[sod]

There is a stark effort, skill level, art direction and knowing the limits of cgi cliff between good and "slightly off". How else do you explain district 9 from 13 years ago vs e.g. 200 mio. budget black widow from a year ago.

Meaning: The best tools in the wrong hands can still produce mediocre results.

[kyriakos]

Exaggeration in blockbuster movies doesn't help in this respect. Action sequences are so beyond reality that no matter of how well the cgi is done it will still look unrealistic. On the other hand District 9 in addition to artistic excellence it was also grounded in terms of plot which helped with suspension of disbelief.

[lm28469]

I recently watched jurassic park 1 and jurassic world 1 back to back, it's the perfect example of that

[theCrowing]

The VFX studio puts out what they are briefed to do. When you go to Siggraph or FMX and watch the long making of presentations most of the time they had better design or comps and had to change because of the director/studio. The cats presentation was fascinating they had really good designs for the cats and had to go with the abomination we saw.

[Beltalowda]

Related story from a few months ago: "Hollywood’s visual effects crisis": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32421538

[mensetmanusman]

District 9!! Thanks for reminding me about such a funny movie.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

Wasn't that Jackson's first big deal?

[dagw]

Peter Jackson? If so, no. District 9 came out years after LOTR and Peter Jackson only produced it. The advertising however splashed his name all over the movie to try to associate it with LoTR so that more people would go and see it. "From the Director of a few car and shoe commercials, plus a couple of indie short films you definitely haven't seen" doesn't really have the same ring.

Fun fact. District 9 was born out of a failed attempt by Peter Jackson to make a Halo movie. Due to financing troubles the Halo movie ended being put on hold, but since they already had a team and all these sets in place they decided to use that to make a cheaper and quicker movie instead, and so District 9 was born.

[oblak]

Blomkemp. Jackson's first big deal was Braindead/Dead Alive. Still his best movie, imho.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

Ah! Thanks for the corrections!

[mashygpig]

Why do you say funny?

[noobermin]

Someone will mention AI in this thread I promise you.