Films/DVD Asylum

Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star.

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

CGI is just a tool, a means to an end,.

Posted by Harmonia on December 18, 2007 at 06:47:49:
Not an end in and of itself.

CGI is just one more tool in the filmmaker's arsenal...to be used well...or not so well, depending on the budget, time constraints and imaginations of the director and FX team. As 2001, The Abyss and other classic movies prove, you don't need CGI to create great FX on the screen. But CGI opens up many possibilities for the creative fimmaker.

As Analog Scott notes, you have probably seen thousands of frames of CGI in non sci-fi movies and never even known it. CGI makes it possible to achieve things on the screen that would either be prohibitively expensive or impossibly long and intricate, or that simply couldn't be done any other way.

One of the most brilliant uses of CGI serving a story was in Master & Commander, where CGI, miniatures, mattes, composites, digital grading, practical effects and a brilliant sound design achieved total and believable immersion in the world of an 18th century sea vessel. It served to enhance realism, but the realism of a time and place and sensibility far removed from our own. In this film, the FX were at the service of a great script, a superb FX team and cinematographer, confident producers and a master director.

What CGI isn't is a crutch - a substitute for story, character, structure or imagination. When done poorly, CGI takes you out of the movie. If the movie is working on every other level, then CGI is usually not an issue. In I Am Legend, what you had was an intelligent sci-fi thriller for the first two acts, and a cheap cop-out for a third act. Even great CGI wouldn't have saved this failure of imagination. Had there been more post production time available the critters no doubt would have looked better but it still wouldn't have made the movie good. And that's not the fault of CGI. It's the fault of the producing/directing team.

You got tasteless, excessive moviemaking your CGI will reflect it. A good movie is a good movie, no matter how the magic is done.