‘The Odyssey’ Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way | This year's breakouts like 'Project Hail Mary' and 'Obsession' were made by filmmakers who sweated. While CG-stuffed franchise disappointments such as 'Supergirl,' 'Moana,' and 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' looked lazy.

[u/ChiefLeef22]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/odyssey-box-office-2026-practical-effects-1236652219/

[u/whichwitch9]

Let's also not forget- Jurassic Park was an early user of cgi. It was the combination of cgi, practical effects, and the pace of the movie that made it work. You seriously need everything to come together to create a good movie. One of the best scenes- the Trex breaking the car roof- is a literal on set accident, but the actors did not break character and the movie used their genuine reactions to the animatronic Trex. The first Iron Man is another example of combined practical and cgi effects- which also gave it a benefit of having a brighter color palate while not looking cartoony by not either using off putting cgi or darkening it to hide flaws in cgi.

Spiderman is another example- Doc Oc was much better in Spiderman 2 compared to the most recent one. But even the actor found the overuse in green screens off putting and hard to play against. He didn't do a bad job, but his performance in Spiderman 2 is easily better.

We're losing a lot by using too much cgi, tbh. It's not just how it looks, but it's the actors, too. Practical effects provide more routes for creating genuine and unique performances. Green screens force everything to be exactly as scripted with little chance for change, even if change could be better. I honestly believe it's why actors seem so bland lately- they don't have to work on their craft and all are conforming to the same styles for various reasons

[u/astroK120 → u/whichwitch9]

One thing I do think gets lost in these discussions is that sometimes CGI is the right tool for the job. Jurassic Park is a great example. It was a mix of practical where it was possible and CGI where it wasn't. I don't think a flat out refusal to use CGI makes movies better. Oppenheimer in particular I think would have been better if Nolan hadn't done the bomb with practical effects.

[u/originalcondition → u/astroK120]

The CGI in Jurassic Park was also applied very, very carefully and intelligently. They knew it'd look best in low light, with rain often obscuring it. They knew that placing shots of practical effects among the shots of CGI would lend to the reality of the entire scene.

Now it feels like CGI is used for everything within the scene regardless of how good it'll look and how real it'll feel, because it's simply cheaper to underpay CGI artists rather than bother with any careful application of the tech or peppering in any practical effects.

I'm an animator myself and don't want to discredit the artists working on the CGI but if their career is anything like mine, they're frequently underpaid and overworked on shoestring budgets and breakneck schedules with tons of revisions that they don't really have time to accommodate, but will try to anyway because they're artists and want to do a good job.

[u/egilskal → u/originalcondition]

Yeah I’m a sucker for good VFX, and the line is so apparent to me: the best CG is done by people who come in with a clear vision of what they want the shot to be, and do a tonne of work in preproduction by storyboarding, pre-viz etc. Great example are Denis Villeneuce movies like Dune, there’s a tonne of VFX but it fits seamlessly with the grounded look of the movie because they know what the shots are ahead of time and they have lots of practical elements in the shot already, or have the lighting match perfectly between the actors and the environment.

Then I see something like Th Flash rescuing the baby scene and it seems obvious that no one had any clear, concrete idea what that sequence was supposed to be, what the movements were, what he was gonna save etc. It looks completely made up with seemingly no practical elements or real life performance to reference. And it ends up looking like a video game, because thats probably what the artists have to do, creating the CG from scratch. And even nowadays big budget games do a lot of mocap reference lol.

[u/FeloniousDrunk101 → u/whichwitch9]

I think I read somewhere that Nolan used a puppet for the cyclops in a lot of shots to elicit genuine responses from the actors, but utilized GCI for the cyclops in the broader shots? This is a similar hybrid approach to Jurassic Park IMO.

[u/sam_hammich → u/FeloniousDrunk101]

Yeah, they used the puppet for casting shadows, up close shots like a hand grabbing someone, a target for actors to act at, and as a lighting/color/material reference for animators.

[u/IAmKermitR → u/whichwitch9]

There are filmakers that rely heavily into CGI that we just don’t notice. The big problem with late Disney/Marvel productions I think, is that everything is made generic (script, lightning, coloring) so they can change anything in post-production if needed. That takes away from style and make a disjointed final product.