10 Most Unnecessary Times Star Wars Used CGI
3. All The Clone Troopers - Attack Of The Clones
Attack of the Clones first introduced the Clone Troopers to Star Wars, and George Lucas decided to have every single Clone Trooper in both this movie and Revenge of the Sith be an entirely creation.
While it's incredibly common for Hollywood to create large armies by digitally duplicating a smaller crowd of real on-set performers, Lucas made the whole damn Clone Trooper army from scratch, to the extent that a practical suit was never even built, and it shows.
Even in 2002, many called out Lucas for the Clones' overly plastic-y, video game-y appearance, that they didn't quite pass the sniff test compared to the Stormtroopers in the original trilogy.
While some CGI was certainly necessary to depict the sheer size of the Clone Army on screen, Lucas would've been smart to have at least a few-dozen live-action actors on set in physical costumes, who could then be duplicated to generate a more realistic looking army of Clone Troopers.
There's a reason that this approach has been Hollywood's go-to for the last 20 years, and Lucas' 100% CGI method is avoided wherever possible. Without any practical grounding, the effects stick out like a sore thumb.