r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/padfoony • 3h ago

Christopher Nolan avoided CGI and used 7ft stuntmen to portray Laestrygonians in The Odyssey. The giant leader, King Antiphates, is portrayed by actor Josh Stewart, while Matt Damon’s stunt double is Devyn Dalton, who is just under 5ft.

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u/VegaJuniper 2h ago

LotR used more and more CGI as it went along. My favorite is still FotR: the battle of Amon Hen just has this incredible physicality while the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in RotK just looks like a video game cutscene. Partly it's because the battles became more massive and difficult to do practically, but also because the CGI evolved and they became more comfortable making it visible.

In FotR, you only see the eyes of Gollum briefly, because that's all they could do, the Balrog looks amazing because it's wreathed in shadows, with flames and smoke hiding its shape, etc.

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u/MrFlow 1h ago

the Balrog looks amazing because it's wreathed in shadows, with flames and smoke hiding its shape, etc.

That's also why the CGI T-Rex in Jurassic Park looks so amazing, it was dark and rainy when we first encounter it.

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u/MobileJob1521 1h ago

And like 90% of the T-Rex shots are physical effects.

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u/CosmicX1 47m ago

And the same thing for Pacific Rim. One of the big reasons why a movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters somehow looks believable. For the daytime shots it’s either foggy or a long distance shot.

A lot of directors seem to have lost sight of how to use CGI properly.

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u/SDRPGLVR 1h ago

Yeah the ogre/troll (I forget which it is) in Fellowship is a strong example of the CGI not holding up. Doesn't ruin the movie in the slightest, but it's a funny thing to look back on when so much of the rest of the movie is timeless and gorgeous.

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u/VegaJuniper 1h ago

Cate Blanchett's "evil queen" speech is another. I know some people love it, but to me it's always been corny as hell, and a really janky special effect.

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u/SumasFlats 2h ago

Yeah, the first LotR was fine, the rest of them were full of CGI crap that looked like old video games.