CGI, Oh My!
August 12, 2008 action, drama, kids movies
CGI: You’ve come a long way, baby
Twenty years ago, special effects were a relatively simple affair.
Build a few models and miniatures. Create elaborate matte paintings. Add stop-motion animation, makeup and prosthetics, and piece it all together with trick photography and creative camera angles.
Then came the Golden Age of CGI.
Early attempts like the stained glass knight in “Young Sherlock Holmes,” the morphing animal-woman in “Willow” and the denizens of the deep in “The Abyss” stretched the limits of computer-aided imagery. But it was “Terminator 2″ — James Cameron’s action-packed sequel — that really turned the FX industry on its head.
RottenTomatoes.com lists 20 of the most revolutionary CGI movies in the past two decades, starting with the mega-cool liquid metal T-1000 in “T2.”
Here’s the list. The films are ranked, not in order of importance, but chronologically.
- “T2″ (1991)
- “Jurassic Park” (1993)
- “Toy Story” (1995)
- “Titanic” (1997)
- “The Matrix” (1999)
- “Gladiator” (2000)
- “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” (2001)
- “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001)
- “Finding Nemo” (2003)
- “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003)
- “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003)
- “The Day After Tomorrow” (2004)
- “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004)
- “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” (2005)
- “Batman Begins” (2005)
- “War of the Worlds” (2005)
- “King Kong” (2005)
- “Sunshine”(2007)
- “Beowulf” (2007)
- “Wall-E” (2008)
As you can tell, computer-generated images have been a huge part of summer blockbusters and holiday season sensations since the mid-1990s.
In some, computer animation actually takes center stage — such as Golem in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the title giant ape in “King Kong.”
Without gross Grendel, there’d be no point to “Beowulf’s” 3D roller coaster ride. The same goes for General Grievous in “Revenge of the Sith,” or the alien craft in “War of the Worlds.”
But the CGI bats and bogeys in “Batman Begins”? They’re hardly more than background.
It’s also notable that many of these movies — although pretty — are not particularly good. The flop that was”The Day After Tomorrow” reveals the fallacy of relying on visual effects to carry a film, rather than pesky little things like plot or character development.
A few notable omissions do stand out from this list, such as “The Abyss,” James Cameron’s earliest foray into CGI.
What about “Cloverfield,” the monster movie that got bloggers in a tither earlier this year?
There’s also no mention of two of my favorite special effects extravaganzas of the summer, “The Incredible Hulk” and “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.”
Could it be that CGI is finally blasé?
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Photo courtesy of MovieWeb.com.
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