Which special effects turned out to be the most disastrous (28 photos)

Get ready for some fun and a little eye-soreness.





We've looked back at the most striking visual failures in 21st century movies, picking out the most egregious ones from each year. These kinds of fiascos become part of popular culture, and sometimes scenes with some CGI blunder are more memorable than the movies themselves.

2001 — The Scorpion King



Movie: The Mummy Returns

It just so happens that Dwayne Johnson became the champion in CGI mishaps. He also comically invaded the scene with his hilariously poorly animated image, and we will see him more than once in the future.

2002 — Agent 007 surfing







Movie: Die Another Day

It feels like this scene is not from 2002, but from a movie from the time of Alfred Hitchcock, where the actors were filmed in front of a big screen with a pre-shot background.

2003 — a fight with multiple Agent Smiths



Movie: The Matrix Reloaded

As visually magnificent as the first "Matrix" is, some scenes from the sequel look just as horrific. The idea with the Smiths is cool and large-scale, but the Wachowskis trusted the animation too much, which could not handle the task. As a result, the real Reeves and Weaving were replaced by poorly drawn models and the scene looks comical in places.

2004 — Cartoon Characters Created with Motion Capture



Movie: The Polar Express

This is a special case, because this project by Robert Zemeckis was created with the help of technology, in which the movements of all the characters were transmitted by digitalization of real people. And herein lies the problem. Look at what a nightmare it turned out to be! This intermediate stage between poor animation and facial expressions of real people is creepy to watch — the uncanny valley as it is. And the concept, in which half the characters look like Tom Hanks, only makes the situation worse.

In theory, it was an interesting experiment for its time, but it was considered a failure not only now, more than 20 years later, but also in the year of its release. After all, it's just... obvious.

2005 - a busy street from 2055



Movie: A Sound of Thunder

This backdrop (like from an old video game) looks especially funny when the characters are walking. Okay, great futuristic cars, you should have seen the dinosaurs in this movie!

2006 — motorcycle scene



Movie: Ultraviolet

This colorful action movie actually has several stylish scenes, but overall it answers the question of whether it is possible to shoot everything on a green background... in 2006. And the action scene with Jovovich's heroine riding a motorcycle looks like a parody.

2007 — zombies



Movie: I Am Legend

The creators of the film not only screwed up with the ending of the film, but also depicted the zombies so clumsily that it is unclear whether this is a film or a cutscene from a game based on the film.

2008 - Aliens



Movie: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Sorry for the spoilers, but first of all... aliens in an Indiana Jones movie?? Secondly, what kind of rubber nightmare is this?

2009 - Wolverine's Claws



Movie: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Just look at the skill of the Photoshoppers working at 20th Century Fox! Everything else was pretty good, but what happened to the department responsible for those blades?

2010 — Birds





Movie: Birdcalypse: Shock and Awe

This is one of those low-budget movies that became famous solely because of its absurdly bad special effects. The creators literally superimposed 2D birds from late 20th century video games on actors who (rather poorly) acted out suffering.

2011 - Green Lantern costume



Movie: Green Lantern

You can use any special effects from the movie that have this green glow in this section.

2012 — CGI baby



Movie: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2

Really! They decided not to take a real baby, but drew it on the computer!

2013 — sharks



Movie: Sharknado

It's about the same as "Birdcalypse", only the budget was still bigger. But the concept of the film itself is so absurd that it was very difficult to cope with it visually.

2014 — Faces of the Elven Army



Movie: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Yes, they are lazily drawn and absolutely identical. And also — don't they remind you of a young Tom Hanks?

2015 — Arnold Schwarzenegger



Movie: Terminator: Genisys

The meeting of the aged T-800 (how could it even age according to human laws?) with its young copy sounds like an interesting idea, but in the end both of those present in the frame did not look like the same cyborg from the first parts. The real actor aged, and his CGI copy looked somewhat comical.

2016 — Minotaur Scene



Movie: Gods of Egypt

The minotaurs here look like they were pulled straight out of an old stop-motion King Kong movie. And the movie had a huge budget — $140 million.

2017 — Superman's mustache



Movie: Justice League

The legendary mustache! Because of the filming of Mission: Impossible — Fallout, where Cavill had to wear a lush mustache, he couldn't part with it for the sake of additional filming of several scenes as Superman for Justice League. It was decided to film with a mustache, which specialists then had to erase using a computer.

Oh, how they erased it! They erased it so much that everyone is still laughing at it. The edit distorted Cavill's face somewhat, creating a unique version of the uncanny valley effect that the real person created.

2018 - T'Challa vs. Killmonger fight



Movie: Black Panther

Why it was necessary to move the final fight to the Wakandan subway, where everything was flooded with poor graphics, is unclear.

2019 - Cats design/ young Will Smith





Movies: Cats/ Gemini Man

With "Cats" everything is clear, but how could we forget about the magnificent facial rejuvenation technology used in the movie "Gemini Man"? Look how great it works!

2020 - meeting with Tom Hanks allegedly in Sydney



Movie: Borat 2

Look, there's the famous opera house right behind them! Yeah.

2021 - Bull Scene



Movie: Red Notice

This scene was filmed so fake that it would not be surprising if not only the bull, the audience, and the arena itself were fake, but also Reynolds and Johnson were filmed on different days and then glued together.

2022 — Skinny Rock



Movie: Black Adam

By the way, it's been a long time since The Rock was around! Just look at how funny the filmmakers stuck Dwayne's head on someone's unmuscled figure. But the proportions aren't always right.

2023 - Supermen from Other Universes



Movie: The Flash

In one scene of the movie, we were shown actors who played (or could have played) the role of a superhero in the past. Nicolas Cage, Christopher Reeve (who died in 2004) and Helen Slater are presented as badly drawn as possible. Perhaps that was the idea, but what did it symbolize?

2024 - Ian Holm Lively



Movie: Alien: Romulus

Everything about this film is good: the suspense, the story, the characters. But why did the creators decide to resurrect the android Ash and the actor who played him, who died in 2020? As a result, we got a picture that seems to take us back to the 2000s.