Really ugly films that are just horrible to watch

[Sebastian Cobb]

There's a scene showing a submarine's underwater journey that looks like it was made on a Mega CD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3aD9zpME3I

On Escape From NY, where there's a wireframe rendering of New York it didn't use computers at all, they were just models with flourescent edges painted on them.

[greenman]

You've nailed my feelings about it there. It's the earnesty of it that makes it so strange for me to watch and a cut above the usual Sci fi Hollywood film while still not being terribly good, it's got something about it which creates just enough doubt in my mind to not make me find it just bad.

Spielberg attempting artier sci fi here and in Minority Report always tended up feeling rather more like Jeunet than Kubrick for me but as you say in both cases theres really a lack of humour which I would say generally tended to limit of the overt nastiness in the latters work.

[Clownbaby]

Avatar's a piece of shit, and he's spent what a decade making 3 more? He could have spent that time having some fun.

All that work and it looks naff as shit. Everyone going on about how revolutionary and thrilling it was

[St_Eddie]

All that work and it looks naff as shit. Everyone going on about how revolutionary and thrilling it was

Thank you!  I've been saying that it looks horribly fake ever since it first came out.  Proper gets on my tits, the way that people say "yeah, the story wasn't all that but it does look amazing".  No.  No, it doesn't and in another decade or so, you'll agree with me.  It's a technical achievement but it looks about as realistic as a high-end videogame cutscene.  There's nothing tangible about the CG effects.  You can practically see the ones and zeros, whirring away beneath the digital surface of the blue people's skin.

[Clownbaby]

Thank you!  I've been saying that it looks horribly fake ever since it first came out.  Proper gets on my tits, the way that people say "yeah, the story wasn't all that but it does look amazing".  No.  No, it doesn't and in another decade or so, you'll agree with me.  It's a technical achievement but it looks about as realistic as a high-end videogame cutscene.

I thought it looked dated already the moment it came out. And yeah it's one of those films where if you mention it being shit someone will always make a case about the visuals as if they're good, which they aren't. Same as if I ever express a lack of interest in Marvel films someone will always rattle off a list of ones I might like.

[Replies From View]

I stuggled with Jurassic World. The dinosaurs were blueish grey, as was everything. It really jarred with the vibrancy of Jurassic Park where the dinos looked like living beings not just cgi derps.

Same here.  I've long had to accept that most other people perceive a lot more grandeur in murky grey and brown CGI than I can.  It's not quite the same as the fad for filming action scenes from about an inch away from the subject, but it's a similar degree of alienation where I have to just appreciate these movies aren't being made for me.

[St_Eddie]

Same here.  I've long had to accept that most other people perceive a lot more grandeur in murky grey and brown CGI than I can...

I really don't think that this is the case.  I think that most people are just clueless when it comes to cinematography and don't give any consideration to the look of a movie.  Most people just want to munch their popcorn, see a recognisable actor or two running away from a huge explosion, with dinosaurs all over the place.  They couldn't give a fig as to what the cinematography looks like.  Heck, half of them probably don't even know what the word means.  You've got to remember that for most people, movies are disposable entertainment; something to while away the time and quickly be forgotten about.

[greenman]

Avatar really though was more an animated film than anything so I'm not sure that looking "unreal" was the main issue with it visually, moreso that the designs themselves seemed to have come from the doodling of a 12 year old girl. Really the main thing it got by on I'd say was that Cameron could still direct action scenes very well.

[St_Eddie]

Avatar really though was more an animated film than anything so I'm not sure that looking "unreal" was the main issue with it visually...

Um, not really.  The interaction between live action actors and the computer generated elements was supposed to be seamless.  It's not a Pixar movie.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Avatar may as well have been a technical demo for the potential of modern stereoscopic cinema (when directed in stereo, rather than filmed in 2d and ran through a 3daliser). I can barely remember the story, it must've seemed really pointless if you watched it in 2d at home.

I say that as someone who doesn't even really care for 3d as well.

[manticore]

The ugliest and most horrible to watch film I've seen was Alfred Hitchcock's 'Frenzy' which is repulsive on every level. It looks and sounds cheap and tacky and sleazy, it relishes the rape and murder of women and radiates coldness.

Wikipedia tells me the critics thought it was great and most of the people on imdb think it's quite dandy too.

[greenman]

Um, not really.  The interaction between live action actors and the computer generated elements was supposed to be seamless.  It's not a Pixar movie.

Not really that much of this in the film though was there? it was mostly shifting between humans on sets and totally CGI Navi scenes.

[St_Eddie]

Not really that much of this in the film though was there? it was mostly shifting between humans on sets and totally CGI Navi scenes.

That's beside the point.  The Navi scenes are supposed to be taking place in the same reality as the human scenes and not in some kind of virtual reality.  Therefore, it's a failing of the movie that the Navi scenes look like a videogame.  That's not an issue for some people but I certainly wasn't alone at finding it terribly distracting (and just plain annoying, considering how people wouldn't shut up about how "visually stunning and lifelike" it supposedly looked).  Something like Ready Player One can get away with fake looking CGI due to the context of the story but Avatar has no such narrative premise to fall back on.

[mothman]

Sam Worthington didn't look real in that movie even when he was a human.

[St_Eddie]

Sam Worthington didn't look real in that movie even when he was a human.

Haha.  That's actually true.  I thought it was especially true of Stephen Lang's character.  I suspect that it was something to do with either a filter being applied to the live action footage in post-production or because James Cameron shot the movie on digital.  Possibly a combination of both.

[mothman]

I guess the film looked pretty, but it felt all very soulless, and I really just kept thinking, "I'm basically watching a cartoon here, with a few (allegedly) live action elements. It's a noughties Cool World."

[Clownbaby]

There's an animated film I picked up from Poundland years ago called Turkel In Trouble that has shit animation and it's dubbed over in English with the voices of Adrian Edmondson,  Johnny Vegas and a few others I can't remember and it's actually strangely good. I think it deserves being reainmated. Wasn't total aids like it looked like it would be.

[Steve Lampkins]

A few years back, someone got my son a really early CGI kid's film. 2001 CGI was... not ready for the big time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Mw2wWJvMk

(Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - the Island of Misfit Toys)

[MjjW]

I had to watch Chicken Little recently. Couldn't believe it was a proper Disney film. Awful. Spawned this montrosity. Plus it had fucking Zach Braff in it.

[New Jack]

The thing about complaining about cgi is we only notice it when it's bad these days and it's used flawlessly much more than we think.

https://youtu.be/bL6hp8BKB24

True. Think its still good when subtle, but I look up effects reels sometimes. Like the Deadpool extras, showed the CGI, and people complained about obvious things but had no inkling all the buildings in the background (at the end I think) were CGI, which no fucker moaned about.

[SavageHedgehog]

A few years back, someone got my son a really early CGI kid's film. 2001 CGI was... not ready for the big time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Mw2wWJvMk

(Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - the Island of Misfit Toys)

What might have added to that is that it looks like it's a sequel to the classic (though fairly obscure over here) stop-motion animated special by Rankin-Bass, so it's primitive low budget CGI trying to emulate iconic claymation.

Still, I'm starting to have a soft-spot for that sort of thing, as it reminds me of a time when CGI animation seemed exciting and full of potential. That lasted for me probably up until about 2006 when we CGI animated films went into overdrive. Now we get a new animated film technically light years ahead of probably even Toy Story every other week, and most of the time I could scarcely care. It would be a more exciting world if every new development in the arts mysteriously disappeared just as it appears to be on the cusp of coming to fruition. Like Virtual Reality always does.

[greenman]

That's beside the point.  The Navi scenes are supposed to be taking place in the same reality as the human scenes and not in some kind of virtual reality.  Therefore, it's a failing of the movie that the Navi scenes look like a videogame.  That's not an issue for some people but I certainly wasn't alone at finding it terribly distracting (and just plain annoying, considering how people wouldn't shut up about how "visually stunning and lifelike" it supposedly looked).  Something like Ready Player One can get away with fake looking CGI due to the context of the story but Avatar has no such narrative premise to fall back on.

If the same thing had say been done 30 years before but the Navi sections were cell animated I think people would accept it as a contrivance. Again for me there are many other reasons to dislike the film beyond that such as the unoriginal twee designs and boneheaded politics.

[Sebastian Cobb]

True. Think its still good when subtle, but I look up effects reels sometimes. Like the Deadpool extras, showed the CGI, and people complained about obvious things but had no inkling all the buildings in the background (at the end I think) were CGI, which no fucker moaned about.

I read something a while back about how they use videogame engines to do battle scenes these days and in LOTR or something they were trying to do this big battle but one side kept getting overpowered and legging it.

[jobotic]

A few years back, someone got my son a really early CGI kid's film. 2001 CGI was... not ready for the big time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Mw2wWJvMk

(Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - the Island of Misfit Toys)

When we got Netflix a couple of years ago my son chose a film called Leo the Lion to watch. It was painful to watch. Literally, my eyes hurt from trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. My poor boy.

[Ornlu]

The Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa, which despite featuring the voices of Mark Hamill and Nancy Cartwright, was so visually godawful that it was buried for the best part of a decade and a half, and until recently thought to be a lost film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e-wuyjgDPQ

[Chriddof]

When we got Netflix a couple of years ago my son chose a film called Leo the Lion to watch. It was painful to watch. Literally, my eyes hurt from trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. My poor boy.

Extensive review of Leo The Lion on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fmxmvFLPAE

Ornlu - Good call on that Rapsittie Street Kids shit. I've never seen more than the opening few minutes of it. I've not even been able to watch all the many Nostalgia-Critic-esque Youtube videos on it in full, just on account of how the visuals resemble and feel like really bad car-sickness. Not joking there, it genuinely makes me feel weird and ill on how chaotically horrible it looks.

[purlieu]

Holy shit. I'm a couple of minutes into that and already feeling extremely unwell. It really feels like someone's sat down and intentionally made every aspect of it horrible intentionally, just to make the most horribly unwatchable programme ever.

[non capisco]

The Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa, which despite featuring the voices of Mark Hamill and Nancy Cartwright, was so visually godawful that it was buried for the best part of a decade and a half, and until recently thought to be a lost film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e-wuyjgDPQ

The video for Dire Straits' 'Money For Nothing' has let itself go.

[Sebastian Cobb]

lol exactly what I thought of.

[St_Eddie]

Bloke at the back reminds me of the bullies from Parappa the Rapper.