Top 20 Worst CGI Effects in Superhero Movies
#20: Pipe Organ Fight
“Daredevil” (2003) We wanted to excuse some of the shoddy CGI of “Daredevil” because it was released in 2003. However, when you consider the excellent visuals of “Jurassic Park” were released ten years earlier, a few special effects from this superhero film become inexcusable.“Daredevil’s” cinematic and awe-inducing climactic fight turns into laughable nonsense thanks to truly atrocious CGI. While computer generating humans convincingly is still hard to do today, it really didn’t work in 2003. Both Daredevil and Bullseye look like rubbery blocks. There’s also a very clear difference between the live action actors and the CGI. While we should’ve been cheering for Daredevil to win, we ended up rooting for this fight scene to end.
#19: Seven Deadly Sins
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“Shazam!” (2019) “Shazam’s” first solo outing is filled with lots of humor and some great character work. So, we were excited to meet the sinister seven deadly sins. Unfortunately, these antagonists are largely let down by their derivative design. Since they are little more than brownish-gray monsters with red eyes, they’re extremely boring to look at. The CGI used to render them isn’t bad—when the monsters are the only things on screen. But when the Sins attack humans, the attacks themselves don’t look that threatening. Our brains can tell that these actors are really fighting nothing. Although the arrival of the sins should’ve made for a compelling finale, they were let down by uninspired creature designs.
#18: Black Panther Vs Killmonger
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“Black Panther” (2018) While the MCU has given us awe-inspiring CGI, they’re also guilty of a few dips of visual quality. One of the biggest offenders is the big clash between Black Panther and Killmonger. While the daylight section of the battle is quite epic in scope, things devolve quickly when Black Panther and Killmonger fall inside of the vibranium mine. The surrounding environment, obviously digital characters and unnatural movements take a lot of bite out of their emotional bout. Sections of the fight look more like a video game cutscene than a tentpole marvel film. Even Chadwick Boseman’s and Michael B. Jordan’s floating heads can’t help make this final confrontation feel more real.
#17: Steppenwolf
“Justice League” (2017) One of 2017’s “Justice League” biggest special effects missteps revolved around the title villain Steppenwolf. Although this entirely CG creation relied on motion capture from actor Ciarán Hinds, nothing about the antagonist felt remotely real. Steppenwolf doesn’t carry a sense of weight, boasts a drab design and his mouth doesn’t always seem to line up with his dialogue. Whenever he stands next to a live-action actor, we’re instantly taken out of the scene. Multiple reports suggest that the post production process for this 2017 movie was very rushed. This could explain how a movie that cost millions to make had Steppenwolf look so awful.
#16: The Spotlight Fight
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“Blade II” (2002) As we stated before, digitally rendering human beings is difficult. A minor detail can make a scene unbelievable in an instant. Audiences experienced this phenomenon when enemies stormed Blade’s compound. Although we might’ve accepted him doing battle in front of an inexplicably large wall of spotlights, the movements pushed us past our breaking point. Despite the interesting choreography, the uncanny physical moves look absurd. This scene gets even worse when it cuts between CGI and live action stunts. It’s too a shame that actual stunt work was ruined by digital effects that absolutely bite.
#15: Doomsday
“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016) What should’ve been an epic clash of heroes was criticized for being over long, overwritten, and overly CGd. Doomsday perfectly represents all of those problems at once. After the heroes confront each other and Lex Luthor, Doomsday comes crawling into life at the last second. English actor Robin Atkin Downes performed the motion capture and voice work for this abomination. The design itself of this massive and vaguely humanoid monster is horrifically boring. If you asked someone watching the film live to name one of Doomsday’s distinguishing characteristics, they’d still struggle to pick something out. This middle of the road rendering wouldn’t have been so bad if its appearance didn’t extend the movie. The bad CGI truly spelled doom for an already divisive story.
#14: Tattoo’s Wolf
“Elektra” (2005) Few movie fans were pining for an “Elektra” spinoff from Ben Affleck’s lackluster “Daredevil” outing. Unfortunately, this heroine's horrible looking tale still arrived in cinemas. One of “Elektra's lowest points came courtesy of a villain with the fantastic name of Tattoo. The thought of an antagonist that sports ink that can come to life sounds awesome. But our enthusiasm faded when a wolf appeared out of Tattoo’s belly. Not only does the villain’s skin look like cheap plastic, but the animal’s actual appearance is horribly edited. It’s so choppy that it feels like the filmmakers were ashamed to show the wolf for too long. The terrible visual effects turned this tattoo into ink that we’d definitely get removed.
#13: Incubus
“Suicide Squad” (2016) The original concept for Incubus was quite something. It was visually striking and instantly memorable while inspiring an otherworldly type of fear. What we got instead was this horrific creation that looked little more than a tall, computer generated actor in a crappy costume. The physical design is silly and the CGI is equally underwhelming. His very fake-looking human face made it impossible to take anything coming out of his mouth seriously. Ironically enough, the production of 2016’s “Suicide Squad” won an Oscar for make-up work on other villains. Maybe sending an actor to the makeup department and putting them on stilts would’ve been better than the final Incubus effects.
#12: The Cape
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“Spawn” (1997) Although a few of “Spawn’s” ideas deserve essays of their own, the visual effects are nothing to write home about. The titular hero’s red cape is essential to his character and journey. Unfortunately, reports indicate that Spawn’s red cape was notoriously difficult to animate. But maybe it shouldn’t have appeared at all. The appalling costume piece both clashes with the live action actors and moves with no discernible flow or physicality. This floaty and obvious digital artifact steals focus from genuinely interesting scenes. Since the production ran into a few time and financial issues, the special effects team isn’t fully at fault here. They were likely just as displeased as we were that Spawn’s cape turned out to be his worst accessory.
#11: Gamma Dogs
“Hulk” (2003) Long before “The Avengers” redeemed the Hulk, Eric Bana starred in an origin film with notably poor special effects. While The Hulk himself looks quite goofy in places, he’s nothing compared to the nightmarish monstrosities that are the Gamma dogs. The canines were once David Banner’s pets. But thanks to a little of Hulk’s DNA, the creatures become mutated, violent and extremely rough to look at it. Nothing about the protracted fight sequence between the Hulk and the evil canines works. The creatures look silly, the Hulk looks silly, and it just reeks of poor early 2000s CGI. Scenes like this keep Ang Lee’s Hulk firmly in the doghouse.
#10: Bruce in the Hulkbuster
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“Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) For the most part, “Avengers: Infinity War” looks spectacular. And it better, considering the $400 million budget! But there’s one glaring visual flaw, and that’s Mark Ruffalo’s head inside the Hulkbuster. Every single shot of Bruce’s head inside the Hulkbuster needs work, and it has a certain “floaty” quality to it that is never made convincing. It almost looks like Ruffalo’s head is photoshopped onto the Hulkbuster itself, and the results are borderline laughable. It stands out in a movie filled with otherwise great CGI, and is a blemish on an otherwise excellent movie.
#9: Not So Fantastic Stretching
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“Fantastic Four” (2005) Mid-2000s Marvel was certainly not the Marvel we know and love today. Case in point - the 2005 adaptation of “Fantastic Four”. Produced by Marvel Enterprises (as it was then known), “Fantastic Four” starred Ioan Gruffudd as Mr. Fantastic. The founding member of the Fantastic Four, Mr. Fantastic has the bizarre ability to stretch his body and elongate his limbs. It looks a little goofy on the page, and it looks even goofier in live action. The CGI of Gruffud’s elongated limbs looks more like something out of a cheap television show rather than a $100 million blockbuster. “Fantastic Four” isn’t a good movie, and this CGI certainly doesn’t help.
#8: Ruined Rhino
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“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (2014) This is often considered the weakest “Spider-Man” movie, and that’s saying something considering the legacy of “Spider-Man 3”! A part of its negative reputation stems from the bland and visually embarrassing villains Electro and Rhino. Both villains are plagued with poor CGI work, with Rhino in particular suffering from Bruce Banner’s Floating Head syndrome. Much like Bruce Banner, it consistently looks like Rhino’s head is floating in his mech suit, and it completely eliminates the sense of danger and menace that a good superhero antagonist should always embody. Paul Giamatti is a great actor, but he was utterly wasted as Rhino.
#7: Hellboy vs. Giants
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“Hellboy” (2019) There’s something to be said when “Hellboy” from 2004 often looks better than the “Hellboy” from 2019. Hellboy fights three giants at the beginning of the film, and while this should have made for an epic sequence, the CGI ruins any semblance of excitement. The mixing of practical effects and CGI was not a good decision, as the CGI is incredibly easy to pinpoint amidst the “real” footage. Perhaps the worst offender is Hellboy’s stone fist. In one particular instance, Hellboy is knocked to the ground and his stone fist is clearly visible on his right hand. After he dodges a giant’s blade, the stone fist is suddenly on his left hand. It’s stuff like that that makes “Hellboy” seem unfinished.
#6: Super Hyde
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“The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” (2003) Talk about wasted potential: we love the concept of classic literary characters fighting evil in Victorian Europe. However, this 2003 movie adaptation completely bungled it, and is even responsible for bringing about the end of Sean Connery’s film career. The climax of the film sees Mr. Hyde and Captain Nemo fighting some type of mutant Hyde… and mutant Hyde looks well, like this.We can’t fault the work too much, as the quality of early 2000s CGI is usually spotty even on the best of days. But this pretty much ruins what could have been a really exciting sequence.
#5: Blade's Eyes
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“Blade: Trinity” (2004) The third entry in the “Blade” series was widely maligned, and while we’re not blaming the CGI eyes in particular, they’re indicative of a bigger problem. In the movie’s final scene, Blade is lying on a slab and about to be cut open ,when he suddenly opens his eyes and attacks. If the sequence looks a little “off”, it’s because the eyes have actually been computer generated onto Wesley Snipes’s face. The story goes that Snipes and director David S. Goyer did not get along, and while filming this climactic sequence, Snipes refused to open his eyes - seemingly just to spite and frustrate Goyer. Goyer essentially said “Fine, whatever” and decided to go with CG-eyes instead.
#4: Leaping Catwoman
“Catwoman” (2004) Not-so-hot take: “Catwoman” isn’t just one of the worst superhero films ever made, it’s one of the worst films ever made, period. Well, it is according to many, many critics, anyway. The infamous basketball scene has been well and truly covered, and many consider it the weakest scene in the whole movie. But may we also suggest all the leaping around, including the robbery scene? This sequence features some truly uninspired CGI, with Catwoman’s wall-jumping looking like something out of a PS2 game. This movie reportedly had a budget of $100 million, and it’s scenes like this that make us wonder where the money went.
#3: The Suit
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“Green Lantern” (2011) Ryan Reynolds has enjoyed one of the biggest career revivals in movie history. It was looking quite dour for a minute there, and that minute encompassed the execrable “Green Lantern”. For some bizarre reason, the team behind “Green Lantern” decided to ditch the traditional costume in favor of a CGI suit. And despite hiring Academy Award-winning costume designer Ngila Dickson, we got this as a result. The CGI suit makes Hal look otherworldly. Not in a good way, but a “he looks like a video game character” kind of way. They couldn’t even bother making a good green eye mask, and the CGI clashes with Reynolds’s very real face..
#2: Superman's Lip
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“Justice League” (2017) Rather than being the DCEU’s magnum opus, “Justice League” was mostly a calamity that became more famous for its CGI than anything else. Despite a $300 million price tag, “Justice League” isn’t up to snuff, with Steppenwolf being a particularly egregious example (as we’ve already mentioned). But it’s Superman’s lip that always incites mockery. As most people know by now, Henry Cavill was sporting a mustache for “Mission: Impossible - Fallout” and couldn’t shave it for the “Justice League” reshoots. So Paramount executives decided to digitally erase it in post. It was the worst decision they could have possibly made, and the results look like a goofy Snapchat filter.
#1: Wolverine’s Claws
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“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009) Even the most diehard superhero fans admit that “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” leaves a lot to be desired . . . particularly the visual effects. Wolverine’s computer-generated adamantium claws earned widespread derision from fans and critics alike. Most people consider the bathroom scene to be particularly awful, as the CGI on display is like something we would have seen back in 1992. It doesn’t blend with Hugh Jackman’s fists at all, and the texturing is so bland and simple that it looks crudely photoshopped. It’s one of the most infamous scenes in superhero movie history. And for good reason.
