10 Recent Movies That Grossly Overestimated What Their CGI Could Do

9. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One is a mostly well-assembled addition to the Star Wars franchise with exciting set-pieces bolstered by terrific visual effects. Legendary VFX house Industrial Light and Magic fatally over-reached, however, when they ventured into creating digital likenesses of actors both young and dead.

Firstly, Peter Cushing's iconic villain Grand Moff Tarkin is resurrected by wrapping a CGI model around a stand-in actor's body, the result of which is distractingly obvious. Though most of Tarkin's scenes are shot in low-light conditions in an attempt to mask the seams, director Gareth Edwards' foolish preference for close-ups makes the conceit almost immediately unravel.

And then there's the movie's final shot: the glimpse of a younger Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) receiving the Death Star's plans. Though it's a mercifully brief moment, the tight, brightly-lit close-up makes the CGI's flaws woefully apparent: the uncanny appearance of the eyes and mouth in particular make this look like a soulless Leia puppet rather than the real deal.

Considering the leaps the Marvel Cinematic Universe has made in recent years with digital de-aging tech, it's pretty surprising they didn't just bring Carrie Fisher in for the scene, rather than paste her younger face over a stand-in actress.

Either way, these digital recreations were among the more divisive aspects of Rogue One, constantly pulling fans out of an otherwise entertaining prequel.