Great directors realize that the area in which they should fall is in between. They need to meet half way and realize if it can be done practically and realistically, maybe it's not the best time to call your buddies at Industrial Light and Magic. CGI can be used for good, but it shouldn't be used for everything.
If you ask me, the effects looked more realistic in 1983.
I am cursed with the ability to pick out what is Computer-generated and what isn't. To me, "Avatar" just looked like a video game, albeit a very well made video game (I just vomited a little). Every time I am reminded that something is computer generated, it takes me out of the story and makes me enjoy the movie less. The transition from reality to computers should be flawless and in my mind, unless it's an animated film, there should never be a shot that is 100% CGI. Not even 90%. Unfortunately, very few movies will be like that.
I really respect a director that will do everything to make the world he is creating real and who will only use CGI as a last resort. Check out this featurette for "The Cabin in the Woods".
This is a great example of using a combination of CGI and Practical Effects. They shot each individual elevator with a real, physical thing and then used computers to put them all together into one shot. If this has been all CGI, it would have looked terrible.
I understand that some movies cannot be done without CGI. "Life of Pi", one of my favorite movies of last year, is one of them. They have been trying to make that book into a film since it was first published in 2001. But no one could figure out how to do it. Even 10 years ago, technology was not advanced enough, and no one was going to throw an actor into a boat with a full grown tiger and throw water onto the both of them. That's just crazy.
Even with all of the CGI in "Life of Pi", they still did a lot of things practically. Water effects that could have easily been done with computers were done practically. Parts of the carnivorous island were actually built. And of course, the life boat was always real.
This generation has forgotten how much can actually be done practically, if they even knew at all. Up until the 80s, computers were never used to create an image on a screen. When "Tron" came out, it was nominated for Best Costume Design and Best Sound, but not Best Visual Effects. Many people thought that it would be unfair to put the film in because they "cheated by using computers". Yet before "Tron", we saw Luke Skywalker destroy the Death Star. We saw a Great White Shark terrorize the town of Amity. We saw Roy Neary interact with with UFOs.
And there has been plenty of classic scenes after the integration of computers into film.
"Jurassic Park" is a perfect example of how CGI should be used. The only time you see a Computer-generated image is when you see the entire body of a dinosaur or if it's moving. And even then, not always.
I love watching how movies are made, and I find it so much less fascinating when the answer is "We did it all with computers". While I admire the talent it takes to create images using computers, the answer, when broken down to the very core, is always the same with computers. When things are done practically, there are always new challenges and new innovative ways to achieve different things.
The hours and hours of hard work that goes into making practical effects is simply amazing and has an amazing story. Movies with mostly CGI special effects don't have interesting stories behind them. As much as I love "Life of Pi" the behind-the-scenes featurettes are not nearly as intriguing as "Jurassic Park" or "Cabin in the Woods".
The reason I wanted to write this was the video below. And even though it will be mostly CGI, "Pacific Rim" still has this... and Guillermo del Toro reads my mind at 0:53.
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