10 Questions You Should Be Asking About Upcoming Movies
2. Whats The Balance Between Animatronics And CGI? - Jurassic World
Although it marked a major turning point in CGI, Jurassic Park was achieved by an impressive cocktail of special effects processes. Sure, there's some incredibly impressive computer generated shots (which, shockingly, still feel real today), but also a high number of animatronic models and even men in suits used to bring dinosaurs back to life. The film's feel, invoking childlike wonder and adult terror, was central to its appeal, which is what made where the series went all the more depressing; by Jurassic Park III just about everything was digital, with animatronics only used when the film-makers felt like throwing a bone to practical effect makers. It's just missing the point of why we liked stuff in the first place. Can you imagine Star Wars or Indiana Jones or The Thing or Terminator or Rush Hour with the unique feel their traditional effects afforded ruined by a quick layer of CGI? Wait, what? There's been a big backlash against CGI in recent years, so it's not really surprising that for Jurassic World, in a move similar to what J.J. Abrams is doing with Star Wars, director Colin Trevorrow is keen to push the film's return to animatronics. But we've been burned by such claims before (The Thing was allegedly going to keep CGI to a minimum), which means that while the logistics of this new prehistoric theme park are worth chatting about, what really matters is how in the real world they're bringing the dinos back.
