Rick Baker retires. This is bad.

[Xanderfox]

Originally Posted by sybersamurai

Rick Baker already retired practically. When was the last movie that fully utilized him? The Wolfman is a perfect example. You have the legend himself doing the movie he always wanted to do and they ended up using him more as just a consultant in favor of that garbage CGI scene.

It's more the who "it's official now" thing, he was effectively retired before he officially retired.

Hollywood has always had problems and always will. Finding the right way to use special effects technology is just one of a laundry list of issues that will always persist. A New technology will often be used unnecessarily, making certain moves worse experiences by focusing on a gimmick rather than an entertaining story and characters. When a film is CGI driven failure is easy to see, when film makers misuse it or rely on it too wow the audience to try and make what is a sub par effort successful. There will also always be film makers who use technology right, who can use a spectacular CG effect to make a film better.

[popperock]

Luckily, Rob Bottin's still around too. If you've never heard of him, he did the effects for The Thing, RoboCop and The Howlling and was Baker's understudy.

As an aside, I too find the CGI sploogefest in movies tiring as well. I don't get how people think that they look better than practical. Look at Escape from New York vs. Escape from L.A. for example. New York is all practical (even the computer readout on the glider is a practical effect, done by some Canadian dude named Jim Cameron) and uses matte paintings to simulate the New York skyline (also done by Cameron). It still looks realistic today. L.A., on the other hand, has some of the shoddiest fucking CGI work I've ever seen in a film, especially the surfing scene. I mean fuck, the surfing scenes you used to see on 60's TV, the one's that were clearly just the actors standing in front of a rear projector and pretending to balance looked better than Escape from L.A., and that was done on four times the budget of the first film (and yes, that is adjusting for inflation). I guess my point is fuck lazy ass directors that want to do everything difficult in post and the shit studios who force CGI in films due to lobbying by the industry.