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Terminator 3
The CGI Moment: The Terminatrix inflates her boobs to Victoria's Secret proportions to get out of a parking ticket.
Why It’s So Strange: We'll sidestep the sexism debate in favour of simply pointing out that it unrealistic that the T-X would pull over in the first place... and she ends up killing the cop anyway. Why go to all that titillating effort, eh?
Hollow Man
The CGI Moment: Moments, actually. At several points Paul Verhoeven treats us to an eyeful of Kevin Bacon's manhood. An entire CG Kevin Bacon was built for shots in which he's underwater, or, uh, swinging through smoke.
Why It’s So Strange: Aside from the fact we see it via heat vision and when he's sans skin (ick), Verhoeven's seeming obsession with it is baffling.
Ghost Rider
The CGI Moment: Concerned about the whole flaming demon issue, a ridiculously ripped Johnny Blaze scrutinises himself in the mirror.
Why It’s So Strange: The issue could have been fixed without the need for CGI - with a T-shirt for example, or, you know, simply not casting Cage in the first place.
Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi
The CGI Moment: Anakin Skywalker’s ghostly form appears alongside Obi-Wan and Yoda at the end of the film. In the original, Sebastian Shaw stood, looking regal and paternal. But Lucas tinkered, replacing Shaw's head with Hayden Christensen's mug.
Why It's So Strange: Firstly, we see the others as they were in death, rather than young and pretty and whole.
Star Wars Episode III: A New Hope
The CGI Moment: In a scene removed from the original cut, Han meets Jabba the Hutt, has the same conversation he does in the cantina with Greedo and then 'hilariously' treads on his tail.
Why It's So Strange: It just doesn't make sense. It's an entirely unnecessary piece of exposition and a waste of screen time. And CGI Jabba looks awful to boot.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The CGI Moment: The music swells, the Paramount logo fades and we see a CGI gopher pop his little CGI head out of a CGI gopher hill.
Why It's So Strange: The gopher doesn't do anything. It doesn't talk or breathe fire or perform amazing acrobatic feats. It just does... gophery things. Why not use a real gopher?
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The CGI Moment: Tobey Maguire's hair isn't Tobey Maguire's hair. His luscious locks have been painstakingly computer generated.
Why It's So Strange: It would've only cost director Terry Gillam an extra $15,000 to get Mr Maguire to shave his head - a cheaper and far easier solution, one would assume.
Your Highness
The CGI Moment: Natalie Portman was given a pair of digital pants in a trailer for Your Highness after a scene in which she bares her backside in a tiny thong was deemed too risqué for appropriate audiences.
Why It's So Strange: The original, bare-bottomed shot was used in the movie, so why not just re-cut the trailer rather than going to the expense of covering up Portman's posterior digitally?
Blood Diamond
The CGI Moment: During an emotional telephone call scene, director Edward Zwick decided to enhance Jennifer Connelly's performance with a a single, CGI tear rolling down her cheek.
Why It's So Strange: Other than the fact it's unnecessary? How about simply asking accomplished actress Ms Connelly to blub a bit during the take?
Superman Returns
The CGI Moment: Rumour has it that due to Brandon Routh being well blessed in the trouser area his, erm, 'package' was digitally reduced in post-production. After all, it's a family film.
Why It's So Strange: It's not strange at all really, but it is pretty funny. Childish? Us? Never.
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
The CGI Moment: In a film full of CGI, the final battle between the autobots and The Fallen's crew sticks out the most.
Why It's So Strange: It's clearly not finished - the visual effects are incomplete, meaning that at times it's impossible to discern what's going on.
The Polar Express
The CGI Moment: Robert Zemeckis' 2004 motion capture movie features loads of different digital versions of Tom Hanks. It's like he's taking over the digital world. But his face looks a bit freaky.
Why It's So Strange: We never thought we'd have nightmares about Tom Hanks. We were wrong.
And while we're on the subject...
I Am Legend
The CGI Moment: Ostensibly the last human on Earth, Will Smith's hero repeatedly battles the vampiric Darkseekers, whose faces don't seem to work properly. Their bodies don't either, for that matter.
Why It's So Strange: Francis Lawrence's decision not to use actors, albeit potentially digitally enhanced actors, is the strange thing here. In trying to make the monsters more frightening, they simply lose all realism, having entirely the opposite effect.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The CGI Moment: Shia LaBeouf's disappointing, pseudo-biker Indy-wannabe swings through the jungle on CGI vines surrounded by CGI monkeys.
Why It's So Strange: What we see during this amateurish, clumsy scene is the combined work and effort of two of cinema's greatest - Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. We guess they were having an off day.
Herbie: Fully Loaded
The CGI Moment: Worried about the impression Lindsay Lohan's chesticles might make on their young audience, rumour has it that Disney spent a lot of dollars having them digitally reduced.
Why It's So Strange: Presumably nobody in the costume department had heard of the minimiser bra.
The Social Network
The CGI Moment: Outside a party on a freezing cold Massechussets evening, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg comes up with the concept of Facebook, breathing some heavy steam while he's at it.
Why It's So Strange: It looks like they're smoking. David Fincher may as well have stuck a big, fat, Harvard-worthy spliff in Jesse Eisenberg's hand.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The CGI Moment: As the movie opens, a baby is born with Brad Pitt's old man face stuck on it. It then becomes a toddler with Brad Pitt's old man's face, until, at some point, real-life Brad Pitt actually appears on screen.
Why It's So Strange: It's a baby. With an old man's face. What could it possibly be other than weird?
Die Hard: With A Vengeance
The CGI Moment: The dastardly Simon Gruber forces invincible cop John McClane to wander around Harlem wearing a sandwich board which reads "I hate n*****s".
Why It's So Strange: You might think that this is a thing no sane person, much less a film crew, would ever do in real life. And you'd be right. In reality, Willis wore a blank board, with the offensive words being added later.
Meet Joe Black
The CGI Moment: Brad Pitt's titular character (though he's not named at this point in the movie), gets hit by a car and flies up into the air - rather too much like a ragdoll.
Why It's So Strange: Stuntmen have been pulling off feats like this for years. Why eschew their craft for an inferior result?
King Kong
The CGI Moment: Jack Black, Adrien Brody and Jamie Bell flee as a herd of dinosaurs stampede behind them.
Why It's So Strange: It would be terrifying, if it weren't so obvious the actors and dinos were in different worlds. What's weird about it, is this is a Weta movie. These are the people who did Lord of The Rings and Avatar .
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
The CGI Moment: Joe, Polly and Franky finally track down the mysterious Dr Totenkopf and have a chat with him by way of sketchy hologram.
Why It's So Strange: The mysterious Dr Totenkopf is played by Lord Laurence Olivier, who at the time of filming had been dead for roughly 15 years. Nuff said.
Watchmen
The CGI Moment: In a film full of CGI wizardry, the biggest (ahem) bone of contention has to be Billy Cruddup's Dr. Manhattan.
Why It's So Strange: Yes, the lighting's as impressive as the man's anatomy, but with all these feats of technical trickery, why-oh-why doesn't his mouth work properly? Perhaps Zack Snyder simply assumed nobody would be looking at it...
Machete
The CGI Moment: Jessica Alba's character Sartana does some stuff and then strips off to get in the shower. But Alba was actually covered up throughout the scene. Her underwear was removed in post-production.
Why It's So Strange: Whatever happened to body doubles? Surely it's a more simple, less expensive option?
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
The CGI Moment: In order to make the CGI Caesar look as realistic as possible, Weta hired a computer graphic hair expert, Eitan Grinspun to create individual strands of hair for the chimpanzee.
Why It's So Strange: It works! There's nowt so strange as really real looking fakery.
Looper
The CGI Moment: Joseph Gordon-Levitt magically morphs into a young version of Bruce Willis, looking eerily like his counterpart - with the help of some pretty good acting, of course.
Why It's So Strange: Partly because it works. But also partly because it's simply unnecessary. Two quality actors, 30 years apart - we would've bought it without the effects.
Enthiran
The CGI Moment: In this impressive big-budget Bollywood action movie, scientist Dr. Vaseekaran loses control of his Terminator-like android robot Chitti, which subsequently decides to bring about the end of the world, causing mayhem across Chennai.
Why It's So Strange: Strange? It's absolutely insane from beginning to end.
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone
The CGI Moment: Harry Potter plays Quidditch for the first time, which should be a proud moment for all Pottheads. Unfortunately we were all then forced to sit through a two minute animated intermission before the movie continued.
Why It's So Strange: Wait... what do you mean it was supposed to look like that?
