Why is CGI so bad now?

I’m not sure. I wonder if it’s because it’s used more exclusively than before, where it was instead used more or less to augment reality.

When a movie had 2 minutes of CGI they could focus on making it really good.

When a movie has 45 minutes of it, can't really give it that same level of concern.

I always think of Jurassic Park, Rexy looked way more realistic 30 years ago.

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Mostly animatronics & stuntmen in suits for the smaller dinosaurs.

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I don't know the screen time break down, but I'd guess it was 70-30 CG to practical effect.

*I asked Grok, and here's the response.

In the 1993 movie Jurassic Park, what % of screen time for the dinosaurs is done by CG effects vs practical effects?

In the 1993 movie Jurassic Park, approximately 60% of the dinosaur screen time was achieved through computer-generated imagery (CGI), while 40% was done using practical effects. These figures are often cited by various analyses and interviews with the film's creators, including the visual effects team. However, exact percentages might slightly vary based on different sources or interpretations of what constitutes each type of effect.

Good question. It has clearly gotten worse as time goes on and that is not how technology is supposed to work. They tend to use a lot more and it just really takes me out of movies. The cost of creating the CGI has probably gone way up too.

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When a movie has 45 minutes of it, can't really give it that same level of concern.

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Let AI do it.

My guess is it's an issue of time. When you look at the films that are great achievements in effects it's evident that there's legitimate elbow grease that goes into them. But elbow grease takes time and the studios now have so many films in the works and a strict production schedule to stick too so they'd rather just throw a bunch of money and crappy CGI at project rather than take the time to actually craft something.

A perfect example of this the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. Peter Jackson was allowed to really take his time with LOTRs and the results are wonderful. Even 25 years on it's still a marvel of modern film making and the effects totally hold up.

Comparatively, The Hobbit looks like a thrown together mess. Jackson was given a bunch of money and a deadline to make them and you can see it in the results. The LOTRs are the types of film that will live on for decades. The Hobbit was meidocre slop that was tossed together, made a lot of money and will rarely be thought about again. But that's what Hollywood wants these days.

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Comparatively, The Hobbit looks like a thrown together mess. Jackson was given a bunch of money and a deadline to make them and you can see it in the results. The LOTRs are the types of film that will live on for decades. The Hobbit was meidocre slop that was tossed together, made a lot of money and will rarely be thought about again.

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Even more to this point is that he got right what he felt he needed to given his time constraints. Bilbo and dwarves at Bag End, Riddles in the Dark, Mirkwood, Smaug…. Comparing these scenes to the rest of the trilogy you can tell the difference.

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Watched the first Gladiator movie recently and the CGI was really good

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It took about 5 minutes for me to be shocked how pedestrian and TV-like the CGI was in Gladiator 2....the CGI Boogaloo.....and about 30 minutes to turn it off.

Because it’s cheaper for production companies to use CGI to create the entire environment in a film instead of combining it with practical sets. Having to be creative and make your own movie sets is expensive and actually requires work. Movie companies today don’t give two shits about putting effort and creativity into films, they only want profit. That’s the result of big tech companies buying out all of the old school production companies.

20 years ago, CGI was only rarely used in instances where it was needed. Directors and movie producers wanted to keep films as realistic as possible, so they would build soundstages and combine that with CGI effects to create a world that served as a backdrop for storytelling.