20 Reasons Why Growing Up in the 80s and Early 90s Was Best Time For Cinema

14. No 3D And Very Little CGI

To anyone that likes 3D or CGI, someone who doesn€™t must sound like a broken record, so I wont deliberate here for too long. Seeing as this list is specifically about growing up in a certain period, it only really need concern a younger audience€™s point of view when it comes to these issues, and the thing is, the longer 3D stays around (and it looks like its going too, unfortunately), the more and more there€™ll be an audience which doesn€™t know any better and this is a crying shame. 3D adds NOTHING to a film watching experience, the colour is darker and the whole experience is distracting and trivialised, making a film going experience akin to a theme park ride and if you want a theme park ride, go to a theme park. Early cinema experiences are some of the most fondly remembered, kids should be engrossed in movies; they should feel a whole range of emotions, none of which can be produced by a pair of 3D glasses. CGI is slightly different, it can add to a movie experience, but only when done in the right way, and sparingly. When James Cameron helped pioneer CGI, he used it to wondrous effect in 1989€™s The Abyss and even more so in 1991€™s Terminator 2: Judgement day. Though so reliant on CGI have modern filmmakers become, that a modern-day James Cameron movie looks like Avatar. Now Avatar is a massively popular movie, but it€™s categorically not a masterpiece, it€™s a gimmick, the emperor€™s new clothes that earned $2.7 billion. The problem with this is that it€™s alienating. It isn€™t, and can never be personal. Animation is one thing, but putting humans in worlds made entirely of CGI is another. (For further examples, see; the Star Wars prequels, The Matrix Sequels, Indy 4, and Peter Jackson€™s King Kong) What€™s more, the tendency for modern filmmakers to use CGI instead of some great, classic, filmmaking techniques, very rare is it to see models, make-up or animatronics any longer. For an example that directly exhibits this and relates to the €˜80s vs. more modern filmmaking, see The Thing 1982 and compare it with the modern, CGI-heavy, remake/prequel and tell me which one is scarier.
 
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David is a film critic, writer and blogger for WhatCulture and a few other sites including his own, www.yakfilm.com Follow him on twitter @yakfilm