10 CGI Fails That Totally Ruined Recent Movies

The long-delayed fantasy film The King's Daughter was finally released earlier this year after sitting on the shelf for the better part of eight years, during which time it decomposed in post-production limbo with its visual effects unfinished.

And going by the end result, little work was actually done to complete those effects to a reasonable standard, as the most pivotal VFX element around which the entire story revolves is an absolutely nightmarish abomination.

The plot focuses on King Louis XIV's (Pierce Brosnan) attempts to kidnap a mermaid and steal her life force in order to ensure his own immortality. The mermaid is played through performance capture by Fan Bingbing, who seems to be a bit unlucky where botched CGI is concerned.

The mermaid is, quite simply, horrific to look at - Bingbing's features are basically distorted beyond almost all recognition, at which point you have to wonder why the filmmakers bothered hiring her at all.

Despite the performance capture work, nothing about the mermaids feel rooted in a physical reality - it all looks painstakingly hand-animated by an overworked VFX artist, and feels unmistakable "off" in every single scene.

This is almost certainly the aspect of the movie's post-production which held up its release, yet it'd also shock nobody if this was the exact same state it was in eight years ago, as the CGI certainly doesn't look at all evolved beyond 2014 - or 2004, even.