15 Movies With the Worst CGI, Ranked

Since the infancy of cinema, since the times of filmmakers like Georges Méliès, visual effects have gradually increased in importance. They allow directors to let their imaginations run wild and turn their crazy ideas into visible things for audiences to see. There have been many advancements that have revolutionized visual effects, but there’s one in particular that’s become pretty much synonymous with the field: Computer-Generated Imagery, or CGI.

While certain movies have CGI so convincing and so polished that it elevates them to otherwise unimaginable heights, others have visual effects that are of much lower quality. Then, there are films with CGI so atrocious, so dodgy, so unconvincing, that it singlehandedly turns them into nightmare fuel for cinephiles to laugh at for years to come.

15

‘The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl’ (2005)

Directed by Robert Rodríguez

Robert Rodríguez is, to say the least, an acquired taste. His family films in particular are often pretty divisive, but if there’s one that’s almost universally agreed to be pretty bad (nostalgic though it may be for some who grew up watching it) it is The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. It’s pretty clear that the movie’s target audience is purely and entirely little kids, but that doesn’t stop it from being a creative misfire.

Shot to be shown in 3-D, Sharkboy and Lavagirl is comprised of visually ugly gimmick after visually ugly gimmick, all of them jumping at the screen in full 2000s fashion. All in all, it’s one of the worst superhero movies ever made, with enough atrocious CGI to make any child go crazy but leave any adult with an explosive headache for the rest of the day.

14

‘Justice League’ (2017)

Directed by Joss Whedon

The tragic case of the DCEU’s Justice League and how Zack Snyder and his vision were kicked out of it at the most inopportune time is widely documented. Thankfully, Zack Snyder’s Justice League later came to satisfy the curiosity of all those who enjoyed his vision for these heroes, but Joss Whedon‘s cut of the film is still out there, terrorizing all those who stumble upon it with Henry Cavill’s terrifying CGI’d non-mustache.

All things considered, 2017’s Justice League is easily one of the worst DC Comics films ever made, a sad disgrace to the most iconic superhero team in the world of comics. There are many things about it that don’t work, and its visual effects are certainly among those things. It’s not just Cavill’s mustache: Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) looks awful, the green screen in the reshot scenes looks even worse, and the action ends up being funny instead of badass because it just looks so fake and video game-y.

13

‘Mama’ (2013)

Directed by Andy Muschietti

Andy Muschietti‘s Mama is a pretty generic, sometimes annoyingly contrived ghost story; but, all things considered, it’s a serviceable horror film for fans of good scares, with a surprisingly good Jessica Chastain performance. It definitely peaks at the beginning and then starts growing progressively worse and more clichéd as the story rolls along, but at least the start is good enough to make it worthwhile.

Something that’s hard to excuse, however—and a big reason why the consensus seems to be that Mama gets worse and worse the farther in one gets into its runtime—is the visually horrendous monster. A bizarre mixture of practical effects and CGI, the result looks too goofy and campy to be genuinely scary, except that Muschietti doesn’t actually seem to want the monster to come off as goofy and campy. This tonal dissonance is the coup de grâce that makes Mama so underwhelming in the end.

12

‘Son of the Mask’ (2005)

Directed by Lawrence Guterman

While 1994’s The Mask is one of the most unique and entertaining superhero comedies ever, the sequel, Son of the Mask, is far and away one of the worst family movies of the 2000s. Without Jim Carrey‘s bombastic charm, the clever writing and humor, or the over-the-top cartoonishness, the film just comes across as mindless noise that’s inappropriate for children yet unbearably grating for grown-ups.

There are many other things that make Son of the Mask an icon of terrible movies, and the CGI is definitely one of them. The special effects of the first movie, while somewhat dated, at least have enough personality and self-awareness to be timeless. As for the special effects of the sequel… there’s absolutely nothing nice to say about them. Ugly, low-effort, and somehow even cheaper-looking than those of its then-11-year-old predecessor, they’re some of the worst VFX ever seen in movies.

11

‘Mortal Kombat: Annihilation’ (1997)

Directed by John R. Leonetti

Although they’ve had somewhat better luck as of the last few years, video game movie and television adaptations have mostly had a pretty rough history. A particularly dark and laughably lackluster chapter in that history is Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, a movie with as many exciting fight scenes as it has memorable characters and fun plotlines. Which is to say: None whatsoever.

Annihilation is one of the worst action movies ever made, a poorly written, poorly choreographed, poorly directed mess that should be enough to break fans’ hearts and make non-fans run away in fatal boredom. To be perfectly fair, though, MK: Annihilation often has enough terrible elements to make it “so bad it’s good”, so at least it isn’t a complete waste of time. One of its most hilarious aspects is its CGI, particularly in the horrible dragon fight in the third act. All throughout the film, the VFX looks cheap, fake, and haphazardly put together. It would be sad if it weren’t so funny.

10

‘The Mummy Returns’ (2001)

Directed by Stephen Sommers

1999’s The Mummy is one of the most iconic adventure movies of the ’90s, starring Brendan Fraser at the top of his game. Its sequel, 2001’s The Mummy Returns, is generally agreed to be considerably inferior, but still quite entertaining. It finds the titular Mummy’s body shipped to a museum in London, where he once again wakes and begins his campaign of rage and horror.

The story is entertaining, the characters are compelling, and the action is great in spite of what might be one of the film’s most criticized aspects: the CGI. One scene in particular sees Dwayne Johnson‘s Scorpion King in action (this was the wrestler-turned-actor’s first film role, and it remains one of his most fun movies), with CGI that made him look like a character straight out of a bad PlayStation 2 game. It was laughable then, and it’s even more laughable today, when the technology has evolved so very much.

9

‘Die Another Day’ (2002)

Directed by Lee Tamahori

Since Sean Connery‘s debut in the role in 1962’s Dr. No, the 007 franchise has been one of the most prolific and successful in the action genre, despite its many ups and downs. Some would argue, however, that the lowest those downs have ever gotten is Lee Tamahori’s Die Another Day, Pierce Brosnan‘s last film as James Bond. In it, 007 is sent to investigate the connection between a North Korean terrorist and a diamond mogul, who’s funding the development of a space weapon.

The film has countless problems, from a cheesy tone to a silly story to a Brosnan that looks done with the role, but one of its worst aspects are the special effects — which, frankly, aren’t all that special. The infamous surfing scene in particular, which sees Bond going through a massive wave using a parachute, is probably the James Bond franchise’s most ludicrous stunt. If the action scenes had looked a little more convincing, perhaps Die Another Day wouldn’t have been such a disaster. Alas, they look dodgy at best.

8

‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ (2009)

Directed by Gavin Hood

It was the X-Men franchise that started the superhero movie craze that’s defined the 21st century’s Hollywood blockbuster landscape. And, like all big movie franchises, it certainly had its flops. One of the worst is X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which follows Logan’s early years and his rivalry with his brother. Eventually, he’s experimented on and turned into the metal-lined mutant Wolverine.

X-Men Origins is probably one of the worst superhero movies of all time, and that’s in no small measure due to its shoddy VFX. For the first three X-Men movies, Wolverine’s awesome clues had been props on Hugh Jackman‘s hands. For Origins, someone had the baffling idea of saving time by making them CGI. As a result, every time Wolverine uses his claws in this movie, they look poorly superimposed on top of Jackman’s fists rather than like actual weapons. Mix that with some horrible green screen that makes fights look cartoonish at best, and you get what might just be the worst-looking installment in the series.

7

‘The Lawnmower Man’ (1992)

Directed by Brett Leonard

A loose Stephen King adaptation so awful that it got the author to sue to get his name removed from the title and from promotional material, The Lawnmower Man proves that having source material by an exceptional author doesn’t guarantee a good script. It’s a cyberpunk film about a simple man who’s turned into a genius through the application of computer science.

One of those not-so-rare ’90s horror movies so bad they’re good, The Lawnmower Man is infamous for multiple reasons. Its story is unnecessarily melodramatic, predictable, and trite; its third act is a failure all around; and its special effects, while impressive in 1992, look horrible by today’s standards. Age is no excuse, since VFX-centric movies that are even older, like Star Wars or even Metropolis, still look good to this day. Lawnmower Man, on the other hand, has CGI shots that are pure nightmare fuel.

6

‘Green Lantern’ (2011)

Directed by Martin Campbell

One of the worst movies of the 2010s and one of Ryan Reynolds‘ greatest regrets (if Deadpool 2 is at all to be believed), Green Lantern is based on the popular DC clan of the same name, focusing on the beloved Hal Jordan. The story follows this reckless test pilot, who’s granted an alien ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers and enters him into an intergalactic police force.

Perhaps the story would have been less messy, the characters would have been more believable, and the action would have been more engaging if only the CGI hadn’t been so overproduced, cartoonish, and downright ugly. It would all be fine and dandy if these off-putting visuals only showed up occasionally. Unfortunately, though, the movie is very much entirely reliant on VFX, so the whole thing ends up being very hard to get into.

5

‘The Thing’ (2011)

Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.

A prequel to legendary horror filmmaker John Carpenter‘s 1982 masterpiece of the same title (itself a remake of 1951’s sci-fi horror The Thing from Another World), 2011’s The Thing is by far the worst version of this story. In it, a team of researchers discovers an alien spacecraft at an Antarctica research site, whose frozen occupant suddenly wakes up and begins to take them out one by one.

While John Carpenter’s version is one of the best movie remakes of all time, van Heijningen’s film is a pale imitation (it’s essentially an uninspired nearly beat-for-beat remake of Carpenter’s picture on top of being a prequel). It’s not irredeemable by any means, but its by-the-numbers approach and lack of scariness make it pointless as a horror flick. Worst of all, its special effects look awful, making the human-eating alien more laughable than it is horrifying. Seeing as Carpenter’s version has some of the most stunning practical effects ever seen in the genre, this modern rendition’s visual ugliness stings even more.

4

‘Cats’ (2019)

Directed by Tom Hooper

Overall, 2019 was arguably the best year of the 2010s for cinema; however, it also happened to see the release of what might be the decade’s worst film: Tom Hooper‘s Cats, based on the popular Broadway musical of the same title. It’s about a tribe of cats called the Jellicles, who decide every year which one of them will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new Jellicle life.

Despite the star-studded cast and the aid of having source material that had already proved to be successful, Hooper somehow dropped the ball in all sorts of catastrophic ways. One of those ways was in the visual department, which is likely to have any viewer, no matter their age, having nightmares for weeks on end after watching the film. From off-putting cats to cockroaches straight out of a surrealistic horror movie, Cats doesn’t quite deliver in any field—certainly not in its CGI.

3

‘The Flash’ (2023)

Directed by Andy Muschietti

One of the most recent cases of a super-hyped movie that didn’t deliver, horror filmmaker Andy Muschietti‘s The Flash is one of the DCEU’s biggest and most tragic failures. It’s a loose adaptation of the iconic Flashpoint storyline, following the titular hero as he uses his super speed to change the past in order to save his family. However, his decision creates a world without superheroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future.

It’s a solid enough premise on paper, but Muschietti fails to execute it in a way that’s at all consistent or compelling. The movie certainly has a lot to offer to DC fans, but its notoriously bad CGI should be enough to impress anyone with any kind of point of comparison. From horrible (and arguably unethical) deepfakes to allow for unauthorized cameos by Nicolas Cage and the late Christopher Reeve, to battle scenes that look about as convincing as The Mummy Returns‘ Scorpion King scene (despite that film being over twenty years older), The Flash‘s VFX truly are a trainwreck that must be seen to be believed.

2

The ‘Sharknado’ Franchise

Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante

Notorious among modern so-bad-they-re-good movies, Anthony C. Ferrante’s six low-budget disaster B-movies known as the Sharknado series need no introduction. They are literally nothing more than what their title indicates: Romps about nature’s deadliest killers ruling sea, land, and air and people struggling to survive in the cities they terrorize.

The first Sharknado was a shocking success, getting five sequels and even a surprising video game adaptation. There’s no doubt about it: These are some of the dumbest films ever made, but considering that their only intention is to parody disaster films and entertain cult cinema audiences, they do their job more than well enough. Still, that doesn’t detract from the fact that their CGI is unconvincing at best and horrid at worst, resulting in some of the funniest scenes that sci-fi horror has ever seen.

1

‘Birdemic: Shock and Terror’ (2010)

Directed by James Nguyen

When it comes to so-bad-they’re-good movies, it rarely gets worse than Birdemic: Shock and Terror, which some might call the single worst film of the 2010s. Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock‘s legendary The Birds, it’s about a horde of mutated birds descending upon a quiet Californian town. With the death toll rising, two citizens must find a way to fight back.

With an impressive rating of 1.7 out of 10 on IMDb, Birdemic is one of the platform’s lowest-rated movies, and for good reason. There’s really nothing about it that works, but its CGI is particularly awful. It’s unconvincing to the point of being undeniably hysterical, but also ugly enough to have an unsettling feel to it. Credit where it’s due: Birdemic is (even if unintentionally) an awful lot of fun, but it’s CGI is probably the worst that cinema has ever seen.

NEXT:The Worst Movies That Aren’t Even Fun to Watch, Ranked