4. CGI Isn't Used Sparingly Enough
Warner Bros. PicturesBlockbuster movies need special effects to survive: that fact is a given, and considering some of the magnificent feats the likes of Christopher Nolan, Joss Whedon and Bryan Singer have achieved with the help of CGI, we would never begrudge some fantastic effects-based trickery. The problem is when filmmakers and studios rely on CGI too much and forget how important the organic, in-camera element is of any movie. Take Green Lantern, a terrible movie which was rendered even worse because Martin Campbell and co. opted to have Hal Jordan wear a Lantern suit made entirely of CGI: it looked goofy and, combined with the film's generally ugly colour palette and gamut of effects, ensured the movie was never going to be a success. The Thor movies also suffer from blurry, low-rent visual effects from time to time, and though the movies would be near-impossible to do practically, we might've appreciated a little more set-based work that wasn't so distractingly sketchy. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 also suffered from an overuse of CGI: the physics of Spidey being thrown around during the battles look more like a cheap video game than something we're supposed to believe is photo-realistic. CGI should be a tool to assist filmmakers, not one to replace the real, human heart of the movie.