9 Almost-Great Movie Moments Ruined By Shoddy CGI

1. Flying To Erebor - The Hobbit

That Peter Jackson is the only director to appear on this twice says a lot about the imperfections of his seemingly masterful Weta Digital. I could have also thrown King Kong into the mix, but by the time the CGI got bad in that film the audience had already lost interest.

Not only was The Hobbit one of the most money grabbing films of the past few years, but it also had some of the most disappointing effects. The original Lord Of The Rings trilogy, some blemishes aside, was visually spectacular, blending scale models, live-action and computer imagery to create Middle Earth. On the prequel, the models were out and CG was much more dominant.

Worst of all was the film's ending. The lengthy shot of a thrush flying towards the Lonely Mountain, covering the Desolation of Smaug before arriving at Erebor and hitting a snail shell against a wall should have been the big sell for the next instalment. Unfortunately it showed a level animation so poor it wouldn't feature in a Pixar knock-off. All the animals in the film (think those cartoon hedgehogs) looked fake, but it was most noticeable in this scene; I've never seen a bird look or move like that before.

Do you still enjoy any of these scenes despite their imperfections? Are there any more borderline brilliant scenes ruined by bad CGI? Have your say in the comments below.