Another Top 10 Worst CGI Movie Effects

With a $200 million budget and the DC name behind you, you would think we would get some decent special effects. Well, think again. Parallax, the main villain of this superhero flick, looks terribly goofy and fake, and it doesn’t help that Green Lantern himself looks like a video game character half of the time. They even had to use computer effects for the eye mask Hal Jordan wears when he becomes the Green Lantern! Couldn’t they have just slapped a real mask on him? With subpar efforts like this, it’s no wonder Marvel is reigning supreme.

The classic “Star Wars” is not without its faults. Well, that’s not entirely true; at least this scene wasn’t in the original 1977 version. It wasn’t until the 1997 re-release in theaters that audiences saw this scene for the first time, and it was even further “improved” in the 2004 DVD release. Suffice it to say, audiences were not exactly thrilled. Shot in the ‘70s with a human playing Jabba, the scene was cut from the original release. But with George Lucas re-inserting the scene 2 decades later with a CGI Jabba, it all looked highly artificial next to the human Harrison Ford. We can safely say that many of the effects from the ‘70s looked better than this new Jabba did. They seriously thought having Han digitally walk on Jabba’s tail would be a good way to deal with the revised Jabba design of “Return of The Jedi”?

In this 2002 live-action adaptation of the famous “Scooby Doo” animated series, Scoob and the gang travel to an island to investigate strange goings-on. In this scene, Mary Jane is riding ATVs with Shaggy and Scooby when her head hits a branch, causing her face to become monstrous, complete with green eyes and stretchy skin. The green eyes look bad enough, but it’s the skin stretch that looks terrible, as you can clearly see where Isla Fisher’s real face stops and the CGI takes over. Still, this is probably scary for the kids at least.

With the “X-Men” name behind the movie, it seems like a given that there’d be some great science fiction-oriented special effects. But sadly, ‘twas not the case for this 4th installment of the series. Instead, we get awful-looking claws and CGI that only take us away from the story that much more quickly. The claws are very clearly not coming out of Wolverine’s hand, but are instead superimposed over actor Hugh Jackson’s real hand. We should also mention the ladder scene, which makes little sense and looks even worse. These are laughably bad efforts for such a high budget film.

This sci-fi adventure, which follows the Robinson family as they emigrate to a nearby star system, was adapted from the 1960s TV show of the same name; however, the series probably had better special effects than this. The main detractor is an alien primate that’s adopted as a pet and that also looks downright terrible. It is blatantly obvious that the actors had nothing to work with, and it is so poorly integrated we can’t help but be distracted from the action of his scenes. This is one interstellar journey that could’ve done with a higher budget.

Samuel L. Jackson deserves better than this. This movie is about a group of scientists looking for a cure for Alzheimer’s, which results in the creation of super intelligent sharks, so you know there’s going to be some campy fun - but this is just inexcusable. What is, admittedly, a surprising death, is simply ruined by the horrible looking shark and the clearly CG’d Jackson. The computer spurt of blood only adds to the fakery, making “Jaws”, released almost 25 years earlier, look that much better. What could have been a horrifying scene instead leaves us laughing.

Making back only half of its budget, this sci-fi action flick’s failure could arguably be due to its abysmal special effects. A sequel to the 1981 original, “Escape from L.A.” sees the return of Snake Plissken as he recovers a dangerous device from the City of Angels. This scene in particular is atrocious, with a clearly fake submarine, and it only gets worse from there. The crash into the building looks like it’s from a cheap video game, not to mention the disproportionately large and very fake looking shark. Maybe they should have left the original alone.

Here, it’s the very snake from this made-for-TV horror movie’s title that leaves us laughing. The sound effects actually sound somewhat good, and the POV shots establish a decent sense of terror, but that terror quickly subsides when we get a better look at the horrible looking serpent. While it’s supposed to be intimidating, we can only laugh at the bad lighting, video game-like movement, and complete lack of realism when it appears. Giant snakes may be scary for some; but we don’t think they actually were for anyone in the case of this movie.

This TV miniseries, released as a film on home video and based on a Stephen King novella, about a group that finds themselves in another dimension, should have a terrifying finale, but the awful CGI completely takes us out of the horror. Not only do the Langoliers themselves look completely goofy as monsters, but you can actually see the pixels and raw animation. Even the runway becomes CGI, and it looks like an old pixilated PlayStation game. The eating of the scenery looks equally as awful, like it’s simply erasing the scenery rather than eating it. The master of horror deserves better.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few dishonorable mentions.
- Hulk Out
“Hulk” (2003)
- The Snakes
“Snakes on a Plane” (2006)
- Red Cape
“Spawn” (1997)

Based on the famous video game series that depicts people literally ripping each other apart, this martial arts movie is bound to be a little corny. This particular scene depicts Liu Kang’s Animality, in which he shape-shifts into a creature to finish off his opponents. Yes, it looks as dumb as it sounds. The actual transformation looks incredibly fake against the real actor, and the actual beast itself, while supposed to be intimidating, simply comes across as laughable. It almost looks like paper against the backdrop; actually, they might as well have done it that way and saved some money.

Do you agree with our list? What awful CGI movie moments do you think we should have included? For more hilarious top tens published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.