Over the years, the attendance rates at movie theaters have been at an all-time low. Why? Many believe the pandemic is to blame, since people got used to not going out and instead stream movies and shows on Netflix, Disney Plus, or Prime Video.
However, I think the reason as to why people aren’t going to cinemas to watch movies today is not because of the distance or pricing, but simply because movies just aren’t that good anymore.
The primary reason I believe this is because of the overuse of computer generated imagery (CGI) and special effects being used instead of taking time to build tangible and realistic backdrops, objects, or even characters. While CGI may be cheaper to produce, it seems as though the believability of movies is also part of the cost.
There are certain movies that came out decades ago that look more realistic than movies today.
Movies like The Invisible Man (1933) showcased elements that were very impressive given the time it was produced. It was tricky to make it look like Claude Rains – the actor who played the Invisible Man – look like he was really invisible. Other actions made by him were also difficult to film, like him picking up objects or showing his footprints in the snow.
The invisibility effect was made possible through “green screen” effects with the use of black velvet and a backdrop of the same color. They also used very thin wire to simulate the Invisible Man lifting objects into the air. The producers had to use their imagination to make this movie come to life, which is one of the reasons it faced so much success.
Later movies used animatronics and costumes to present their inhuman characters.
Them! (1954) featured two life-sized robot ants and the 12 foot front of another ant which was motorized by a couple of operators for more up-close scenes. Smaller versions of the ants were puppets powered by a large fan that sent them to fly toward the end of the movie.
The making of the alien in Alien (1979) was a challenge for H.R Giger. He wanted it to not look like some guy in a rubber suit, and with the first versions of CGI becoming available, he could have made it look genuine and non-humanlike with a computer, yet, Giger insisted on making a costume using latex and plasticine. He even made the drastic choice to include a human skull into the head of the alien for realistic purposes.
The film franchise Star Wars used very little CGI in the first trilogy. Given that it was limited at the time, miniature models were made of the spaceships and only a small amount was used to create a hologram of the Death Star. But, there was an element specifically in Return of the Jedi that would have been difficult to do with the little CGI that was offered: the ewoks. These fuzzy little creatures had to be under 4 feet tall, so what did they do? They hired kids and people with dwarfism to play them instead of creating them digitally.
Around the early 2000s was when CGI became more prominent, and it definitely took a wrong turn.
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl (2005) is a common example. Though it may be a kids movie, it had a budget of 50 million dollars, which was used towards sloppy textures and computer-generated backgrounds. For a really enticing kids’ movie concept, it was a horrible choice for production to make the majority of the film CGI.
The movies in the Twilight saga (2011) is noticeably more realistic, yet it is known for laughable scenes that mostly contain some sort of CGI. In Breaking Dawn Part 1, it features a completely generated baby which looked humorously fake and took away from what was actually happening in the scene. Another semi-generated addition was from the first Twilight movie, the iconic “skin of a killer” scene in which makeup and CGI made Edward Cullen – played by Robert Pattinson – look impractical and downright funny.
The most recent example of this is The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025). Before the film even reached theaters, Marvel representatives had to confirm to the public that the posters endorsing their movie was not AI-generated. Additionally, the movie continues the Twilight theme of CGI-ed babies, and the baby, Franklin, being the center of the plot, threw the movie off.
Movies of today just do not give the same effect as movies from the past. While it is inevitable to have advancements in technology, it would improve the quality of films greatly if producers started adding a minimal amount of fake computer graphics.