10 Worst Movie CGI Of 2021
2. Al-G Rhythm's Final Form - Space Jam: A New Legacy
If there was an award for Most CGI, then Space Jam: A New Legacy would probably take it home this year.
The thoroughly underwhelming sequel is a car crash of tones, aesthetics, and wildly inconsistent VFX, and never more so than during its climactic basketball game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad.
The movie's primary antagonist is malevolent A.I. Al-G Rhythm (Don Cheadle), and though this largely consists of Cheadle shooting his scenes as himself in front of a green screen, intensive CGI effects are deployed for his "final form."
As a last resort to defeat the Tunes, Al-G transforms into a gigantic, over-muscled version of Don Cheadle, seemingly realised completely through CGI.
Though we can presume Al-G's movements were performance-captured from a stand-in athlete and Cheadle presumably provided reference for his face, the overall effect is both creepy and unconvincing.
While you can charitably defend the poor VFX due to this portion of the movie being set inside the digital domain known as the Serververse, it's a pretty flimsy explanation, especially when all the other humans in the scene look absolutely photoreal.
Instead, Al-G's final form brings back bad memories of Dwayne Johnson's Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns, a film released 20 years ago.
As incredible as CGI recreations of humans have become these days, this really didn't hold up to any scrutiny at all.