News Of The World Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

2. The Frequently Poor CGI

Westerns traditionally don't feature an abundance of splashy CGI effects, and while that's also true here, the film's occasional VFX elements are unfortunately routinely unconvincing.

News of the World's modest-ish budget of $38 million ensures it was never going to deliver miraculous CGI, but Greengrass was evidently a little optimistic with what he hoped would pass muster with audiences.

The most infamous VFX gaffe takes place during the film's centerpiece shootout, where Kidd and Johanna kick a large boulder off the mountaintop at their enemies below.

The digital boulder is an embarrassingly shoddy creation for a production of this caliber, while CGI is also dubiously employed to create large herds of cattle and also a ridiculous-looking dust storm.

Granted many of these scenes simply wouldn't be achievable safely or logistically without visual effects, but clearly the money wasn't there to bring the ideas persuasively to life artificially either.