20 Recent CGI Movie Moments You Can't Unsee

8. CGI Fireworks - F1

F1 Javier Bardem
Apple TV+

F1 is a technically astonishing racing movie delivered with expert skill by Top Gun: Maverick filmmaker Joseph Kosinski, so it's actually pretty hilarious that the worst visual effect in the entire film is a relatively trivial one in the grand scheme of things.

Right at the end of the movie when Sonny (Brad Pitt) wins the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the celebration is accompanied by an elaborate fireworks display in the distance, adding some welcome pomp to the triumphant scene - at least in theory.

And yet, the fireworks are so strangely fake-looking - the lighting doesn't match the foreground and the exact same firework patterns are repeated a little too often, making it look like a cheap After Effects plug-in instead of the finessed work of a $300 million blockbuster.

Considering the state-of-the-art VFX used throughout the film otherwise to accentuate its white-knuckle racing sequences, it's wild that the most distractingly bad CGI is of something as simple as fireworks.

 
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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.