10 Incredible CGI Scenes You Won't Believe Aren't Real

A Beautiful Mind

As advanced as digital imagery in movies has become over the last 10 years, film buffs generally like to think that they're one step ahead of the curve, and readily able to spot even the most superbly-realised visual effect. After all, when dealing with elements like fire and water, and the physics of human beings, computer simulations still struggle to live up to reality, and so can (normally) be easily told apart. However, these 10 movies boast startling visual effects that, for the most part, you wouldn't even think to look for. It is often said that the best effects are the ones that you don't notice, and going by these subtly-employed ones, that just might be right. Here are 10 incredible CGI scenes you won't believe are real...

10. Spartan Abs - 300

While it's widely known - not to mention clear as day - that Zack Snyder's epic action film is almost completely CGI except for the human element, it seems that even that isn't as real as we thought, because the Spartan soldiers themselves have had a little airbrushing in order for them to seem all the more buff and capable of holding off a million Persians. While we're assured that the men portraying the 300 all worked extremely hard to achieve their chiseled physiques, apparently it wasn't enough for Snyder, because he ended up just painting over their abs anyway in post-production. Though the results are impressively seamless, it does beg the question - why make the actors bother working out in the first place? As long as they have an acceptable muscle tone and don't have flab jiggling around, why put them through a rigorous regime only to correct it with a copy and paste?
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Contributor

Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.