- 5 days ago
These FX don't hold up.
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00:00When you see some next-level special effects, it can be a magical moment.
00:04So when you re-watch these scenes, you expect to have that same wonder ignited within you.
00:08But this isn't always the case.
00:10When you give some classic films another go, you'll notice the visuals aren't as great as you remember.
00:15At one point, these moments were impressive, even jaw-dropping.
00:18But it's time to take off the rose-tinted glasses and see these eyesores for what they really are.
00:23So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture here with 10 groundbreaking movie special effects that aged terribly.
00:31Number 10. Poltergeist.
00:34Poltergeist has so many mind-blowing special effects, it's baffling how it didn't win any Oscars, although it did lose out to E.T.
00:40But after 40 years, you'd assume a lot of these visuals would be pretty ropey nowadays.
00:45Amazingly, most of these optical tricks still look top-notch.
00:49The way the house collapses into itself is one of the coolest visuals of the 1980s.
00:54The elongated corridor sequence is just as mesmerising now as it was when Poltergeist was released.
01:00But there's one scene that has aged worse than Mickey Rourke.
01:03When the parents open their children's bedroom door, they see all sorts of paraphernalia spinning throughout the room.
01:09As they gaze in horror, records twirl around, books fly towards them, and a lightbulb places itself into a lamp by itself.
01:16Although this scene should be scary, it feels like it was only put together to show off these gimmicky visuals.
01:21Not only that, the camera lingers on every shot, making the stop-motion and green screen painfully obvious.
01:27Because this scene doesn't add anything to the story, it feels self-serving.
01:31Also, did we really need to see a floating Hulk action figure riding a toy horse?
01:36Number 9. Total Recall.
01:38The CGI in Terminator 2 was so awesome, people forget Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in another film that pushed the boundaries of special effects the previous year.
01:47Total Recall.
01:49Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi thriller has some of the best animatronics ever put to screen.
01:54The x-ray sequence looks stunning, even though computer effects were in their infancy at the time.
01:58Ironically, what was once regarded as Total Recall's best visual effect is now perceived as the worst one.
02:04In one scene, double agent Quaid attempts to sneak through the immigration office on Mars by disguising himself in a hyper-realistic woman's costume.
02:12When the outfit malfunctions, the woman's head splits open, revealing Quaid.
02:16Well, it's supposed to be Quaid.
02:17In reality, it's an unconvincing dummy head of Arnie.
02:20Upon watching this scene for the first time, most people don't realise how fake this puppet looks because they're distracted by the woman's head disconnecting, which still looks amazing.
02:29But when you clock Arnie's paper-mache-looking noggin, it ruins this iconic scene.
02:33His eyes aren't even symmetrical.
02:35Also, why did this shot need a dummy head?
02:37Surely the real Arnold could have been behind the animatronic or something.
02:41Number 8. The Matrix Reloaded.
02:43The hype for The Matrix Reloaded was so overwhelming, there was no way the Wachowski sequel could live up to the expectations.
02:51And it didn't.
02:52The expository dialogue was repetitive, the performances were flat, the pacing was all over the place, and the ending was anticlimactic.
02:59But there was one element that received universal praise, the visuals.
03:02Even though the bullet-time technique popularised by The Matrix was groundbreaking, many believed the CGI in Reloaded was just as good, if not better.
03:11The harshest critics couldn't fault the VFX, especially during the burly brawl where Neo faces off against 100 Agent Smiths.
03:18However, the overuse of CGI is blatant if you re-watch the iconic fight now.
03:23While Neo batters the snarling agents, there's many shots where every character is obviously computer-generated.
03:29What's more annoying is that this problem could have been remedied if the scene didn't contain slow motion.
03:34By slowing down the action, Neo's rubbery texture and Smith's copy-and-paste faces are more flagrant.
03:39The choreography looks fantastic, but the fight starts resembling a cartoon once the actors are swapped out for their digital doppelgangers.
03:46Number 7. Tron Legacy
03:48Tron Legacy failed to win critics over, nor did it make a splash at the box office.
03:54However, the long-awaited sequel was commended for its kaleidoscopic visuals, especially during the light cycle chases.
04:01But in hindsight, some of the visuals aren't up to par.
04:03The main villain, Clue, is a digital program designed to resemble Jeff Bridges' character in his 30s.
04:09Because Bridges was 61 during filming, the creative team utilised the same de-aging tech used for Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
04:17Sadly, Clue is rendered so badly, you swear the effects team did it on purpose.
04:22Now, you could argue that the de-aging technology wasn't perfected yet.
04:25However, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has superior effects, despite coming out two years earlier.
04:31The difference is the production team behind Benjamin Button knew the technology's limitations,
04:35and obscured the titular character when he was de-aged.
04:38But Tron Legacy shows off Clue in all his glory, making no effort to hide how unfinished he looked.
04:44When you see the de-aging effects in films like Captain Marvel, Gemini Man, and Spider-Man No Way Home,
04:49Clue is embarrassing by comparison.
04:52Number 6. Spawn
04:54Even though CGI was considered to be potentially gimmicky at first, everything changed in 1999.
05:00After the release of The Matrix, The Phantom Menace, and The Mummy that year,
05:04moviegoers finally understood this groundbreaking technology was here to stay.
05:09However, people forget the superhero flick Spawn predates all those movies.
05:13Released in 1997, Todd McFarlane's comic book adaptation was one of the first films with fully computer-generated characters.
05:21Although critics loathed it, the special effects were regarded as Spawn's only positive quality.
05:25But when you watch it now, it seems inconceivable that anyone thought these visuals looked good.
05:30And it's not just one specific visual.
05:32All the CGI is terrible.
05:33Spawn's billowing cape is so appallingly rendered, you wonder why the crew didn't just make a real one.
05:38Because the actors can't see the cape, they have no reference point while looking at Spawn,
05:42making the visual even less believable.
05:45But that's not all.
05:4622 digital companies worked for 11 months to design the Hell dimension.
05:50And yet, it looks like it was cobbled together in 5, maybe 6 minutes.
05:54But the worst aspect of the film's VFX has to be Hell's ruler, Malibolge.
05:59This demon looks so incomplete because, well, he is.
06:02The visual team ran out of time before fine-tuning Malibolge's design,
06:06so they didn't get a chance to make his mouth move when he talks.
06:09Just because a special effect looks bad,
06:14doesn't mean the visual artist didn't work their arse off putting it together.
06:18And few films exemplify this fact better than Ang Lee's Hulk.
06:22This film was in development hell for 12 years,
06:25since the studio had to wait until they believed CGI had advanced enough
06:29to bring the mean green machine to life.
06:31During production, 180 technicians worked round the clock for 18 months
06:36to ensure the Hulk looked like a real creature,
06:38rather than a computer-generated image.
06:40Because 2.5 million hours went into creating the Jade Giant's movements,
06:45hair, muscles, and facial expressions,
06:47you'd expect the final product to be out of this world.
06:50Although the Hulk was impressive in 2003,
06:53the emerald-skinned monster pales when he's compared to his MCU counterpart.
06:58In the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
06:59the Hulk was brought to life with motion capture,
07:01making his movements far more realistic, especially in his face.
07:05But since the Hulk in this movie is a pure CGI creation,
07:09it moves unnaturally, even cartoonishly most of the time.
07:12Although most of the visuals have aged terribly,
07:15don't get me started on that mutant dog,
07:17the titular hero definitely looks the worst.
07:20Number 4. The Terminator
07:22With the Terminator's exemplary visuals, gritty action,
07:26and beautiful score,
07:27no one can contest this film is sci-fi at its best.
07:31Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance may be iconic,
07:33but that shouldn't take away from the blood, sweat, and tears
07:36that Stan Winston put into the special effects.
07:38Despite having little money and even less time,
07:41Winston's creations in the movie turned out flawlessly.
07:44Well, most of them.
07:45After the Terminator sustains heavy damage,
07:48he performed surgery on his face,
07:50exposing his metallic interior and laser eye.
07:53The puppet of Arnie's face took six months to construct,
07:56and yet it looks slightly more convincing
07:57than a melted mannequin by today's standards.
08:00But that's not all.
08:01Director James Cameron worried that using stop motion
08:04for the T-800 would be unconvincing.
08:07Sadly, he was spot on.
08:08When the endoskeleton is a puppet, it looks brilliant.
08:11But when it switches to the janky stop motion model,
08:13you can tell the Terminator isn't really there.
08:16Even though these visuals looked astounding in the 1980s,
08:19the superior special effects in Terminator 2
08:22utterly put them to shame.
08:23Although people debate which movie is superior,
08:26there is no question that the sequel is superior
08:28when it comes to visuals.
08:31Number 3.
08:32Final Fantasy The Spirits Within
08:34Final Fantasy The Spirits Within was a massive deal
08:37upon its release since it was the first CGI film
08:40with photorealistic characters.
08:42It took so long to make the visuals look right,
08:44the development team had to redo the earliest visuals again
08:47to ensure they were on par with the latest rendered shots.
08:51After all the animation was completed,
08:52the footage was fed to a separate render farm,
08:55where the textures were sharpened further.
08:57It may have been an exhausting process,
08:59but it was worth it in the end,
09:00since the visuals in The Spirits Within
09:02were considered indistinguishable from real life.
09:05People got so hyped by the movie's animation,
09:07there were rumours that digital performers
09:09could become commonplace in cinema.
09:11There was also speculation that the spirits within protagonist Aki
09:14could appear in other movies alongside real actors.
09:17But if you put the photorealistic characters
09:20beside actual people,
09:21it's clear the special effects aren't as seamless
09:23as they first appeared.
09:24This is demonstrated on the DVD bonus feature
09:27when Aki interacts with the film crew.
09:29The visuals on the characters' facial expressions
09:31are excellent,
09:32but it's clear the technology had yet to perfect certain features
09:35such as eyes, teeth, and hair,
09:37making most characters look soulless and creepy.
09:40Number 2.
09:41The Lawnmower Man
09:42The Lawnmower Man was torn apart
09:45by pretty much everyone when it came out.
09:47It also didn't help that Stephen King sued the studio,
09:50forcing them to remove his name from the title.
09:52The trippy sci-fi flick was criticised
09:54for its wooden performances,
09:55slow pace,
09:56and the done-to-death Frankenstein plot.
09:58But there was one element
09:59that the harshest disparager couldn't fault.
10:02The psychotropic visuals
10:03were truly awe-inspiring.
10:05Because the story centres around virtual technology
10:08that can enhance the human mind,
10:10the filmmakers injected the movie
10:11with as much psychedelic effects as they could.
10:14Even though the film was badly received,
10:16these kaleidoscopic images
10:17were regarded as mesmerising and dazzling.
10:19Critics from Empire magazine went so far
10:22as to call these computer-generated displays
10:24genuinely visionary.
10:26But the years have been unkind to The Lawnmower Man.
10:28When you look at the VR scenes now,
10:30you would think they were from a 1980s movie
10:32or a Sega Saturn game.
10:33Even though these variegated sequences
10:36were once perceived as The Lawnmower Man's
10:38only redeeming feature,
10:39they are now viewed as the film's most glaring flaw.
10:42Number 1.
10:44Star Wars The Original Trilogy Special Edition
10:47Do you know what the saddest thing is
10:49about the Star Wars Special Edition trilogy?
10:51Originally, it actually sounded like a great idea.
10:54Even though the visuals in George Lucas' work
10:56were light years ahead of every movie in its heyday,
10:59some special effects have aged very badly.
11:01So when Lucas announced he would re-release
11:03the Star Wars movies with refined effects,
11:06added CGI, unseen footage,
11:08and newly recorded dialogue,
11:09fans were over the moon.
11:11And when you first watched the Special Edition versions,
11:14it was nice to see fully rendered CG characters
11:16rather than an amateur-looking puppet
11:18or a crummy animatronic.
11:19But when you look at these sequences now,
11:21the computer-generated imagery feels forced and jarring.
11:25What's most infuriating is how the majority
11:27of these effects are utterly redundant.
11:28Why was there a music number in Return of the Jedi?
11:31Did we need to see a stormtrooper ride a dewback?
11:33And why did Lucas feel obligated to insert more rocks
11:36in the scene where R2-D2 hides from Jawas?
11:39The only good thing that came about this experiment
11:41is that movies should be left untouched,
11:43even if they seem outdated.
11:45And that concludes our list.
11:47If you can think of any that we missed,
11:48then do let us know in the comments below.
11:50And while you're there,
11:51don't forget to like and subscribe
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11:54Also, head over to Twitter
11:55and follow us there at WhatCulture.
11:57And I can be found across various social medias
11:59just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
12:01I've been Ellie with WhatCulture.
12:02I hope you have a magical day
12:04and I'll see you real soon.
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