Progress Or Not?
I love a good sci-fi film. But sci-fi films aren’t what they once were. Since CGI became the norm everything’s gotten smoother, sleeker, and altogether better … lines and wrinkles have vanished … But at what price?
Better–Or so the makers of these films would have you believe. In my opinion all this CGI business has robbed films in general of their believability: yes, it has made things possible which before were unfathomable, but at the same time it has allowed us to run before we can walk, blundering in to doing things which we never would have had we been constrained by set-pieces. The problem as I see it is this: we have this great new power to alter film, but we’ve lost the ability to see where it is and isn’t appropriate. It’s because of this that films, sci-fi and otherwise, are being churned out at an astonishing rate and often the CGI just doesn’t quite make the grade.
I feel like I’m being a party-pooper. I don’t mean to be. I understand that CGI can be a fantastic thing, I get that it’s opened up all these new possibilities, but what about when film started? It was enough to rely on acting and grit and determination. Nowadays it feels so much more rushed than that. The producers of these films are willing to spend enormous amounts of money, but for that they want it right here and now. They don’t want to wait.
In a way I feel sad that I won’t be around when they truly master CGI, when quality CGI becomes the norm. But until then we have things like Avatar. And in the near future surely many more films will get the balance just right.
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