10 Recent Movies That Grossly Overestimated What Their CGI Could Do

8. The First Purge

Though it certainly wouldn't be reasonable to expect the $13 million The First Purge to boast the cutting-edge visual effects of a $200 million tentpole, it's nevertheless utterly shocking how terrible the thriller prequel's use of green-screen actually is.

In the first few minutes of the movie, we're introduced to one of the Purge's architects, Dr. May Updale (Marisa Tomei), who is supposed to be standing outside while speaking to a news reporter.

Except, it's hilariously obvious to anyone with a functioning pair of eyeballs that she's standing in front of a green screen. There are so many telltale giveaways: the lightning of the actors doesn't match the background, and there's even an ugly digital blur around the actors apparent enough it'd probably make some YouTubers broadcasting out of their bedrooms cringe.

Clearly this was an attempt to keep the movie's budget down, because why drag an A-list actress out to an actual location when you can just dump her in front of a green screen and figure it out later?

Comically, Tomei's character is later written out of the movie, but again in the quest to keep the budget tight, a stand-in is blatantly used, with Updale's face obscured as she makes her inauspicious exit.

Given that these movies routinely crack about $120 million worldwide, the aggressive penny-pinching here is just baffling.