Recently, I had discussed what I had considered to be the best uses of visual effects in films. As I stated in my previous post, visual effects are simply another tool for film-makers to enhance their films, making them more enticing to the audience. There are lots of great examples of great visual effects, some of which I described: The volcanic eruption in Dante’s Peak and the forced perspective in the Lord of the Rings films. The best visual effects are ones that help keep you engaged in what’s happening on screen. However, for every coin there are two sides. For visual effects, there are some really, REALLY bad ones out there, and I am here to expose those abominations of film-making. I’m not going to lie, some of these effects are in other-wise pretty decent movies, but there are movies where bad visual effects just take you out of the experience and ruin the whole movie. Here are some of the worst visual effects that I’ve seen, and some of them are doozies.
The Scorpion King: The Mummy Returns
Oh, god, I’d forgotten how terrible this one was. I happen to like The Mummy movies with Brendan Fraser. They’re not that bad. The second film had some really cool stuff in it. It was also the on-screen debut of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as The Scorpion King. Seeing The Rock in the opening battle sequence of The Mummy Returns was pretty damn cool, but after his army loses, he disappears from the movie until towards the end. Unfortunately, the final form of the Scorpion King is an absolute atrocity of a CGI character. This thing looks like a cheap PS2 character. It was bad in 2001 and it’s even worse now. The concept was interesting, but the execution was clearly not on point. It’s one of the worst CGI characters that I’ve ever seen.
The Shark: Jaws 3
Jaws is widely considered to be one of the greatest blockbuster movies of all time. In fact, it was the film that introduced the concept of the summer blockbuster. It’s a classic in every way. In fact, half the reason why the film worked was because the mechanical shark they used was broken most of the time, so they had to rely on other techniques to sell the illusion of a shark attack. The sequels needed to learn that less is more. I’ll be honest, of the Jaws sequels, I find the third film to be the most entertaining, even if it’s not for the right reasons. It’s not a good movie, but it delivers on its B-movie promise. However, because the film was shot with 3-d in mind, some of the visual effects are dreadful. The worst effect in the movie has to be when the shark breaks the glass and…..stops. It’s painfully obvious that this was a cheap effect and it elicited more laughs than screams.
CGI Zords – Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie
When it comes to really bad CGI, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie takes the cake. I’ll let you folks in on a little secret: I actually like the Power Rangers. I really do. The cheesy B-movie nature of the show really appealed to me when I was a kid. Not only that, you had giant robots taking on giant monsters. I thought that was pretty freaking cool. So, when I heard that there was going to be a Power Rangers movie, I was excited. For the most part, the film delivered on what I wanted, until we got to the final battle with Ivan Ooze and the Zords. Even by 1995 standards, the CGI in this movie was absolutely brutal. I realize that the film was pretty low-budget and geared towards kids, but they could have spent some more money and actually put guys in suits for the final battle. It would’ve been a lot better. They actually did that for Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie which was considerably worse than this in terms of action, but at least they used men in suits for the giant monster/robot battle.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier had a lot of problems. Between having the budget slashed and the script constantly being re-written, William Shatner’s first shot at directing a Star Trek film was butchered by Paramount Pictures and the results speak for themselves. I think there are some really good ideas in here, along with some really solid character development. But the problem was the forced humor at times, hackneyed pacing and lack of a centralized villain. But the real big issue that a lot of people had with this film, and it’s a glaring issue, was the abysmal visual effects. Between the god-awful matte paintings and backgrounds to the incredibly sub-standard animations and ship designs, Star Trek V was doomed from the beginning. They dumped Industrial Light and Magic for some cheaper effects company and you can tell. You don’t have to be a visual effects expert to see that something went horribly wrong here.
Hell – Spawn(1997)
I’m not going to lie: 1997’s Spawn is one of my guiltiest of pleasures. There’s some ideas in here that are somewhat interesting, and they got look of the character right. In fact, I really dug Spawn’s outfit. It was well done. I also liked the fact that they cast Michael Jai White as Al Simmons/Spawn. He was a great choice. There were some pretty decent action sequences and CGI effects, but all that was outweighed by some truly awful effects and CG animation. In fact, one of the worst aspects of the film was the depiction of Hell itself. Aside from being a stereotypical depiction of Hell with the fire and brimstone, it was horribly realized with some of the worst CGI I’ve ever seen. What really takes the cake is the depiction of the Devil himself, Malebolgia. IT’S AN OVERGROWN LIZARD-CHIHUAHUA WITH HORNS! The close-ups of the creature were terrible. I’ve seen better animation on a Playstation 1 game.
Everything: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
Wow. Talk about a movie where EVERYTHING went wrong. I’m not saying that the first Mortal Kombat was a classic or anything, but it was Citizen Kane when compared to THIS travesty. For a movie whose budget was twice that of the previous film, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation actually looks a hell of a lot worse. This opening 5 minute scene is a preview of things to come. Everything about this movie is….wrong. The fight choreography is lame, despite the legitimate martial arts talent on display, the acting is atrocious, and the visual effects? Oh, god. I wouldn’t even dare to call the effects in this movie substandard. That would mean that they actually tried. No, there’s a word to describe everything here: Unfinished. Look at the sky, then look at the blue-screen effects around Raiden. It’s horrendous. I’ve never seen a movie fail this hard, and I’ve seen quite a bit. The worst part about all this? Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was released to theaters. Yeah. It was bad in 1997, it’s even worse now. If this had been released direct-to-video, I would have cut it a little bit more slack, but it wasn’t. THIS is why movies based on video-games aren’t respected or liked. Whatever you do, don’t play any drinking games to this movie, you’ll die of alcohol poisoning.
There are definitely a lot of movies out there with some pretty weak-ass visual effects, but these are some of the worst that I’ve encountered. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take more than a few showers and then drink myself to sleep(no, I won’t really, but the sentiment remains).