Invasion of the CGI

American Consequences ^ | 13 Feb 2018 | John Podhoretz

[Rummyfan]

There might have been a moment of late when you sat in a movie theater struggling to remain awake as some entirely convincing space battle between two starships a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away took place in front of you. (It was so convincing, in fact, that you forgot it wasn’t real, which didn’t make it any more interesting.) Then you realized that you had just seen a few other entirely convincing and equally boring space battles happen in some movie about superheroes a month earlier, and would likely find yourself watching another in a month or two. If I am describing your reality – and if you have kids who like the movies or are a habitual moviegoer yourself, this is your reality, my friends – you have every right to stop and ask yourself this question:

What hath the Stained-Glass Man wrought?

There’s a scene set in an otherwise forgettable 1985 film called Young Sherlock Holmes during which a figure pops out of a stained-glass window and walks down a church aisle brandishing a sword. It lasts all of 30 seconds. As it turned out, they were the most revolutionary 30 seconds of cinema since Al Jolson spoke the words “you ain’t heard nothin’ yet” in The Jazz Singer back in 1927, and ushered in the age of the talking picture.

[catnipman]

“I still don’t get why 1982’s Tron doesn’t get the distinction of first CGI in a movie.”

because the graphics of Tron were so pathetic that they would have been better off just doing claymation?

[Yardstick]

Yeah, can’t say I’m a CGI fan either. It gets closer to convincing realism than older techniques but is never truly convincing. It winds up in the “uncanny valley” zone where it’s distracting because it’s close but not quite. I can relate to a puppet Yoda better than a CGI Yoda even though he’s obviously a puppet.