quite so ridiculous and convoluted as Ridley Scott’s prequel to the original and sequel to the prequel. The plot that it did have was pretty limp and lifeless for a movie called… well, you get it.
Though the cast of Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, and Rebecca Ferguson are far better than the movie deserved, the star of the show is Calvin, a rapidly growing organism that starts to feast on the very space-farers that discovered it.
Unfortunately, the movie's concept artist seemed to draw heavy inspiration from the plastic bags that drift down his street when the wind is blowing in the right direction.
8 Hurt: The Scorpion King – The Mummy 2
Most of you will know The Rock for being that charismatic hunk whose presence makes terrible movies slightly more bearable to watch. However, his movie career wasn’t always the string of mega-hits that it is today.
His first venture into mainstream movies was a rather embarrassing appearance in the unintentionally hilarious action-horror sequel, The Mummy Returns.
Cut them some slack, though - it was 2001. However, this rubbery approximation of The Rock’s torso, with a face smirking like a Street Fighter character, crammed onto the front of a gigantic scorpion will haunt our dreams to this day.
7 Saved: T-1000 – Terminator 2
We’re maybe cheating a little here by including a villain who spends most of his movie being played by a real actor (Robert Patrick). However, the T-1000 absolutely deserves a mention for being an integral part of CGI history.
As a Terminator made entirely of liquid metal, it stalks Sarah Conner’s son, John, imitating his family and taking out anyone who stands in his way, before a re-programmed T-800 makes his triumphant return.
Most of the effects are simple additions of spears that form at the end of his arms, but his fully liquidized form, including a scene in which he slips through the bars of a prison security door, are just as impressive now as they were in 1992.
6 Hurt: Doomsday – Batman v Superman
Doomsday is the endgame, a frighteningly powerful comic book creation that is a rare creature that can best Superman in a brawl without the help of Kryptonite.
It took out Superman (briefly) in a comic storyline that shocked the world... until it was resurrected mere issues later.
The movies took a similar route, though, in this case, this on-screen Supes was KO’d in literally the second movie he’s ever appeared in, so the surprising twist ending was met with a disinterested shrug.
Perhaps if this cinematic rendition of the biggest threat Superman has ever faced one-to-one looked more like his bony comic counterpart and less like a Lord of the Rings troll crossed with a wet potato, the movie's conclusion might have had a bit more impact.
5 Hurt: Hemocytes – I Am Legend
I Am Legend proved a big hit for fans of Will Smith, but the more bookish types among us who already knew the story from Richard Matheson’s book of the same name were less impressed.
It’s a perfectly serviceable tale of survival during the last days of Earth starring Smith as, seemingly, the planet’s last known inhabitant.
However, things take a turn for the CG when he becomes prey for a group of mutated humans known as Darkseekers, or Hemocytes.
The movie received some criticism for its shoddy creature effects, but we caught a glimpse of what could have been when a creepy make up test was released after the movie that revealed how the creatures could have looked (hint: better) had the effect been achieved with prosthetics.
4 Hurt: T-3000 – Terminator Genisys
The most recent Terminator sequel was a messy attempt to reconfigure a bunch of scraps left over from the previous two disasters, but it only succeeded in making things worse for the franchise.
Perhaps its most egregious mistake was turning John Connor, a character we’ve come to know and love from Eddie Furlong’s iconic performance, into the very thing he grows to despise.
In any other movie, this heavy-handed reveal could have worked as an ironic twist of fate, but unfortunately it came at just the wrong time - after the audience have already sat through an hour and a half of Terminator: Genisys.
Add to that the fact that a Terminator comprised of machine-phase matter sounds like more of a shrug than an explanation for a terrible design choice, and you have the worst Terminator model yet.
3 Saved: Thanos – Avengers Infinity War
Although clever filmmakers will combine some practical effects with the digital to trick our eyes into believing something is really there, interacting with the environment, Thanos is never not completely rendered by a computer and yet he has the most presence of anyone in the entire movie.
Perhaps most impressive feat is the face of the Mad Titan, which rejects the MCU’s previous designs for the character and really leans in to the face behind the performance, the face of Josh Brolin.
Every facial tick and minute expression is recorded and translated with perfect clarity.
Beyond the movement, just look closely next time to watch it and you’ll notice that, by the end of the movie, Thanos is starting to grow stubble. This is an astonishing level of detail, and it’s crazy to think that technology is only going to get better from here.
2 Hurt: Ryuk – Death Note (2017)
If you love anime, there’s a reasonably high chance that Death Note was your gateway into the world of Japanese cartoons.
We were all thrilled by the idea of a live action adaptation and, though casting announcements and the planned move away from Japan to America had us gritting our teeth in preparation of a stinker, the casting of Willem Defoe as the Shinigami, Ryuk, seemed too perfect to mess up.
However, they still managed to mess it up. Sure, Defoe’s voice is a natural fit, with every line creaking like the loose floorboard you always step on after dark, but the supreme actor is barely utilized.
It’s also a strong indicator of a lousy CG character when he spends the majority of the movie hiding in the shadows, just out of frame.
1 Saved: Koba – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy has rested on the shoulders of Andy Serkis, as his biggest, most daring role after he brought Gollum to life.
One could argue that, given that these movies will eventually lead to the extinction of human life, his character Caesar is a villain in himself, but we can’t help but root for him.
Luckily, a rival to Caesar rises through the ranks of the talking apes - Koba, a violent bonobo who thinks Caesar is just a little too soft towards his human opponents.
This conflict drove Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to its bloody conclusion, made even more riveting by the terrific work by Toby Kebbell, a worthy successor to Serkis’s mo-cap innovation.
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Are there any other CGI villains we forgot to mention? Let us know in the comment section!
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