mikep1000

I saw the most realistic effects thread and thought of this one. One reason was because Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone was on TV last night. I am looking for movies that have big budgets and were fairly well anticipated but had uniformly poor effects. Do not list movies that may have one or 2 poor scenes but ones were the majority of the effects were fairly poorly done.

1. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
2. Star Trek: Insurrection

Incedintly the majority of the effects work by these movies were done by Sony Imageworks. Strange since they provided very convincing effects for StarShip Troopers

Pants

Mummy Returns

RyoHazuki

Credibility=gone.

Rockmjd23

Van Helsing

jaeufraser

Why? Starship Troopers is a stellar example of top notch effects work.

Harry Potter though...that movie was fairly solid imo. Where exactly were these awful effects we're talking about? Or is the actual thread title "name some big budget movies with decent effects that we're going to nitpick about cause CG is evil."

Seriously, when did these become bad effects movies? Mummy Returns, while I admit that Scorpion King was weak, the rest of the film sported a lot of just fine effects work. But since a lot of these movies are not realistic (even though they never intended to be in the first place) they become bad. Everybody seems to be "taken out of the movie" with modern movies and modern CG effects work, and I just wonder how ANY of you guys ever watched an effect movie prior to the CG revolution, cause quite frankly...effects work looked 10 times less realistic before. Go watch Total Recall, the effects Oscar winner from 1990...you can see matte lines, models, pick out the stiff puppets. It's still an awesome movie, but with this insane level of nit pickining, I would think that movie would be unwatchable for some of you guys.

Now I do agree with Star Trek Insurrection, basically with the space effects work. The spaceships were shoddy looking, without any sense of size, and since that stuff had been done well 8 times before, it was pretty pathetic that that mvoie looked like that. Of course, the movie sucked too so that didn't help.

Matthew Chmiel

Agreed. While the SFX shots in space with the ships aren't that great, the film sports some of the best blend of CGI and live action ever seen in a major motion picture.

TomOpus

I know some people thought the CGI work in The Hulk was bad, but I thought it was very good.

Mondo Kane

Clash of the Titans

wm lopez

Spider-man

Kudama

I’m with you on this! That jet scene was amazing!

No one yet has surpassed Jurassic Park. For some reason (be it whipping the animators or passion of art) they came the closest.

Mimic (IMHO) was the second best. Guillermo del Toro is an artist that knows when the painting is finished.

THE WORST!!!! Anaconda. They just didn't care.

mikep1000

I am not actually againest CGI I actually love seeing it in a movie if used correctly. This thread isn't about modern techniques vs CGI I was just looking to find big budgets that looked as if they used second rate effects.
I.E. Star Trek V

As for the first harry potter, I agree some of the effects look alright but things like the Quidditch match look awful, not so much on dvd but I was appalled at the quality when I saw it in theater. It looks very much like a video game, overly bright and very jerky animation, the same goes with possibly Harry on the broom stick near the end. In comparsion watch the quidditch match in the second movie and see how much better the animation is.
I actually thought the effects in the Hulk were quite well done and the Mummy Returns, well except for the Scorpion King at the end.

antennaball

Scooby-freakin'-Doo

Dr. DVD

While not exactly poor, after Troy I am getting sick of seeing a thousand or so guys replicated over and over to make it look like a huge army charging.

Please, give the CGI a rest!

TopHatCat64

Yeah seriously, they're putting a thousand extras out of work!

nemein

Gladiator. In the theater I found the CGI very visible and distracting, looks much better IMHO on the small screen.

Rivero

Why is that? As much as I hate Starship Troopers (there are few things more pathetic imo than Troopers fans who proclaim, "This movie is SATIRE! Don't you get it?? It's SUPPOSED to be a piece of shit!!!!") I will admit that the effects were pretty impressive.

Michael Corvin

So maybe the thread should be more along the lines of CGI that takes you out of the film.

I thought flying through the floors and ductwork in Panic Room looked like a video game and was very distracting.

JustInsane

You guys really nned to give the CGI bashing a rest. True there is a lot of bad CGI work out there, because there is a lot people who have got into this business that think that all you have to do is push the make dinosaur button and you get Jurrasic Park. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes most people have no idea about. With the insane budgets, incrediblely short time frames we have to work in and so called directors that think they know how to direct, there is bond to be bad work. Just because you happen to read Cinefex, or watch the making of stuff on the DVD doesn't mean you know anything about CGI

nemein

While you're at it please refrain from criticizing actors, directors, writers, producers, editors, composers, musicians, cinamatographers, scripts, sets, and scenery as well

yecul

I nominate Mimic (good call) and The Relic for wannabe blockbusters with poor special effects. The fact that they were mediocre/bad and made nothing probably disqualifies them from this.

Rypro 525

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...=worst+effects
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...=worst+effects

Numanoid

Carnosaur.

The Nature Boy

The Mummy was inexcusably and unforgivably bad. Did they cut that sumbitch on a Sega Genesis?

DRG

Everyone always points to The Mummy Returns as an example of FX gone bad, but I was far more distracted by the original, namely the Mummy himself.

Rockmjd23

The train crash in Under Siege 2