You know what’s cooler than a fake explosion? A real explosion. Even though movies are fake, you want to believe them to be true, and I feel like practical effects are the way to go! Not only is it cooler when the audience knows something is real, but it can also benefit the actors and the people on set. It makes the experience more real for acting.

There’s nothing wrong with some animation or some CGI, but I think it’s over used these days. Like, it’s one thing to throw in a laser beam or some magic effects, but it seems like now everything is fake. They don’t even film on real locations anymore, as a lot of stuff is green-screened. Which again, is something that you might have to do if the setting takes place on an alien world or something, but a lot of films don’t need it. I mean, there are set designers for a reason, and a lot of them can do some really creative stuff out of real life materials. So now, CGI and green-screening takes them out of a job.

I can understand that CGI is a cheaper way of doing things, but maybe I’m not paying to see a cheap movie. I mean, there are all these big budget movies that can afford cool stuff, and yet they are a CGI-fest! So what does their money go to? Because, a lot of the big budget movies I’ve been seeing have been box office failures. Even the CGI looks like crap because everything is so rushed. And they rush these projects so they can make more movies with crappy CGI! So they are hurrying on these crappy films so they can make more crappy films. Maybe they should spend a little more time on quality and focus a little less on quantity. *COUGHDisney COUGH*

I mean, this is part of Hollywood’s problem. There is so much talent in the world. So many creative people they could be hiring to do amazing things. Pretty soon why should you even hire actors when you can make CGI people and give them a realistic AI voice? This is bull-crap. It’s entertainment people! Is it that hard to make things for people to enjoy? From what I have seen, there haven’t been too many spectacular films in the theater lately. As a matter of fact, I’m lucky to hear of a good one. It’s not all CGI’s fault, but can’t you see a little bit of a pattern here? The CGI is rushed, and a way to get rid of real talent… well, so is the film’s plot, and so is the film’s acting, and so is the film’s script. It’s all done in a way that feels rushed, and a way that lacks talent. It’s a trend in Hollywood, and I can’t believe such a big corporation wouldn’t do something to make some changes after the continuous box office flops.

I’m not going to sit here and diss every filmmaker in Hollywood. Some still work with practical effects, and some can do really impressive stuff with CGI. Christopher Nolan and Quinten Tarantino are two filmmakers who still use some excellent practical effects. James Cameron, Tim Burton, and George Lucas are talented filmmakers who are great at practical effects and modern animation (or CGI). That’s great! And I think that George Lucas did an excellent job with the prequel trilogy of Star Wars and its CGI. It worked, and it created new exciting worlds that weren’t as easy to do with the original trilogy. With that said, it did kind of inspire the over use of it in my opinion.

And again, CGI is fine when you’re making a space sci-fi film… but is it really necessary in a crime thriller? Let’s say for argument sake, there is this really complex effect that is needed for this theoretical crime thriller. So fine: add some CGI. We’re living in a modern age where that kind of technology is available, so if you have to use it, use it. But, is it necessary for every fire, every background, or every time someone spills a cup of water? No! That’s lazy is what that is! That’s lazy, and you’re shooting a live-action movie, not a cartoon. So why not put some real stuff in there?

Another thing that makes me mad is that CGI takes away from other things in animation, like stop-motion animation for example. I remember in the first “The Terminator” movie, where at the end the Terminator got all its flesh burned off leaving just its endoskeleton. It was the most standout part of the film for me. They put stop-motion animation in a live-action movie to animate the endoskeleton walking. Stop-motion in live-action wasn’t all that uncommon of a thing back then, and the stop-motion gave the Terminator an out of this world feel to it with its movements, which may seem dated to a lot of people, but to me it added to the scariness. The first time I watched “The Terminator” was when I was nine or ten years old; I was mature enough to handle the horror in the plot, but for me it was that unique experience of seeing that Terminator slowly creep after the protagonists in stop-motion that scared me. It was amazing! I loved it! And it’s sad that CGI kind of takes away that feeling in movies. Stop-motion animation might not be the most efficient way to bring things to life in live-action, but the thing was that it wasn’t ever rushed like CGI is today. It was fun, it was amazing, and it didn’t have to look the most realistic, because that’s what made it so weird in an amazing way! The difference is, if CGI doesn’t look real, it’s seen as lazy because it’s something that can (and should) be prevented. If the stop-motion doesn’t look real, it’s kind of expected because that’s just the style of the animation; there isn’t really a way to make it look too real.

CGI is certainly a form of art– it is a very great way to animate things, too. Maybe I’m making too big of a deal out of this, but I personally think that it is used too much in live-action movies, and that filmmakers should focus on real art. REAL ART! Things you can touch, taste, interact with! Just because it is on a screen doesn’t make it any less important to the viewers. My whole thing is, why watch a movie that you’re supposed to relate to, when the people who make the movie can’t even make the simplest things that are a part of our world real?

It is your duty as a filmmaker to make entertainment that is not lackluster. It is your duty as a filmmaker to hire talented people to help you achieve something amazing. It is your duty as a filmmaker to do creative things, and use your brain to make insane effects that make the viewer believe what they’re watching! Don’t cover it all up with CGI! It isn’t always easy to do practical effects, and it isn’t always cheap, but making films shouldn’t always be easy. It’s meant to be difficult! And the amazing thing is (you better sit down for this), is that you don’t need any effects to make a good movie. Look at masterpieces like “The Breakfast Club” and “12 Angry Men.” Those movies are pure perfection. They just use raw talent: excellent acting, great directing, and incredible writing to make an intense movie that you can really connect with emotionally. But, if you want to use special effects, then keep in mind that there is more than one way to do it. But the important thing is to be open-minded and make creative decisions, not lazy ones.

But, that’s just my two cents as a movie lover. I’m not sitting here trying to say CGI is bad and should never be used… but there is a time and a place. And yeah, I do get tired of seeing it everywhere. But that doesn’t make it bad. In fact, I’d go as far to say that technology should be making advancements in the film industry, but it should never take it over! It should be limited enough to not stand in the way of talent, creativity, and imagination. I hope that practical effects make a comeback one day, because even though a plot might be fake, that doesn’t mean that everything about the movie should be. Movies are stories composed of many different works of art that bring them to life. Remember that.