A CGI Michael Myers mask? What a waste of money.
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00:00CGI can be an incredible, immensely versatile tool in the hands of smart filmmakers who know
00:06when to use it. But as we've all seen countless times, it's all too often used as a crutch or
00:11an indulgence, where the results can prove extremely off-putting to audiences. And though
00:16literally hundreds of movies can be ripped to shreds for their embarrassingly cheap visual
00:21effects, we're looking specifically at movies that needlessly employed visual effects artists
00:26who work on scenes and shots that absolutely didn't need them. If nothing else, this is a
00:31testament to the thoughtless pervasiveness of CGI throughout Hollywood over the last two decades
00:36in particular, and that even enormously talented filmmakers aren't beyond overdoing it with the
00:41computerised flourishes and touch-ups. So I'm Ellie with WhatCulture here with the 10 most pointless
00:46CGI movie shots ever. Number 10. $5,000 dog poop, John Wick.
00:52John Wick is an incredible action film which makes extremely minimal use of visual effects,
00:57though the producers did stump up a princely sum to include a wildly unnecessary pile of dog crap
01:04during one early scene. Shortly after John has been gifted a puppy by his dead wife, the dog is seen
01:09leaving John's house to relieve itself, and the audience is treated to a shot of the healthy deposit
01:14the canine leaves behind. And while you probably assumed this was just a $2 plastic poop lobbed on the
01:20lawn, it was in fact a digital creation rendered to the tune of a mind-boggling $5,000. With the
01:26production unable to feed a laxative to their dog performer to get a practical poop, there was
01:31apparently no other choice than to rely on VFX. Given the utter pointlessness of the shot and the
01:36film's modest $25 million budget, it makes no sense at all to be so frivolous with dog poop,
01:42of all things. And the irony is they made it look so perfect that it looks fake.
01:469. Cold Breath – The Social Network Though David Fincher's 2010 masterpiece carried out
01:52many feats of sheer VFX magic, some of the more subtle instances of CGI are a bit, well, pointless.
02:00During an early scene where Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield's characters are talking outside
02:05in the middle of a party, it's blindingly obvious that their cold breath has been digitally superimposed
02:10in post-production. Rather than warm moisture faintly escaping from their mouths when they speak,
02:15they look closer to Superman deploying his ice breath like the fate of the world depends on it.
02:19Though Fincher's commitment to the details is admirable, in this case the botched execution
02:24is distracting enough that he probably should have just ditched it entirely. It's not like the
02:28temperature of the scene contributes in any way to the character or story beats we're watching unfold.
02:338. Johnny Depp's Face – Public Enemies
02:36Michael Mann's Public Enemies largely focuses on good old-fashioned practical set pieces,
02:41so Mann's decision to include one especially noticeable CGI stunt proves all the more jarring
02:47as a result. During the focal bank robbery sequence, John Dillinger is seen vaulting over
02:52a bank desk and there's no two ways about it, it looks totally badass. Or it would if not for the
02:58fact that Depp's face is clearly just a crude digital mask pasted over that of a stuntman.
03:03Apparently, the notorious perfectionist Mann had a very specific idea of how the shot should look,
03:09and when Depp couldn't quite get it right, he brought in a stunt double to execute it with
03:14the correct physicality while fixing the face in post. The irony, of course, is that the entire
03:19shot is ruined by the distracting CGI, which resembles Depp only as though he were rendered
03:24in the cutscene of a mid-budget PS1 game. Given that the shot could have easily been captured
03:29from behind the stuntman and likely still looked just as cool, it's an utterly baffling act of
03:34stubbornness on Mann's part.
03:367. Green Screen Rooftop – The Room
03:39It's fair to say that Tommy Wiseau's The Room is a film rife with questionable creative
03:44calls, though nothing quite raises the eyebrows like his decision to use extensive and totally
03:49unconvincing green screen effects to shoot the film's rooftop scenes. These scenes were
03:54shot on a set hastily thrown together in a car park with a green screen erected so that
03:59they could composite a shot of Los Angeles skyline in post-production. But what makes this use of
04:04CGI truly pointless is that there was actually a rooftop available to shoot the scenes on,
04:10but for reasons that none of the film's crew members have ever been able to ascertain,
04:13the director opted for Gordie Cromer-Key instead. If James Franco's The Disaster Artist is to be
04:19believed, it's probably because Wiseau wanted to make a real Hollywood movie, and nothing says
04:24Hollywood like needlessly splashing cash on perfunctory CGI. Given that the film's budget somehow
04:29ballooned to an absurd $6 million, it's fair to assume that this sequence ended up accounting
04:34for a sizable chunk of that price tag.
04:376. Henry Cavill's Digital Shave – Justice League
04:41Now, on the face of things, you might protest that Warner Bros. spending roughly $3 million
04:45to digitally shave Henry Cavill's face for Justice League reshoots was absolutely necessary.
04:52After all, Cavill was contractually prevented from shaving his bushy tash until Mission Impossible
04:57Fallout had completed filming. But there were several options that Warner Bros. had available
05:02to them instead, and pretty much all of them were better than just fixing it in post.
05:06Shutting down production for a few weeks was obviously the most sensible. Though it wouldn't
05:10have been cheap, it ultimately would have prevented the film from becoming a laughingstock and perhaps
05:15even helped its box office in the long run. Secondly, given how badass Cavill's facial hair
05:20actually was in Fallout, and that many fans expected to see a resurrected Superman with facial hair
05:25hair anyway, they could have leaned into it and reshot Cavill's entire role with a full,
05:30grizzled face of hair. When you've already sunk $300 million into a project, it really doesn't pay
05:36to skimp on the big picture stuff, and that's exactly what Warner Bros. did by over-relying on VFX.
05:425. The Rat – Daredevil
05:44The Ben Affleck-starring 2003 Daredevil movie is a baffling production for many reasons, not least its
05:50general excess of frivolous, often unconvincing CGI. And this much is made clear in the movie's very
05:56first shot, as a digital rat is shown scampering through the streets of Hell's Kitchen before being
06:02blasted by a steam grate. Director Mark Stephen Johnson originally intended to use a real rat
06:07for the shot, but when it didn't move across the scene as intended, the decision was made to move on
06:12and pass it off to the CGI artists. The actual rendering of the rat isn't too bad, aided by the scene
06:18being extremely dark, but given the utter lack of storytelling necessity for the rat to even
06:23appear in the movie, it just feels like a daft, unnecessary indulgence. But in the very least,
06:28it's emblematic of the film's entire misguided fascination with CGI, and lets audiences know
06:34early on what they're in for.
06:364. Replacing Practical Effects with Digital – The Thing 2011
06:41Now, this one really hurts. While the 2011 The Thing was far from a good movie,
06:47it was at least shot with an emphasis on practical creature effects in tribute to John Carpenter's
06:521982 original, which remains one of the best-crafted creature features of all time.
06:57And despite the film largely being shot with animatronics during post-production,
07:02the studio increasingly mandated use of CGI, ultimately replacing most of the original practical
07:07effects digitally through reshoots and literally tracing over the original in-camera work.
07:13Footage of the practical effects have since been found online, and considering how great they
07:18looked, fans were left outraged by the utterly charmless nature of the final digital result.
07:23There have even been calls for Universal to release a practical effects cut of the film,
07:28though with the film's practical effects artists confirming that no such cut exists,
07:32it would require Paramount going back into the editing room and assembling it.
07:36For a film that bombed at the box office and also reviewed badly, that doesn't seem very likely.
07:42Number 3. Digital Tire Smoke – Ronin
07:45John Frankenheimer's Ronin is a ludicrously entertaining action thriller that boasts some
07:50of the most impressive car chasers ever put to film, and Frankenheimer himself even boasted that
07:55the chases were all achieved in-camera. Quote,
07:58Well, that is ultimately about 99.7% true, because while cars really were filmed hurtling
08:07through the streets of France, the legendary filmmaker strangely decided to inject some
08:12wildly unnecessary CGI into a Paris chase sequence. As Sam and Vincent burn rubber while making their
08:19escape, a ton of repulsive CGI smoke is layered over the top of the vehicle, intended to imply
08:25an extremely severe tire burnout. Unfortunately, it looks laughably ugly and slightly undermines
08:30a sequence that's otherwise an epic triumph of technical filmmaking.
08:34Number 2. Michael Myers' Mask – Halloween H20 – 20 Years Later
08:39The seventh Halloween movie was actually a pretty decent return to form for the series,
08:44for the most part, and given how little the franchise has relied on VFX over its tenure,
08:49few expected to see noticeable CGI in it. Surprisingly, the filmmakers were still tinkering around
08:55with the new design of the Michael Myers' mask even during shooting, and once post-production
08:59had been completed, a total of four masks had been used. If you keep your eyes peeled,
09:04you can even pick out shots where earlier iterations of the mask appear, while most of them were
09:08replaced in reshoots. And there's one especially obnoxious moment that occurs when poor Charlie
09:13comes face-to-face with Myers. Because the production wasn't able to reshoot the scene with
09:18the final mask design, a CGI model was instead pasted on top of the rejected practical one,
09:24the results of which are absolutely hideous. Though the shot lasts just a merciful second
09:28or two, was this method of problem-solving really preferable to just sticking to the
09:33over-the-shoulder shot of Michael and avoiding all that fan outrage?
09:37Number 1. The Prairie Dogs – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
09:42The fourth Indiana Jones gets a ton of flack from fans for a number of reasons, and though nothing
09:48will ever quite top the nuke-the-fridge controversy, many were dismayed by the film's excessive reliance
09:54on low-rent visual effects. Just like Daredevil, this is made apparent in the film's very first
09:59shot, and again, like Daredevil, it involves a totally unconvincing and pointless digital rodent.
10:05The film's opening shot shows a rough CGI prairie dog emerging from its mound, surveying the area and
10:11quickly scurrying off before a car runs over the mound. And perhaps if this were a one-off,
10:15it might have been easy enough to tolerate. However, the awful digital abomination reappears
10:19during the infamous fridge-nuking scene, popping out of its hole to stare gormlessly at Indy for
10:24a moment before diving back in. And there you have it, that's our list. If you think we've missed
10:28something, then do let us know in the comments down below, and while you're there, don't forget to
10:32like and subscribe and tap that notification bell. Also head over to Twitter and follow us there,
10:36and I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
10:40I've been Ellie with WhatCulture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real soon.
10:45I hope you appreciate it.
10:51I smell my skill now!
10:54All right.
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