20 Recent Movies That Made ONE Huge Mistake
2. The Terrifying CGI Baby - The Fantastic Four: First Steps
The Fantastic Four: First Steps wasn't a great movie by any means, but it was a decent enough introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's iteration of the cinematic quartet.
Yet it also proved the inescapable truth that even a $200 million movie can't give audiences a convincing CGI baby.
A major subplot in the movie involves Galactus (Ralph Ineson) wanting to take custody of Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) and Reed Richards' (Pedro Pascal) newborn son Franklin, and while many real babies were used on set, there were obviously limitations to how much they could participate.
And so for more complex interactions with Franklin, a digital double was used - a totally sensible decision for the sake of both safety and logistics.
The problem, however, is that Franklin looks... rough, to say the least, in many scenes.
The CGI double is unfortunately reminiscent of the uncanny valley "Renesmee" from the Twilight franchise, where Franklin is so obviously artificial that it becomes distracting at best, downright creepy at worst.
In a film that gets so many tricky CGI characters right - namely The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Galactus, and Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) - Fantastic Four makes it painfully clear that digital babies just aren't quite ready for prime time yet.