10 Worst CGI Moments From 2022 Movies
2. Young Sylvester Stallone - Samaritan
The Sylvester Stallone-starring superhero film Samaritan came and went in a blip this past summer, and sadly the moment audiences are likely to remember most is a fleeting burst of truly ghastly "de-aging" CGI.
In the film's climax, we're shown a brief flashback to aged superhero Joe's (Sylvester Stallone) younger days, complete with a VFX-assisted effort to make Sly look decades younger.
Except, despite allegedly having a $100 million budget - a figure that's honestly hard to believe - the fidelity of young Stallone is embarrassingly rough, suggesting that the production lacked either the funds, time, or both to get it done properly.
As a still frame it could look worse, but as a moving image throughout the mercifully brief scene, it's really quite hideous and wouldn't look amiss in a film released well over a decade ago.
While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has perhaps made audiences take the magic of digital de-aging for granted, Samaritan is an offputting reminder of just how much work and money goes into it.
Though unlike The Adam Project's botched Catherine Keener job, at least in this case the mess is only on screen for about 30 seconds.