10 Most Embarrassing CGI Moments In Recent Movies
6. De-Aged Tom Hanks & Robin Wright - Here
Robert Zemeckis' new film Here was nothing if not an ambitious concept, with the entire movie taking place on a single patch of land across literally millions of years. The primary focus, however, is on the lives of a couple, Richard (Tom Hanks) and Margaret (Robin Wright), from meeting as teenagers all the way through to their twilight years.
To achieve this, Zemeckis employed AI-powered de-aging technology to have the actors physically resemble their younger selves, working from reference material in their earlier films. And though the effect isn't too bad in a freeze-frame, it becomes decidedly more uncanny in motion, because even advanced AI struggles to perfectly replicate the subtle musculatures of the human face across decades.
Translating Hanks and Wright's mouth, eye, and brow movements onto AI mock-ups of their younger selves has a distracting and at times downright offputting effect, where it's painfully clear we're looking at something artificial and unreal.
It all feels a bit "Snapchat filter" at the end of the day, which is the last thing anyone wants from a filmmaker as acclaimed as Zemeckis, especially when working with actors as talented as Hanks and Wright.