Bennett L. Rouse

CGI: bringing down our film industry

Technology not only brings more convenience into our lives, but it also provides more entertainment. CGI (Computer-generated imagery) applies computer graphics to create special effects in films, television shows, and video games. While many people would associate the use of CGI for video games (if you haven’t noticed, a lot of the inspiration coming for computer science students comes from the desire to create video games), CGI also makes a great impact on our viewing pleasure at the movies. Films like The Matrix, Spiderman and Transformers capitalize on this idea by incorporating CGI into high-action sequences, allowing characters to do some extraordinary things by escaping the laws of physics and embracing the benefits of CGI.

Nevertheless, there is more to the spectrum of CGI than some care to admit. CGI takes the humans out of these movies and simulates their artificial counterparts. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I thought I was watching somebody play an Xbox 360 during the action sequences of Spiderman 3. Is it better to have fake actors performing extraordinary feats or is it better to have real actors who perform subpar feats? I’ll stick with the subpar feats. For example, The Dark Knight was a blockbuster hit, and absolutely no CGI was used. Even the recent Pineapple Express, a mere comedy film, showed how the demand of high action sequences can be satisfied without CGI. Characters raced around town in the car chase, driving cars with feet through the windshields. Characters held AK-47s and infiltrated a base. Yet, none of these sequences implemented CGI. All they resulted in was a heaping helping of hysterical laughs. There’s something about the human face we can relate to, so films such as Pineapple Express intrigue us more than Spiderman 3, whose use of CGI disconnected it from viewers.

Posted at 10:59PM Dec 06, 2008 by Bennett L. Rouse in General  |  Comments[0]