Films using CGI to depict living creatures get away with more when it's a fantastical monster. However, recreating humans sets a high bar - audiences notice even the slightest fakeness. Real-world animals fall in between. We're less familiar with monkeys or bears than dogs, giving filmmakers some wiggle room. But when recreating common animals like dogs or cats, they have little room for error. The realism of CGI is crucial to a film's integrity, leaving many to wonder why CGI animals are used. Maybe it's cheaper, more humane, or necessary because the script calls for unnatural actions. Whatever the reason, filmmakers chose CGI, and now we judge the results. Vote up the completely digital animals.
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The Monkeys In 'Jumanji'MoviesThe adventure film Jumanji sees a board game turn into a wild jungle trip. Young Alan Parrish (Robin Williams) gets stuck in the game for 26 years. Siblings Judy (Kirsten Dunst) and Peter (Bradley Pierce) release him. They must finish the game to undo its chaos in their town. This story, full of dangerous beasts and tropical chaos, mixes courage, friendship, and redemption. Jumanji offers a family-friendly show, blending reality.
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Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), a sensitive, bullied 12-year-old in suburban Sweden, meets his new neighbor, the mysterious Eli (Lina Leandersson). They start as reserved but build a close friendship. Oskar and Eli soon see Eli is not just a regular girl. Eli then tells Oskar her dark, bloody secret: she is linked to a series of local murders.
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Filmmaker Terri Flores (Jennifer Lopez) travels deep in the Amazon looking for a lost tribe. Terri and her crew, including an anthropologist (Eric Stoltz) and a cameraman (Ice Cube), find Paul (Jon Voight) stranded on the river. Paul offers help finding the tribe, but his secrecy makes everyone uneasy. They realize too late: he uses them to find a valuable anaconda.
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Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) harvests brain tissue from DNA-altered sharks, seeking an Alzheimer's cure on an island facility. Executives send Samuel L. Jackson to check the experiments. A routine procedure fails, and a shark attacks the researchers. Sharks outnumber the humans, so McAlester and her team must stop them from escaping to the ocean and breeding.
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Spring break turns bloody when an underground tremor floods Lake Victoria with hundreds of prehistoric, carnivorous fish at a resort. Local cop Julie Forester (Elisabeth Shue) teams up with strange strangers. Though outnumbered, they must destroy the hungry creatures before everyone becomes food.
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Archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) gets pulled back into action in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The 1950s Cold War sees him fight Soviet agents led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett). They seek a mysterious artifact: a crystal skull from Peru, rumored to have great power. With his former lover Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and a greaser named Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), Indy journeys to find the skull's secrets. Steven Spielb directs the adventure.
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In 2055, greedy entrepreneur Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley) makes money with Time Safari Inc., letting millionaires travel to the prehistoric era to hunt dinosaurs. Strict rules stop changing the present. However, a hunter steps on a butterfly during a time-travel safari, causing a major time ripple. Researcher Dr. Travis Ryer (Edward Burns) must travel back to stop the disruption's source.
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The Serpent In 'Noah'MoviesGod decides mankind is too sinful and must be wiped from Earth. He chooses Noah (Russell Crowe), a pious man, for a huge job. Noah must build an ark big enough for his wife (Jennifer Connelly), adopted daughter (Emma Watson), sons (Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth, Leo McHugh Carroll), and their wives, plus breeding pairs of every animal. After the task, Noah and his family see God's anger as an apocalyptic flood.
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Buck, a big-hearted dog, has his happy home ruined. He moves suddenly from his California home to the wild Alaskan Yukon in the 1890s. As the newest rookie on a mail-delivery dog sled team, Buck faces a life adventure and finds his true place.
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A female journalist (Naomi Watts) must stop evil Samara from taking over her son's (David Dorfman) soul.
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The Fox In 'Antichrist'MoviesWhile a married couple (Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg) has sex, their infant son falls out a window and dies. She becomes upset and goes to the hospital, but her husband, a psychiatrist, tries to help. Deciding she needs to face her fears, he takes her to a cabin in the woods where she spent a summer with the boy. There, she becomes unstable and starts sexual violence against her husband and herself.
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In the Marvel movie Black Panther, T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) faces his new role as king of Wakanda, a high-tech, hidden African nation. His father's death forces him into this spot. T'Challa confronts political fighting and betrayal inside his kingdom. His foe, Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), offers an idea that attacks Wakanda's isolationist rules. The film features Lupita Nyong'o and Danai Gurira. It explores power, identity, and heritage. The film won three Oscars.
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The Cow In 'Twister'MoviesTwister puts viewers on a high-stakes, fast ride through storm chasing. Bill Harding (Bill Paxton), a meteorologist, partners with his estranged wife Jo (Helen Hunt), a passionate tornado researcher. They deploy their new weather research gear right into dangerous cyclones. Jan de Bont directed the movie, which shows science, nature's rage, and human toughness. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Alan Ruck join the cast in this action thriller.
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Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds a gruesome scene after a drug deal. He knows it's wrong, but the money makes him take it. A killer named Chigurh (Javier Bardem) picks up Moss's trail, turning the hunter into the hunted. Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), an old lawman, searches for and protects Moss while reflecting on a changing world and his own dark secret.
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Santosh and Gita Patel sell their India zoo and move to Canada. They board a freighter with their sons and some animals. A terrible storm sinks the ship. Pi, the Patels' teenage son, survives alone. A fierce Bengal tiger also boards the lifeboat. Pi and the tiger must build trust to survive as days turn into months.
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Newscaster Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) leaves Buffalo after winning a Congressional seat. He moves his wife (Lauren Graham) and family to northern Virginia, appearing successful. Then, God (Morgan Freeman) presents a biblical crisis: The Lord commands him to build an ark and line up all animals in pairs for a flood.
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Frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) suffers life-threatening injuries from a brutal bear attack while exploring uncharted wilderness in 1823. A hunting team member (Tom Hardy) kills his young son (Forrest Goodluck) and abandons him. Glass uses his survival skills to find civilization. Grief and revenge drive the legendary fur trapper across the snow to find the man who betrayed him.
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