The idea of digitally de-aging an actor is a relatively new one. It's only been in the last 10-15 years that filmmakers have felt confident using it as a tool to show characters back when they were much younger, and even then, it's not always entirely convincing. Some viewers may believe they're seeing younger versions of actors brought to life with the power of computer effects, while others might see through the cracks.

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With news that the upcoming Indiana Jones 5 will feature a digitally de-aged version of Harrison Ford, the subject of digital de-aging has again become a topical one. The movies below all used digital de-aging - some prominently, and some briefly - to varying degrees of success. They are ranked in order from best to less-than-stellar, showing the fine line between de-aging that viewers might be fooled by and de-aging that wasn't really believable to anyone who saw it.

10 'Blade Runner 2049' (2017)

Blade Runner 2049 - 2017

Few sequels had as many years between them and their preceding movie as Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049. Anyone who saw Blade Runner upon release and became an instant fan had to wait 35 years for a sequel to finally see the light of day, but thankfully, the wait was generally seen as worth it.

Harrison Ford's Deckard was brought back, but in a supporting role this time, instead of being the protagonist like he was in the first movie. Unlike in Indiana Jones 5, he wasn't the one de-aged here: it was the character of Rachael, Deckard's love interest from the first film, returning briefly as a clone. The effect works very well, thanks to being brief, shot in dim lighting, and being a digitally created replicant character, meaning any unnaturalness or uncanny effect is mitigated by the character herself not being a real person.

9 'Captain Marvel' (2019)

Samuel L. Jackson in Captain Marvel (2019) deaged
Image Via Disney

While Captain Marvel might not be the most acclaimed movie in the MCU, it does feature some of its best special effects. This is due to it being set in the 1990s, introducing the title character and having her come into contact with Nick Fury and Agent Coulson, who are both de-aged by about 25 years for their appearances.

This could have gone spectacularly wrong, especially because most viewers will be familiar with how Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) looked in the 1990s, and because Jackson himself turned 71 in 2019, and had to play someone in his 40s. The effects end up being remarkably well done, with very few points where they risk becoming unconvincing, with the de-aging here far stronger than any similar attempts in the MCU made before 2019.

8 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' (2008)

Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 2008

It would have been something of a disaster if the special effects in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button hadn't ended up working as needed. After all, this movie's story is about a man who ages backward, and as such needed to be able to have Brad Pitt convincingly play that man throughout multiple stages of his life.

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It was an ambitious undertaking to have one actor portray the title character, and not recast him based on what point of the story was being depicted, but the gamble largely paid off. The make-up tends to work a little better than the digital effects, meaning The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is (ironically) showing its age a little, but it still generally works well.

7 'Gemini Man' (2019)

Will Smith in Gemini Man - 2019
Image via Paramount Pictures

Ang Lee has made many great films in his career, winning two Best Director Oscars while a Best Picture Oscar continues to elude him, but few would count Gemini Man among his hits. Part of that might come down to the outlandish premise: it's a movie where Will Smith fights another, younger Will Smith, with the actor playing the main character and his younger clone.

Even if the film isn't a slam-dunk, the digital de-aging is overall pretty solid. Maybe some viewers will find it hard to look past the ridiculousness of it all, but those who can will likely be able to appreciate that the effects used to make the lead character's clone look younger than him (by de-aging Smith) are quite good.

6 'The Irishman' (2019)

Jesse Plemmons, Ray Romano, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino watching the TV in a store in The Irishman
Image Via Netflix

The Irishman is a sad and unapologetically bleak crime movie that unpacks the moral cost of being a hitman, and the regrets that come with growing old. It's notable for being about three and a half hours long, and for featuring ambitious digital de-aging effects that are mainly used on Robert De Niro's character, letting him play the film's main character over several decades.

The effects don't over-extend themselves, meaning De Niro never looks decades younger; he mostly pulls off playing someone who's 10-20 years younger than his actual age, but not so much for the scenes where he's probably supposed to be younger. That one of these scenes sees him delivering an unconvincing beatdown, and another sees him being called "kid" by Joe Pesci's character really doesn't help matters.

5 'Captain America: Civil War' (2016)

Robert Downey Jr De-aged in Captain America Civil War
Image via Marvel Studios

Admittedly, digital de-aging isn't a huge part of Captain America: Civil War. The movie's too busy being an Avengers movie in everything but name, centering on a conflict that splits the Avengers in two, with one faction siding with Tony Stark (Iron Man), and another splintering off to side with Steve Rogers (Captain America).

Still, there's a brief flashback early on where Stark relives a memory of his younger self interacting with his parents, and viewers momentarily see him a good 25-30 years younger than we're used to. The effects themselves are serviceable but certainly not great, with the scene's brevity meaning that at least the effects aren't too distracting.

4 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' (2013)

Legolas in Desolation of Smaug
Image via Warner Bros 

It wasn't exactly the best of ideas to turn one book (The Hobbit), into a trilogy, but that's what we ended up getting from 2012-2014. Given the relative brevity of the source material, there was a need for extra characters and subplots to be added to pad out films #2 and #3, and that might explain why Legolas entered the picture.

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He didn't appear in the book, but had a decent amount of screentime in the movies, getting wrapped up in a fairly lackluster love triangle on top of participating in numerous action scenes. Given Orlando Bloom had aged 10 years, elves aren't supposed to age, and The Hobbit was a prequel trilogy, digital de-aging was used, and while the effects aren't constantly awful, they do look a bit off.

3 'Terminator Genisys' (2015)

Terminator Genisys - 2015

The Terminator franchise has had a rough history, with two great movies being followed by a series of sequels that have had a far more mixed reception. Terminator Genisys featured the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger, with the hope that his inclusion would revitalize interest after 2009's very futuristic Terminator Salvation, but Genisys didn't end up being a winner.

It featured a Gemini Man-esque scene where present-day Schwarzenegger had a fight with a de-aged Schwarzenegger that was intended to look like he did back in the 1980s. The effect ended up being too uncanny to be cool, giving fans of the franchise another reason to be underwhelmed by this fifth movie in the series.

2 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' (2016)

Rogue One - 2016

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story had a cast filled with characters new and old. It was a prequel taking place before 1977's Star Wars, spending much of its time on doomed characters who were instrumental in stealing the Death Star's plans, and some familiar faces recreated digitally.

The effects used to recreate the villainous Grand Moff Tarkin were honestly quite good, but unfortunately, the same can't be said for the digital de-aging done to recreate Princess Leia in the film's closing moments. It's easy to understand why they wanted her at the film's conclusion, but the effects weren't as strong as they needed to be, making Leia look distractingly unreal in what's supposed to be a moving ending.

1 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' (2009)

X-Men Origins_ Wolverine
Image via 20th Century Studios

Most will agree that there's very little - if anything - that X-Men Origins: Wolverine did well. It's regarded as a bottom-tier comic book movie by most, featuring an unnecessary and largely unsatisfying origin story for one of the most popular X-Men in the film series: Wolverine.

At least by the film's end, most X-Men fans will have checked out, which means they'll feel okay about laughing at the digitally de-aged Professor Xavier. It really does look wrong, and though the filmmakers would have thought fans would appreciate such a cameo, the way it turned out means that it probably would have been better if they'd removed it from the movie entirely.

NEXT: The Best De-Aged Characters in Film, From Scorsese to the MCU