Question by Allen: Why do filmmakers use an unnecessarily large amount of CGI these days?
Best answer:
Answer by Chris A.
Because they can.
It used to be that you were limited in what you could create in the story because there was no way to represent it on screen. Now, because CGI has become a tool in which you can create any situation, creature, etc., some directors use CGI to put their wildest imaginations on screen.
The problem is that most try too hard, or use it as a crutch. Avatar is a great example of a director knowing his limitations and creating technology to allow his dreams to show on the movie screen.
Take Matrix Reloaded for example: they imagined that Neo would fight 100 Agent Smiths. And guess what: they had to rely on CGI to make it happen, and it ended up showing what they wanted you to see, but it looked a little fake. Perhaps if they had tempered their vision, they could have done a better job.
Plus, it’s cheaper. Like setting up an elaborate stunt, or using a fake location. Like Pandora, it’s cheaper to create it in a computer than to film at a real one that needs to look like a location that could never actually exist.
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