10 Bad Movies That Wasted Great CGI

On paper, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within had a lot going for it. It was loosely based on one of the most popular video game series ever made. It boasted an impressive cast that included Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Donald Sutherland ,and James Woods. It was even co-directed the Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguhi.

The film was also incredibly ambitious. Not only was it the first photo-realistic computer animated film - taking a team at the now defunct Square Pictures four years to render almost 142,000 frames using motion capture - Spirits Within also wanted to turn the CGI character of Aki Ross (Mulan's Ming-Na Wen) into a CGI actor who'd appear in other films in different roles.

While the film was initially praised for its cutting-edge technology that still holds up relatively well today, everything else in this supposedly epic space adventure revolving around saving Earth from a race of soul-eating aliens fell flat. A bland and generic script, underwhelming performances, and a needlessly complicated plot saw Spirits Within bomb at the box office. Making a mere $85 million from an its $137 million price tag, this film is cited as the reason for Square Pictures' collapse.