12 Major Problems With Today's Blockbuster Movies
3. CGI Is Getting Lazier
CGI is a vital component of the movie industry these days, not just in blockbusters. It wouldn't be hyperbole to state that computer-generated effects have completely revolutionized the visual aspect of cinema. Literally anything a filmmaker can imagine is now possible to put up there on the big screen.
However, an over-reliance on CGI can end up giving a movie an artificial and almost 'video-gamey' sheen, which can often take the audience out of the story. For example, despite having a decade between them, it would be fair to say that the CGI in Lord of the Rings is superior to that of The Hobbit.
Jurassic Park is 24 years old and the visual effects still hold up. Over a decade later, and Pirates of the Caribbean's Davy Jones still convinces despite being a fully-animated character. Compare the CGI from these movies to Suicide Squad's poorly-rendered helicopters and whatever the hell Incubus is meant to be, pretty much everything in Fant4stic or Twilight's nightmare-inducing digital baby and you'll see that the key is restraint.
It seems that the 'more is more' approach is one that we'll have to get used to in the age of franchise filmmaking. The studios feel the need to up the ante with each sequel to satisfy the audience so if a city got destroyed last time, now it needs to be a country. Or a planet. The end result is just a visual bombardment of noise and images created almost entirely on a computer with no real drama or tension.
Of course, there is plenty of fantastic CGI to be found in blockbuster cinema (with the Planet of the Apes franchise arguably at the top of the list) but visual effects were designed to enhance the story and the overall movie, not dictate it. Audiences shouldn't be impressed by CGI and laud its realism, audiences should be ignoring the fact that the CGI is even there because they're too wrapped up in the narrative to question it.