Brendan Fraser defends The Rock’s ‘janky’ CGI in The Mummy Returns

There are some films which are, um, questionable when it comes to the animation involved.

Avengers: Infinity War’s floating head and Sonic The Hedgehog might initially spring to mind when you recall dodgy computer-generated imagery (CGI) jobs.

And now Brendan Fraser has defended The Rock’s ‘janky’ CGI in The Mummy Returns.

While recalling his career in film and TV, where he rose to fame for his role as adventurer Rick O'Connell, Fraser looked back on his time on the Mummy quadrilogy, which is made up of four movies; The Mummy (1999), The Mummy Returns (2001), The Scorpion King (2002) and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008).

Universal Pictures

The shocking CGI moment (or maybe not - it was only 2001, after all) saw Dwayne Johnson’s character being morphed into a larger-than-life scorpion, but what ensued turned out more like a bad cut scene from a video game. Like, a really low-budget one.

But instead, Fraser believed that the moment adds a little something special to the movie.

He said in a recent interview with GQ: “Some of the charms of it now is… it could get remastered I guess, but it wouldn’t be as fun if you didn’t see this janky video game character of Dwayne.

“It’s somehow just perfect how it works,” Fraser said.

ScreenProd / Photononstop / Alamy Stock Photo

But despite Fraser loving the ‘charm’ of the imperfect moment, the actor revealed that both The Rock and the video team were pretty embarrassed about what was shown on-screen at the movie’s premiere.

He recalled: “I never met Dwayne until after the premiere because he was a piece of tape on a stick that we referred to.

“Of course, they put him in CGI later. I know, I know. Be kind! The guys who did the CGI of the Scorpion King, [I saw them] at the premiere and they were like, ‘Hey, how are you? We did the Scorpion King CGI. Yeah, we needed a little more time. It was very last minute.’”

Bless them.

Elsewhere, Fraser has revealed he has no plans to attend the Golden Globes next year even if he's nominated.

The 53-year-old actor is experiencing a career renaissance due to his critically acclaimed role in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale.

With the Golden Globes fast approaching, Fraser has shared his reasons behind skipping the ceremony for which he is predicted to be nominated.

Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity

Gabriella Ferlita

Gabriella Ferlita is a full-time journalist at LADbible Group, writing on lifestyle, communities and news across Tyla, LADbible and UNILAD. When she's not writing, she's fussing over her five-year-old Toyger cat, Clarence.

@Gabriellaf_17