In 1958, theatergoers watching Alfred Hitchcock’s newest film, Vertigo, witnessed the first usage of Computer-Generated Imagery, otherwise known as CGI for short, in its intro credits. Although brief, this new filmmaking technique would advance rapidly, with films like Star Wars, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, and Toy Story breaking ground after ground. After six decades of growth, CGI has become a staple of Hollywood, overshadowing and replacing 2D animated film productions and being interchangeable with VFX. On the other hand, some would argue that CGI is also detrimental to the industry.

Influx of Computer-Generated Imagery

Today, the average audience member is drowning in films that don’t heavily rely on CGI to tell a story. This tsunami of digitized water has tired out the eyes of the public, wondering why simple things like a character’s suit have to be CGI. The reflections of heavy CGI usage are seen in the budget. The Koneteo Stories group would report with Medium in their article “Why does CGI cost so much?” saying that for the Rings of Power show, “…Amazon has already shelled out a quarter of a billion dollars to produce five seasons of it. Estimates are at $1,000,000,000 in total budget by the time the show ends.”

People’s Frustration Over CGI Usage

This usage begs the question, why are audiences tired of CGI in movies? There are numerous answers as to why, the first being quality deterioration. Films produced now have CGI that looks worse despite years of evolution in the tech. For example, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the first Avengers film looks impressive even today in terms of its quality. Yet later films in the MCU, like No Way Home and Black Widow, look already dated despite being released in the new decade.

The other reason, which relates to the previous, is how overworked the people behind these digital scenes are. Behind their anonymous online usernames, many people from VFX studios vent their frustrations about their conditions on Reddit. They talk about constantly being bombarded with changing their CGI works repeatedly, often just right when they’re wrapping up production. The main culprits of this are the films made under Marvel Studios. According to the article “Marvel’s VFX Artists Are Suffering — and Starting to Speak Out” by CNET Jennifer Bisset, a worker under anonymity said, “Working on Marvel projects ends up being incredibly stressful, and this is a widely known issue throughout the VFX industry, it’s not specific to any one VFX house.”

Studio Pressure for CGI Impacts Quality

Studio pressure for CGI is reason is why their quality in films released today looks unpolished; they have little time to make scenes look clean and natural in the environment. This crunch of CGI usage makes us long for the days of practical effects and costumes at a time when digital effects were in their infancy. The film Jurassic Park is an excellent example of using CGI when needed. Although there are plenty of scenes with VFX, many use practical effects. Several scenes of the dinosaurs used puppeteering, animatronics, and even costumes. Combined with the CGI, these practical effects make the film’s imagery magical.

Solutions & Benefits of CGI

The heavy use of CGI isn’t to say that there aren’t films today that don’t use practical effects. Many of Christopher Nolan’s films, like Dunkirk and The Dark Knight, use minimal CGI. The Mad Max series is infamous for the many dangerous stunts and effects the team managed to pull off on camera. Not to mention that CGI isn’t always a negative. Many great and beautiful movies have used VFX to its fullest extent, like Everything Everywhere All At Once and Godzilla Minus One. The problem relies on how much it feels like filmmakers rely on CGI to build a film from beginning to end instead of using it to enhance the beauty of a movie.

Movies can portray so much, yet we find ourselves pushing that to its limits daily. VFX houses strain themselves to get these projects done, yet are ridiculed when they don’t meet the expectations they could never meet. The value of their work is never justified, as artists are never allowed to finish their jobs. It doesn’t mean that CGI should never be used. However, we must ensure that these VFX houses behind these digital scenes have a sustainable work environment while giving the audience members jaw-dropping effects. For that to happen, something needs to change.

Works Cited

Bisset, Jennifer. “Marvel’s VFX Artists Are Suffering — and Starting to Speak Out.” CNET, 5 August 2022, https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/marvels-vfx-artists-are-suffering-now-theyre-speaking-out/. Accessed 16 May 2024.

Crichton, Michael. “The History of CGI in Movies.” Stikky Media, https://www.stikkymedia.com/history-of-cgi-in-movies/. Accessed 13 May 2024.

The Film Theorists. “Jurassic Park and the Soggy T-Rex ft. Egoraptor from Game Grumps – Did You Know Movies.” YouTube, 23 June 2015, https://youtu.be/UMHN8qfMOVs?si=DB0D3gbvSqHSVfwi. Accessed 16 May 2024.

Koneteo Stories. “Why does CGI cost so much?” Medium, 31 May 2023, https://medium.com/@koneteo.stories/why-does-cgi-cost-so-much-e37aa3685b6e. Accessed 13 May 2024.

Screen Crush. “Jurassic Park – You Think You Know Movies?” YouTube, 26 November 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AheS7H_jiPM. Accessed 16 May 2024.