Before the dawn of time, there was only darkness. And then the God of Computers came and said – Let There Be Light. CGI illuminated the movies and made us look at them with a completely different lens. Filmmakers all over the world have been using CGI to breathe life into some very popular and iconic movie scenes.
War For The Planet Of The Apes
Make way for Caesar! War for The Planet Of The Apes was arguably the best installment in the new Planet Of The Apes trilogy. It had many scenes where the movie used CGI to its maximum effect. The Special effects were well-drawn out and it blended naturally into the story line. Not once did we find the film-maker use CGI as a cash-grab move like many of the other blockbuster CGI laden movies nowadays.
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them
Eddie Redmayne kept insisting on getting a real life prop for a Griffin for this shot. But the crew decided it was better to use a green screen and CGI the whole thing. Truth be told, this scene would have given us the chills no matter what.
Jurassic Park
Who can forget the famous Jurassic Park scene where Jeff Goldblum is being chased by a hungry T-Rex? But we are here to burt your bubble. The scene was shot with no prop in the background. Jeff Goldblum was just filmed running frantically. Computers were used to add the Dinosaur in Post Production.
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Fun fact – almost all the scenes in every POTC movie was shot in a studio. Most of the actors did not even take as much as a dive into open waters. That sounds kind of a let down don’t you think?
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Many don’t know this but Rocket Raccoon was only given the voice of Bradley Cooper. He was played on the sets by James Gunn‘s brother. Did the script also ask him to look this depressed??
Avengers
The 2012 movie had a budget that was North of 220 Million US Dollars. It was famous for using groundbreaking CGI technology hat had not even been seen in Hollywood before. The reality of this scene makes us squirm and laugh at the same time.
Avatar
James Cameron’s masterpiece was shot in a huge green screen space. Since the movie was a hundred per cent CGI, all these shots included actors playing their characters in dotted suits with a green background.
Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince
The Harry Potter movies are unique in the sense that the entire franchise has movies ranging from using practical effects to using full on CGI as subsequent installments were released. The Half-Blood Prince was a movie that used a combination of the two.
Alice In Wonderland
While Avatar was art, Alice In Wonderland was an abomination. Rampart overuse of CGI destroyed the tone and theme of the movie. We would have preferred if they had just made it an animated movie.
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead man’s Chest
It’s been more than a dozen years since Dead Man’s Chest was released. There is still no match for the CGI brilliance that was Davy Jones’ tentacled face.
Terminator: Genisys
Despite its obvious flaws and fallacies, Terminator Genisys got one thing right – the antagonist. It gave us a feel similar to that of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In that movie, Cameron focused all his energies in getting the bad guy right. Genisys may not be as good as Judgment Day but at least the movie got the CGI for Jason Clarke and his smug Australian look right. Look at the bright side folks!!
The Matrix
This scene is so iconic they even have a name for it – Bullet Time. But the truth behind this scene will leave you in splits. Keanu reeves and Hugo Weaving were just hung by a band of strings while cameras in all directions took shots of them. Filmmaking never looked easier.
Atomic Blonde
This is a technique literally every blockbuster period or historical drama piece is guilty of using. What the Director does is they instruct the movie crew to block the areas that do not fit the date or time period with green screen obstructions. The green screen is then used to CGI scenes and locations into the frame. Atomic Blonde used that to great effect.
Jungle Book
That’s Mowgli hugging the body-less head of a jaguar. The kid must have been suffering from nightmares ever since. Does this scene amount of child abuse? Just kidding. We are not looking to file a lawsuit. (Or are we??)
King Kong
Peter Jackson made us all look like monkeys. This iconic scene from King Kong shows Naomi Watts being held by a pair of fat green clippers. The human banana scene looked so terrifying post CGI. The pre CGI scene makes us laugh out loud so hard.
