From the Kong thread: Now taking nominations for movies with the worst and best CGI....

Don't judge plot/story -- only the CGI.

Bad CGI:

The League of Extrodinary Gentlemen
Star Wars ep 1 - 3
Spiderman I, II
Daredevil


Good CGI:

Jurassic Park (the original)
Starship Troopers
Lost in Space
Underworld
Blade I, II, III
Terminator II


Could go either way:

The Aviator
The Matrix - Reloaded and Revolutions


Amazing CGI:

The Incredibles



Definitions:

Bad CGI is poorly executed, obvious and often gratuitous. Motions are unnatural/unbelievable.

Good CGI is seamless, hardly noticable if at all and carefully integrated with real world items (actors, props, models, animatronics, etc) leaving you wondering if it was really real or not.

I'ma moreon. What is CGI? I'm assuming it is computer-generated something.

I'ma moreon. What is CGI? I'm assuming it is computer-generated something....Imagery

Tanks. I agree, although Spiderman 1 &2 were still great flicks.....

I agree with your listing of the first three Star Wars episodes (1-3, that is) in the Bad CGI category. Honorable mention would have to go to the sequence in "Return of the Jedi", when Luke is fighting the Bantha; Lucas tried to clean up the animation, but the CGI is still glaringly obvious. Disappointing when you consider the virtually seamless work throughout the rest of Episodes 4-6.

I would add (with mad props) "City of Lost Children" to the list of Good CGI.

I think CGI is a curse, actually. It struck me a while ago that a big part of the reason that so much of Spielberg's recent work fails is that so much of his movies have been given over to the synthesized visuals and you can't really make a connection with the characters. His remake of "War of the Worlds" is a classic example--if the entire film were CGI, it would have been brilliant, but you put that digital stuff behind live action and Shazam! the fakery is blatantly obvious.

I agree with your listing of the first three Star Wars episodes (1-3, that is) in the Bad CGI category. Honorable mention would have to go to the sequence in "Return of the Jedi", when Luke is fighting the Bantha; Lucas tried to clean up the animation, but the CGI is still glaringly obvious. Disappointing when you consider the virtually seamless work throughout the rest of Episodes 4-6.

I would add (with mad props) "City of Lost Children" to the list of Good CGI.

I think CGI is a curse, actually. It struck me a while ago that a big part of the reason that so much of Spielberg's recent work fails is that so much of his movies have been given over to the synthesized visuals and you can't really make a connection with the characters. His remake of "War of the Worlds" is a classic example--if the entire film were CGI, it would have been brilliant, but you put that digital stuff behind live action and Shazam! the fakery is blatantly obvious.I didn't count Star Wars ep 6 for two reasons:

1) I didn't know that the original theatrical release used CGI. (did it?)
2) I haven't seen the newfangled, remastered versions of 4 - 6 yet.

Did the go that crazy in eps 4 -6? That would really suck.

In fairness, I think there are some aspects of the CGI in eps 1 - 3 that are good. No one would deny the pod race as pretty amazing.

Bad CGI:[/b]
The League of Extrodinary Gentlemen - Bad
Star Wars ep 1 - 3 - Good
Spiderman I, II - I was fair, II was good
Daredevil - Bad


Good CGI:
Jurassic Park (the original) - Good
Starship Troopers - Fair
Lost in Space - Good
Underworld - ?
Blade I, II, III - Fair at BEST
Terminator II - Good


Could go either way:
The Aviator - ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The Matrix - Reloaded and Revolutions - VERY good, you're high right now.


Amazing CGI:
The Incredibles - Good...not amazing. Still a cartoon


And BTW...scrap all of these and go see Wallace & Gromit.

And BTW...scrap all of these and go see Wallace & Gromit.You're judging just the CGI, not the plot/story, right?

I'm not buying Jurassic Park in the "Good CGI" category. I seem to remember rolling my eyes at that one as a stampede of dinosaurs thundered past, but the people stood there with no indication of the ground shaking at all.

For Amazing CGI - all of the LOTR trilogy. And the bonus features on how Weta Workshop did all of it are fascinating.

Troy in the best category. the greek squadre w/ ships covering the horizon is beautifull and well done.
those battles in alexander were amazing..
the bombing of london in nardja is fantastic.

You're judging just the CGI, not the plot/story, right?

Definitely...and I think there's minimal, if no, CGI in the Wallace & Gromit stories. I just thought that the FX and visuals are much more interesting...at least for my tastes. I love good FX but it's nice also to see a movie that doesn't have 50000 things bombarding your senses in every scene.

For Amazing CGI - all of the LOTR trilogy. And the bonus features on how Weta Workshop did all of it are fascinating.

Yes...the second one is particularly astounding!

Episodes 4-6 didn't use that much CGI; it was mostly for establishing shots, but there were a lot of inserts with various creatures and machinery (the sequence when Luke and Obi-Wan come into Mos Eiseley, or the Imperial storm troopers riding those animals when they're searching for the escape pod that R2-D2 and C3PO came down in, or the Bantha (at Jabba the Hut's lair) that I mentioned). Of course, not all the live-action stuff worked--the Ewoks were terrible, cheesy, Saturday morning kids' show awful.

I agree that the pod race was a good job, probably the high point of Episode 1.

I'm surprised no one mentioned "The Mummy." The first time I saw it, it freaked me out when those monsters ran along the walls. Very good and seamless CGI for 1999.

Episodes 4-6 didn't use that much CGI; it was mostly for establishing shots, but there were a lot of inserts with various creatures and machinery (the sequence when Luke and Obi-Wan come into Mos Eiseley, or the Imperial storm troopers riding those animals when they're searching for the escape pod that R2-D2 and C3PO came down in, or the Bantha (at Jabba the Hut's lair) that I mentioned). Of course, not all the live-action stuff worked--the Ewoks were terrible, cheesy, Saturday morning kids' show awful.

I agree that the pod race was a good job, probably the high point of Episode 1.

While visually stunning, the pod-race sequence was unneccesary (like Jar Jar Binks). If I were to re-edit that movie I'd cut out the whole first hour (I believe there was a edited version of "Phantom Menance" by a fan who cut out Jar Jar Binks and to everyones delite, the movie was much better for it).. Lucas is using CGI to shamlessly sell merchandise.

Good CGI:
All four of "Harry Potter"
Pirate of the Caribbean-skeletons walking under the ship. Very cool.

Bad CGI
The Incredible Hulk
Dare Devil
Polar Express-in fact the CGI, especially of the humans, looked a little off and creepy. It
has to do mainly with the animators not getting the eyeballs to look right. And along
the same line I'd have to put . . .

Spider Man. Even the cartoon (both old and new) had Spidey's eyes emoting concern,
fear, shock, dread, etc. while wearing the mask. With all the time and money Sam
Raimi used for CGI everything else he could at least use them on Spidey's eyes.

I'm surprised no one mentioned "The Mummy." The first time I saw it, it freaked me out when those monsters ran along the walls. Very good and seamless CGI for 1999.Agreed. I totally forgot that one. I'll also second the LOTR series as excellent CGI.

Bad:
The Incredible Hulk.
Alien 3-4.
Star Wars 1-6.
Good:
LOTR
Tron, hey, it's groundbreaking here.
Shrek
Anything Pixar has done I guess.

I'd also like to comment as to how much the Hulk sucked.
"The Hulk sucked."
-Thank you.

Not to everyone's delight--Jar Jar is a god, as far as I'm concerned....

Bad CGI
The Incredible Hulk
Dare Devil


Daredevil...bad CGI and Ben Affleck in the same movie. Daredevil was my favorite comic book as a kid, but what a miserable movie.

I thought Final Fantasy was good CGI.

Daredevil...bad CGI and Ben Affleck in the same movie. Daredevil was my favorite comic book as a kid, but what a miserable movie.

I bet when Frank Miller dies, he'll spin once in the grave for that piece of crap movie.

I bet when Frank Miller dies, he'll spin once in the grave for that piece of crap movie.

No doubt...but Frank was somewhere smiling for Batman Begins.

Daredevil...bad CGI and Ben Affleck in the same movie. Daredevil was my favorite comic book as a kid, but what a miserable movie.

I don't know which was worse tho...Affleck as DD or wutzherface as Elektra. :mad:

I thought Final Fantasy was good CGI.

That was pretty good. Probably as close as anyone has come to CGI people. I've heard Polar Express is pretty good but the real human overlays just looked creepy to me. And no one dies in it so what's the point. ;)

I thought Final Fantasy was good CGI.Supporting evidence.

The best CGI is to be found, often, in movies you didn't know had any.

The CGI in Gladiator is outstanding, mostly because you're rarely if ever conscious of it. It's mostly used to fill in architecture and enlarge crowds. Not whizz-bang stuff, but it adds to the film.

That said, I think Gollum is the pinnacle of CGI at the moment ('course I haven't seen the new King Kong yet).

New King Kong is amazing. Half the time, - when it is only Kong on Screen - I couldn't tell if Kong was a guy in a really good monkey suit or CGI. The visuals were fantastic.

The movie was good too, though a bit long. I know Peter Jackson said it was all necessary stuff, but I could have found at least 30 minutes worth of stuff to cut that would not have affected the flow of the movie at all.