Computer generated effects, which burst onto the scene about 20 years ago, have gone from taking our breath away in films like the Abyss, Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park to exhausting our eyeballs and generally getting on our nerves in today's current crop of would-be blockbusters. Twitchguru has a breakdown of some of the worst CGI offenders of the past few years. My take is that effects are in a film to service the story, and used properly, can make a good film better (witness the Lord of the Rings and...well....the Lord of the Rings.) But a lot of directors, George Lucas included, can't keep their hands out of the candy jar and pile on the effects like there's no tomorrow, simply because they can. When a die-hard geek and effects junkie like myself is getting sick of the excess, Hollywood is in big trouble.
I'm glad the article mentioned "Spider-Man". I thought the action sequences in that film were horrible. I find that CGI scenes fail most when they replicate impossible camera moves, as the afore-mentioned film does. Say what you will about "Attack of the Clones", but there's a couple psuedo-handheld shots in the final battle that really sell it well.
That's true, and those shots came as a bit of a shock, since they were abit different than the usual Star Wars shots. For a better version of same, watch the space combat sequences in BattleStar Galactica. It's all shot as if it's some guy waving his camera around in a frenzy in space...really sells it.
BSG has some of the best CG around on film or television. I have to give it up to the guys who crank out that show, all they use is off the shelf software, but they do it in a style that fits the show perfectly.
And yeah the shots in AOTC were great. Fake camera moves tell an audience right away that it is a fake shot, we know it is Spider-Man but know camera on earth can do a 360 dive while tracking with the protagonist.
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