Inspired by comments from Alex Albrecht's review of Angels and Demons on the Totally Rad Show, Slashfilm.com posed this great question: What are some of your most hated uses of CG in movie history? Good movies ruined by bad CG or just unnecessary CG that took you out of the story. For my money, the plane crash at the end of Air Force One takes the cake. (And believe it or not, there is NOT a single green screen shot in all of The Mercury Men.)So I ask you: what is YOUR most hated use of movie CG?
Well, Chris, to get real specific about the prequels and I think we have discussed this, the use of CG for each and every clone trooper! Give me a costumed storm trooper any day!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I think that I have a problem with any CGI character that has lots of screen-time. The illusion of reality just can't be faked under constant scrutiny.
ReplyDeleteThe fight scenes in Blade 2 come to mind.
-Dave
I think specifically any instance in an action film/superhero movie where the filmmakers opt for CGI. What they don't seem to understand is that CGI creations have no inherent "weight"...human beings instinctively "know" reality, even in a movie (I theorize.) It's why none of us, even as children, ever looked at an old movie with a dummy thrown off the top of a building and thought it was a real dude. The dummy can't replicate what a human being looks like really falling. It's fake and we "know" it.
ReplyDeleteI think one solution to this is to put the CG in slow motion, or a form of slow motion. That's right, just like the Japanese did for their "giant" rubber monsters...they knew that the way to incorporate "weight" in something so obviously NOT giant was to slow the film, if only a bit. I think CGI could benefit from less "frames" and less "movement." I'm not adept at the tech language here, but it's a pet theory about CGI. I mean, Sam Peckinpah didn't make some of the greatest action scenes in history by using cartoons people and blurry shot selection!
Speaking as a CGi professional....the CGI is only as good as the animator. Some "get" weight, some understand what works and some don't. For every shot you hate I'll bet I can find a shot you didn't even know was CGI.
ReplyDeleteFor characters that worked, I'd cite Gollum, King Kong, and Benjamin Buttons.
A lot of good points. My biggest frustration with CG is that it seems to have made filmmakers LESS creative, rather than more. Imagine if Spielberg would have had access to computers when he made Jaws. Wouldn't have been even a fraction as good. Limitation breeds creativity.
ReplyDeleteThat effin awful Matrix scene in Reloaded, with the cartoony Neo and the poorly done agents.
ReplyDeleteWow, I forgot about that one.
ReplyDeleteMost hated use of green screen and CGI?
ReplyDeleteALL OF IT.