Plenty ofmovieshave thrilling special effects that remind audiences of the power of CGI, particularly when it comes to entirely computer-generated characters. Ever since the dawn of the earliest CGI movies, the medium has opened up countless thrilling worlds for movie-going audiences, populating them with unbelievable CGI creatures. While CGI has a bad rap today thanks to overuse andpoorer-quality renders in superhero moviesbecoming more common, the best CGI characters make it easy to forget digital effects are being used at all.
While theearliest CGI charactershaven’t aged well,some surprisingly old productions from the late 2000s boast impressive models that have stood the test of time.The most convincing CGI characters not only look realistic, filled to the brim with intricate details, but also interact with the world around them in a convincing way, blending in with the motion capture and vocal performances of their actors. With these fundamentals in mind, the characters in question can look like anything, from humanoid beings to towering simian monsters.
10Davy Jones
The Pirates of The Caribbean Series
The first of thePirates of the Caribbeanfilmsis still unanimously agreed upon today as being one of the greatest action adventure movies ever made, butthe following two sequels from Gore Verbisnki deserve more credit than they get.A huge part of what makesPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s ChestandPirates of the Caribbean: At World’s Endwork so well is the presence of Davy Jones, the slimy, tentacled sailor cursed with eternal life. Jones' curse makes him take on aspects of sea life, including a crab-like peg leg and claw hand and an octopus-tentacle beard.
Beads of water cling to his slimy face, full of writhing tentacles that each seem to have a mind of their own.
What makes Davy Jones so impressive is they way he’s constantly soaked by the salty spray of the sea, reflecting his internment aboard theFlying Dutchman.Beads of water cling to his slimy face, full of writhing tentacles that each seem to have a mind of their own. Not only is his fantastical design somehow strikingly photorealistic, but it makes a brilliant canvas for Bill Nighy’s genius performance to paint itself on.
9The Na’vi
The Avatar series
Both the originalAvatarandAvatar: The Way of Waterhave been some of the most groundbreaking exercises in CGI worldbuilding ever, with a real-life phenomenon of post-movie depression hitting audiences around the time of the first film’s release after having to return to the real world from Pandora. Part of what makes the vibrant planet feel so lived-in is the stunningly realistic depiction of the native dominant form of life,the Na’vi. Blue catlike humanoids, the Na’vi may be quite extraordinary, but their portrayal in both films makes them seem almost real.
James Cameron utilized some ground-breaking technology in capturing the performances of Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, with every small detail of their performances shining through to the final product.The Na’vi are brilliantly integrated into the breathtaking world of Pandora, literally psychically linking to its flora and fauna, meaning they can’t feel any more a part of the film’s universe. InAvatar: The Way of Water,the aliens look even more stunningly real, swimming through a whole new underwater landscape.
8Caesar
The Planet of the Apes reboot series
Returning to the iconicPlanet of the Apesmovieswas no simple task, even for visionary director Matt Reeves. Luckily, with the help of prestige motion-capture artist Andy Serkis, Reeves was able to orchestrate a stunningly realistic simian cast for the first film in his trilogy,Rise of the Planet of the Apes.From there, the prequel franchise only became more and more realistic, with it’s knuckle-walking heroes conveying just as much emotion and drama as human characters.
Caesar in particular is an utter triumph of CGI, emoting wordlessly with his human-adjacent features.
When he finally does talk, it doesn’t distract from the realism of his model, with painstakingly-rendered fur that’s nearly indistinguishable from a real-life zoo. Even if he obviously isn’t a real chimpanzee,Caesar and his ape comrades don’t let audiences think twice about the fact that they’re rooting for another species of hominid.
7Rocket Raccoon
The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy
The Marvel Cinematic Universe may have already been filled with unbelievable comic book characters,but Rocket Raccoon was easily the series' biggest gamble on a CGI character.A talking bipedal raccoon, Rocket is the result of genetic tampering at the hands of the High Evolutionary, who he finally confronts inGuardians of the Galaxy 3.While a smack-talking Raccoon with an attitude problem and a love for firearms might seem like an impossibly silly character to sell audiences on, Rocket’s CGI model was somehow able to do just that.
It’s one thing for a simian character to be impressionable to human audiences, butthe MCU had their work cut out for them in getting a raccoon’s snout and black eyes to convincingly portray emotion. Somehow, they were able to pull it off, and Rocket’s model audaciously delivers Bradley Cooper’s excellent line reads without issue. Combined with his impressive fur, twitching nose, and whiskers that delicately dance in the lighting of a given scene, and Rocket Raccoon is easily one of the most impressive CGI characters in cinema, let alone the MCU specifically.
6King Kong
The Monsterverse
As great as Andy Serkis' Caesar is, it could be argued that, these days, King Kong is the superior simian leading man in a major motion picture franchise.Granted, in his Monsterverse debut inKong: Skull Island,the gargantuan great ape is more of a force of nature than a character, with the terrified human boots on the ground being the primary perspective of the film.
By the time ofGodzilla x Kong: The New Empire,Kong himself has assuredly become the protagonist, with silent chunks of the film dedicated to following his story.
Unlike Caesar,Kong doesn’t have the benefit of speech, meaning animators have to work even harder to ensure that his facial expressions are readable.Kong seems to be able to have entire silent conversations through his face alone, made all the more impressive that he looks more like an actual chimpanzee than Caesar does. Even if he is hundreds of feet tall, King Kong is easily one of the most believable and reactive CGI characters of the modern age of moviemaking.
5Detective Pikachu
Pokémon Detective Pikachu
Considering the track record most video game movies had leading up to the release ofDetective Pikachu,one could forgive Pokémon fans for being apprehensive about the appearance of a photorealistic CGI Pikachu. While a few of the other Pokémon look a little strange in the art style (Mr. Mime and his baby hairs come to mind), the titular electric-type sleuth himself passes with flying colors.There’s so much to appreciate about Detective Pikachu’s design in his titular movie.
The film balances a fine line between cartoonish and realistic for Pikachu’s model, leaving him expressive but still believable as a living, breathing animal. Decisions like making his red cheeks a simple coloration of his fur pattern or turning his black dots of eyes into dark brown reflective irises work phenomenally, and balance out the more unrealistic elements of his design, such as his thunderbolt-shaped tale.Sprinkle in Ryan Reynold’s delightful vocal performance, and Detective Pikachu is an adorable fuzzy creature that audiences wanted to reach through the screen and pet.
4Thanos
Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame
Rocket Raccoon is far from the only impressive CGI character among thefilms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.If he has one peer in the category, it’s easily the Mad Titan Thanos, the primary overarching villain of the franchise’s first three “Phases” culminating inAvengers: Endgame.While Thanos had a passable appearance in his cameos leading up toAvengers: Infinity War,it’s his redesign as the narrative anchor of the crossover film that left him so starkly real.
Thanos' face does mimic Josh Brolin’s the actor’s features shining through the motion capture technology, but he still feels like a unique being all his own.His skin has pores, tiny scars, and creases to reflect his old age, his expressions just as delicate as any human actor’s.Considering just how inherently silly-looking Thanos comic book design is, it’s a miracle the MCU was able to make him as compelling and realistic-looking as it did.
3Gollum
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
One of the most iconic CGI characters ever and the creature that put Andy Serkis' name on the map,Gollum still stands up as one of the most stunningly convincing uses of CGI on a fantasy being ever.Once a hobbit, the being known as Gollum became warped mentally and physically by the influence of the Ring, leading to his split personality and ghoulish appearance by the time of the firstLord of the Ringsfilm. With Serkis both portraying his voice and movements, Gollum quickly became well-known as one of the most lovingly rendered CGI characters ever.
The way Gollum’s face is able to effortlessly flit between his sunny and sour personalities is quite remarkable, with Serkis' performance making it easy to tell who is in charge at any given moment.The way he’s able to scamber around his environment and interact with the other humanoid characters makes him easy to forget as a CGI presence, contributing to the illusion of Gollum. A groundbreaking motion-capture performance that would go on to define decades of filmmaking, Gollum’s realsim can’t be understated.
2Optimus Prime
The Transformers Series
Though no end of criticism can be leveled atthe Micheal BayTransformersmovies,there’s no denying that they never slacked off in the special effects department. Putting their own unique spin on the classic designs of the Transformers, the live-action films brought the Cybertronians to the next level by vastly increasing the detail and number of moving parts in their designs. While this decision is often maligned for making the Transformers difficult to discern in combat, there’s no denying that the choice made the robotic beings far more realistic.
Since the Transformers' vehicle modes are real-life cars, planes, helicopters and more,Bay made the decision to integrate each element of their chosen forms into their humanoid robot mode.Optimus Prime is a particularly impressive example, with every minute detail of his semi-truck down to the last line of his grill finding a place in his robot form after the prerequisite number of whirrs and clicks. For all the faults of theTransformersmovies, seeing a Transformer take shape from one mode to the other is stunning enough to make them worth watching.
1The T. Rex
Jurassic Park
Peter Jackson’sThe Lord of the Ringsmay have perfected the art of integrating CGI into a motion capture performance, but it was undoubtedly Spielberg’sJurassic Parkthat proved the potential of CGI in the first place.Even decades after its premiere, the effects ofJurassic Parkstill hold up for the most part, especially when it comes to the Tryannosaurus Rex.Whether she was chasing down humans or dueling deadly Velociraptors, the T. Rex is still a consistently impressive effect.
Part of Spielberg’s genius with bringing the T. Rex to life is its combination of practical and computer-generated effects. When appropriate, some shots will switch to an animatronic model that makes the beast feel all the more real when it is stomping around in full CGI glory. Whether slick with wet raindrops, casted in shadow by the night, or chomping on tourists in broad daylight, the T. Rex is still one of the most shockingly convincing CGI characters inmovies.
