In recent times, computer generated imaging has become one of the most widely-used and important elements of a good movie. With the number of incredibly wild film ideas being integrated into catalogs, it only makes sense that CGI has to get better to adapt to these bigger concepts.
However, to many, it appears that the contrary has actually occurred. While 10 years ago, films like “Interstellar” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” displayed incredible visual journeys, today, technological failures like “The Flash” and “Jurassic World Dominion” are common. Are these just outliers, or is CGI truly going downhill?
For explanation, one should look to some of the factors that contributed to making these movies. “Interstellar” had a budget of about $165 million dollars. “The Flash” had a budget of approximately $200 million dollars. Clearly, it is not the amount of money spent on a film that is making CGI different.
The real reason the VFX in these movies are so vastly different is the amount of time allotted to each one. While “Interstellar” dedicated 100 hours to only one scene, the production of “The Flash” was rushed by Warner Brothers in order to meet a deadline. Part of this is because DC Comics released 4 different movies in 2023, all of them with lackluster VFX. The movies included “The Flash”, “Shazam! Fury of the Gods”, “Blue Beetle” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”.
Senior Himanshu Jangid, who has worked on visual effects in his free time, had noted this shift. “While it makes sense to have a deadline, it’s clear that for what they were told to create, the teams behind these movies could not make a quality product. Visual effects is a very time-consuming process and rushing it will only create backlash,” Jangid stated.
This kind of corporate greed is something most did not expect to see, considering almost none of these films made a profit. “It’s stupid that corporations are making horrendous business decisions after so many years of success,” said senior Ian Benge. “They know what they need to do to make good movies, and they’ve done it before, but for whatever reason they’re choosing to make garbage.”
It should be noted that the quality of CGI isn’t necessarily becoming bad with the progression of time, as many excellent movies have come out in recent years like “Dune Part 2” and “Avatar: The Way of Water”.
Rather, the unwillingness for companies to provide the time and compensation for high quality VFX production means that this potential is rarely reached. “If companies would put aside their misplaced greed and gave these individuals just a couple more weeks to fix their shots, these movies would likely be much more profitable and pleasing to watch,” added Jangid.
All it takes for VFX to improve in these movies is a little bit of time given to the hard-working individuals behind the scenes.
