I think that the application of CGI in films is often unnecessary, anyone els?

[Bob]

Outside of animated films, such as Pixar titles and the like, I find that CGI is used, far to often, as a first option. I am of the opinion that thinking of ways to create special effects out of real materials should always be the first step, as it promotes better and more emotionally involved performances by the actors, by actually having something there to react to, and in many cases ends up looking substantially more realistic. Computer animation should only be applied subtly, briefly and none-to-often, again in my opinion, as prolonged and overused animated effects are really obvious and fake looking. And most of all, it isn't really there and there's no means in the world by which to match something animated so perfectly with what is real, that our brains could ever be convinced over any amount of time longer than, lets say, 30 seconds, that it is. I personally love when I watch a behind the scenes documentary and witness extraordinary feats of ingenuity, where even some of the most simple visual wonders are revealed to have been accomplished through brilliant and elaborate means. Stuff like model work and animatronics can be used in certain situations and these techniques can look more realistic than CGI when done right, because well... these things are REAL. For example, look at the model work in 2001: a Space Odyssey. Some of those scenes almost look like real NASA footage. That films depiction of deep space and the vessels used to traverse it, look more realistic than anything ever accomplished with CGI. Now I do appreciate computer animation as a great technology that has enhanced what can be seen and done in films. It's extremely versatile and there are countless things being done today that could never be done any other way. That being said, it's when scenes could be better accomplished using traditional techniques or hell... maybe even through a little mold breaking, that really irritates me. For example, the Watchmen movie, which on many levels fails but did have it's moments, can be cited. There was nothing seen in that movie, involving Dr. Manhattan, that needed to be animated. Makeup and traditional camera tricks and modern green screen effects could have aptly handled all of it and it would have looked more realistic. The CGI was a completely unnecessary waste of time and money. Not to mention that this omniscient character was grossly miscast, but that's another topic all-together. At any rate, I hope I've been able to reasonably define the way I feel about this topic and I'm ready to have my opinion critiqued.