Is movie CGI getting better or just worse?

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When you look at Jurassic Park in 1993, The Matrix in 1999, or even 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 it almost seems like CGI was better then.
Is it me or are movies just looking crappier?
There's a little known movie called Serenity (straight to dvd) that I think is great and the cgi looks great. Check it out.
Maybe I'm just getting better at seeing it. I like the older stuff. Jurassic park used animatronics and like you said, time and patience. I guess money is more important. I think movies like Reign of Fire, and a few others have done a great job but movies like Predator 1987 and Aliens are how movies should be done. With a mixture of the techniques. Movies I thought did a bad job with cgi are the spiderman and the mummy movies. And with higher resolutions I think the bad stuff is even more noticeable. I am all for motion stop and animatronics even if goofy cgi lightening is used,lol.
 
Well that's actually a pretty tough question. To answer your question in the most basic terms, yes, the CGI capabilities are getting better. However with the proliferation of computers, and the abilities of film makers broadening in this area CGI has become more widely used and therefore the chances of getting "bad" CGI are more likely. Also, to use the best CGI techniques it is time consuming and expensive. I mean any body can use a home computer and create some level of CGI effects but it takes a professional to make it look good. I mean it's just like anything else, anybody can cut your hair or work on your car but if you want it done right, more than likely your going to have to pay more for it. Since the movie business is all about the bottom line sometimes, especially in direct to DVD and made for TV movies, the special effects are going to suffer.
Now with all of this being said, I personally am a fan of the old school effects. I mean the alien in Alien an Aliens is way more effective than the alien in say, Species. The original Terminator is far superior to the one in T2 or T3 in my opinion. But in Jurassic Park obviously they couldn't use simple animatronics to get that result so they got the best people, took their time and paid the price. The result is special effects that still stand-up today. I would imagine the Lord of the RIngs trilogy is another example of CGI that will still look good years from now.
 
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