Pirates Of The Caribbean director Gore Verbinski has said poor special effects in modern films can be blamed on studios using video game design tools.
Unreal Engine is a 3D development tool created by Epic Games, and used on numerous legendary releases including Fortnite, Gears Of War, and the Batman Arkham series. However Verbinski claims that the program being used for movie effects is resulting in noticeably bad CGI.
Asked why he thinks modern special effects are getting worse, he told But Why Tho?: “I think the simplest answer is you’ve seen the Unreal gaming engine enter the visual effects landscape.
“So it used to be a divide, with Unreal Engine being very good at video games, but then people started thinking maybe movies can also use Unreal for finished visual effects. So you have this sort of gaming aesthetic entering the world of cinema…
“I think that Unreal Engine coming in and replacing (traditional film program) Maya as a sort of fundamental is the greatest slip backwards.”
He added that while it can work for outlandish blockbusters, the tool is not as good for producing realism. “It works with Marvel movies where you kind of know you’re in a heightened, unrealistic reality” he said. “I just don’t think it takes light the same way… So that’s how you get this uncanny valley when you come to creature animation, a lot of in-betweening is done for speed instead of being done by hand.”
Numerous films in recent years have been criticised for poorly designed special effects, with the computer animated dwarfs in last year’s Snow White being criticised for their look. In the superhero genre, Marvel’s Eternals was accused of having “ropey CGI” by critics, while the effects in the DC movie The Flash were described as “weird”, although director Andy Muschietti has hit back at those claims, saying the look was intentional.
In other news, a reboot of the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise is being considered, with producer Jerry Bruckheimer saying he would consider bringing back star Johnny Depp.
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