Top 10 Worst Movie CGI Mistakes

Script written by Garrett Alden

Top 10 Worst CGI Movie Mistakes

So many effects artists managed to miss this?! Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10 worst CGI movie mistakes. For this list, we’ll be going over mistakes related to computer generated imagery in films. To be clear, we won’t be including intentional choices that ended up looking terrible, like Wolverine’s Claws in “X-Men Origins,” or Superman’s weird face in “Justice League.”

#10: Vanishing Tank

“Fantastic Four” (2015)

Director Josh Trank’s “Fantastic Four” film has a whole host of issues with it – just ask Josh Trank! But recuts and tonal issues aside, the movie’s effects look fairly good, if a little drab. However, one special effects scene led to an unintentional mistake. In a moment where Ben “The Thing” Grimm is attacking several tanks, the hulking rock man throws one of the armored vehicles, only for it to disappear in an explosion. And by disappear, we mean literally – the whole thing is gone without so much as a scrap left. Explosions should leave some kind of debris, but we guess they forgot about that.

#9: Not to Scale

“Avatar” (2009)

Despite its groundbreaking 3D effects, even a feast for the eyes like “Avatar” is not without its CGI mistakes. The Na’vi, the blue, intelligent natives of Pandora, are among the most prominent CGI creations in the movie, but they’re also the source of one of its most glaring missteps. Early on, the Na’vi are established to be quite large compared to humans. But when protagonist Jake Sully meets Neyteri for the first time in his human body, he holds his hand up to her face. While it should be dwarfed on her much larger cheek, it’s instead similarly sized to her face. So did his hand grow bigger, or did she get smaller?

#8: Legolas Defies Physics

“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” (2014)

The CGI from “The Hobbit” films has been largely criticized, both for its overuse and its quality (or lack thereof). The final film in the trilogy features the most CGI and a lot of it is not the best; leading to several mistakes. The one we’ll be discussing in this entry happens when Legolas is fighting several orcs on a bridge. During the course of the fight, the bridge is partially destroyed. As the blocks of it are falling, Legolas somehow manages to run up them completely defying several laws of physics, most importantly gravity. We know elves are kind of magic, but not to this degree!

#7: Wrong Reflections

“Watchmen” (2009)

Though it divided fans of the source material, “Watchmen” is still regarded by most as a visually stunning film, whether you think it’s a faithful adaptation of Alan Moore’s dystopian alternate superhero world or not. Even so, one of the movie’s most consistent CGI creations also led to some “glaring” errors. Dr. Manhattan is the blue, glowing Superman of the “Watchmen” world, and his effect is created through motion capture and a suit worn by actor Billy Crudup. However, despite the level of detail afforded to Manhattan, Crudup’s motion capture suit can still be seen in the finished film in the reflection of Nite Owl’s goggles.

#6: Expanding Hole

“Toy Story” (1995)

As wonderful and influential as the first “Toy Story” movie is, it was still the first entirely CG animated movie, so the animators were bound to make a mistake or two. When Woody gets Sid’s Frankenstein’s monster toys to assist him in an escape attempt after he and Buzz are captured, one of the toys undoes a light fixture in order to sneak through the ceiling. However, the hole above the light changes size between shots; allowing objects and toys to fit into it that it wouldn’t have before. It’s not something you’ll probably see the first time you watch the movie, but it’ll become pretty obvious in repeat viewings.

#5: Disappearing Men and Guns

“The Matrix” (1999)

Another groundbreaking film in terms of effects, “The Matrix” pioneered the use of slow motion with its revolutionary bullet time. And yet, one of the movie’s most famous scenes also features a major mishap. When Neo and Trinity reach a rooftop, they fight and defeat several soldiers, before attracting the attention of one of the powerful Agents. This Agent then fires at Neo, who manages to dodge most of the bullets, in gloriously rendered slow-mo. Except…when time slows down and rotates around Neo, the soldiers Neo and Trinity killed previously, as well as their weapons, have disappeared from the rooftop. We’ll put this one down to being a glitch in the Matrix.

#4: Missing Passengers

“In Time” (2011)

Although this movie is generally regarded as pretty forgettable, it has an intriguing scifi premise, in which the amount of time one has left to live can be traded as a commodity. Regrettably, this great idea is let down by some wooden acting, as well as moments like this one. Protagonists Will and Sylvia encounter a spike trap while driving and are sent off the road. Not only does the vehicle that tumbles down the hill hilliariously look like a toy car, but Will and Sylvia disappear from the inside for a few frames. Perhaps the filmmakers needed a little more time to sort this one out?

#3: Floating Fruit

“Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones” (2002)

With the prequel “Star Wars” movies, George Lucas went whole hog into using CGI. While the reception to his directorial approach has been quite mixed, it has unquestionably led to some screw ups. One of these occurs in a scene between Anakin Skywalker and his then-love interest, Senator Padme Amidala. During a, uh…”romantic” dinner between the two, Anakin levitates a piece of fruit towards Padme’s fork. When she starts to take a bit out of it, the chunk of fruit disappears before her mouth “touches” the fruit. Truly the Force works in mysterious ways.

#2: Huge Army: One Face

“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” (2014)

Though we usually try not to do multiple entries from the same film, we’ll make an exception in this case, since both errors are pretty egregious. Despite how much Weta Workshop and Peter Jackson managed to change the visual effects game with “The Lord of the Rings,” they kind of dropped the ball with the prequels. As you may know, one of the titular armies featured in this film is composed of elves. And while the fact that they’re all rendered using CGI isn’t unusual, since getting that many people into costumes isn’t feasible, what is pretty bizarre is that they all seem to have the same face. For how big a budget this movie had, this is a pretty big oversight.

#1: Many, Many Things

“Cats” (2019)

“Cats” took the Internet by storm…and not in a good way. Its trailers elicited shock, cringing, and horror at how bizarre the characters were rendered to look like cats through the shoddy CGI. However, audiences wouldn’t know how bad it was until the movie was released – missing effects gave several of the cat characters human hands, some were missing fur effects, and others just floated in midair. Things were so bad the studio had to send out a second version of the movie with the mistakes corrected. But sadly for them the damage was already done and “Cats” bombed.