10 Terrible CGI Moments In Huge Comic Book Movies

Why costumes shouldn't be super green or animated.

By Mark Langshaw /

Superhero movies rely on computer-generated imagery to provide some of their more fantastical moments, from Spider-Man swinging across New York, to Superman soaring into space, but its appropriate use is a fine art.

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Botched CGI jobs have the potential to turn what should have been an epic spectacle into the butt of a thousand internet forum jokes, shatter the sense of immersion and make the film look dated before it has even arrived in cinemas.

When this technology is used appropriately, which often means sparingly or in conjunction with practical effects, it can be mind-blowing. Take a look at some of the Inception-esque imagery on show in Marvel's Doctor Strange for a solid example within the comic book genre, but most CG-heavy films don't turn out quite so well.

Over-reliance on this brand of tech wizardry usually blows up in the filmmaker's face like a botched Doctor Doom experiment, and this is something that happens all too often in the superhero space, to some of the biggest movies within it, no less.

Deadpool had a point when he insisted his costume definitely should not be animated...

10. Any Scene Featuring Hulk (Ang Lee's The Hulk)

'Don't make him CGI... Nobody will like him if he's CGI', is what Universal should have said to Ang Lee when he was shooting The Hulk during the early 2000s, when computer effects weren't quite what they are today.

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In fairness to the movie, it's attempts to create a digital Green Goliath were laudable enough back in the day, but they haven't aged well, since technology moved on leaps and bounds in the ensuring years (this was just 12 months on from the Scorpion King).

Watching The Hulk today, it's difficult to suspend your disbelief and convince yourself there's a tangible character smashing things up and tossing tanks around. It looks like Eric Bana's face has been copied and pasted onto a mass of green plastic.

It took Hollywood many years to conjure up a convincing CG Hulk, since the Edward Norton version which emerged five years later wasn't much of an improvement. At least the Avengers movies have since restored some of Bruce Banner's street cred.

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