By Kevin Kaumans, Entertainment Editor
It is no secret that CGI and special effects have improved impressively since the 20th Century. Now, that is not to say no movies in the 1900s. After all, movies like “Alien” and “The Thing” that came out before the internet was even invented are praised even today for how realistic the stuff featured in it looked for the time.
That being said, it is clear that most movies nowadays rely on their special effects for making their movies successful.
Granted, I am not saying that all movies in the 21st century are too dependent on CGI. Just look at the “John Wick” movies, for example.
Sure, special effects are obviously used to make sure that the actors do not get hurt, but the movies’ main attraction, the reason people go and see them, is because of the action scenes.
But what about films like “Thor: Love and Thunder”? Does anyone remember the floating head scene? Remember when we all widened our eyes in disbelief at how bad a billion-dollar company could make something look so amateur-like? Seriously, when I first saw that trending online, I thought it was a meme. I thought someone cropped it into the movie to poke fun at how bad Marvel Studios’ CGI had gotten.
I know I am going on a bit of a tangent here, but can you blame me? “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” had a smaller budget than this movie, and the CGI was worlds better than it.
Keep in mind, “Thor: Love and Thunder” is almost twenty years older than that movie. There is no excuse other than pure laziness as to why Axl should look like a cheap commercial product for children’ s toys.
Then you have the 2020 adaptation of “Call of the Wild”.
Now, while I personally thought this movie’s CGI was pretty good, many people were furious that the people who made the movie used fake dogs instead of real ones.
This caused many people to steer clear of the movie, making it the main reason why it flopped so hard.
In hindsight, it is not hard to reason that if people are going to see a movie where dogs are the main focus point, then they may want to see actual dogs in the movies instead of just men walking around on all fours pretending to be them.
It is because of examples like these movies that I think modern audiences are starting to come down with what I like to call: CGI Fatigue.
We are finally getting tired of producers and directors putting in the bare minimum for their movies and thinking that they can make their money back just by putting in a few special effects here and there.
If Hollywood wants to stay in business any longer, then they need to acknowledge that instead of blaming the audience who helped payroll their lifestyle in the first place.