Have We Hit CGI Saturation?

"Pacific Rim" opens in a few days, and the Warners executives are in a bit of a panic. According to Variety, about a month ago early tracking showed that the film isn't generating the kind of interest they were hoping for. "Grown Ups 2," the Adam Sandler comedy, has been getting more buzz. So there has been a big marketing push for "Pacific Rim" in recent weeks, trying to turn the tide and avoid a costly flop. Specifically, they've released several commercials and trailers highlighting the more human side of the movie, avoiding the spectacle of the giant mecha fighting giant monsters, in favor of the humor and characters. Apparently, audiences hadn't been responding well to the earlier promos that solely focused on the towering CGI spectacle, similar to the imagery that made the "Transformers" movies into such huge hits.

This raises the question as to whether we're seeing the beginning of what I'm going to call CGI fatigue. CGI special effects have advanced to the point where we can do pretty much anything with them. In fantasy action movies like "Pacific Rim," "World War Z," and many other summer blockbusters, this has meant being able enlarge the scope of the action and destruction to previously unthinkable extremes. Superman can have a fight that levels a city. Brad Pitt isn't limited to fighting only a few dozen zombie extras, but thousands of them generated by sophisticated computer programs. The trouble is, some filmmakers have become overly reliant on the spectacle to sell the movie. "Pacific Rim" was supposed to be a draw because of its big giant CGI fight scenes, but the marketers soon discovered that the audience wasn't impressed.

I don't think the problem is that people are tired of CGI, exactly. Two of the biggest successes of this summer are CGI animated films "Despicable Me 2" and "Monsters University," and CGI-heavy superhero films like "Iron Man 3" and "Man of Steel" are still going strong. However, the CGI by itself is no longer enough to get the audience into theaters, especially after a summer that has been continuously bombarded by ever-greater amounts of digital carnage. It feels like every big action movie this summer has been trying to one-up the big battle sequence from "The Avengers," just piling on one gargantuan set piece after another at the expense of everything else. Audiences tend to get burned out on these types of action films by late summer, but we're still squarely in the middle of the season, with several more tentpoles to go. It could get really ugly if moviegoing audiences decide that they've had enough of the onslaught and they're done with the CGI spectaculars for the rest of July and August.

Honestly, I think we all knew this was coming. There's always going to be one fundamental problem with the business of spectacle: the novelty wears off. Time and again we've seen some new innovation come to film, be it sound or color or widescreen or 3D. People flock to see it, and quickly become acclimated to it. And then, unless you have filmmakers who do creative and interesting things with that innovation, it's just yesterday's gimmick. What we're looking at now is a public that has decided that CGI spectacle is no longer a novelty, no matter how big and how fancy it is. CGI has kept improving and improving over the last few decades to the point where it's hard to see how much better it could possibly get. The use of CGI so ingrained into modern filmmaking that it's in no danger of ever going out of style, but I'm guessing that we're getting to a point where quality is going to start counting for a little more, and the size of the explosions, a little less.

Fortunately Warner Brothers has some options in promoting "Pacific Rim" - it's been getting good reviews, director Guillermo Del Toro has a loyal fanbase, and several celebrities have come out of the woodwork to praise the film. However, it's clear to see where "Pacific Rim" also cut corners. There are no major stars in the movie, the generic title was somehow never changed to anything more exciting, and it's hard to escape the feeling that it has copied bits and pieces from so many other blockbusters that came before it. Or maybe it was just that the lousy early trailers were so hellbent on emphasizing those parts, trying to get us to associate the movie with previous hits.

Ultimately, I view this as a potential positive. Maybe it'll mean fewer ill-considered mediocrities like "Jack the Giant Slayer" and "Gulliver's Travels." Maybe it'll get Hollywood to spend less time bankrupting effects houses and more time on the scripts - or any time on the scripts at all. Maybe they'll realize there is a difference between a Michael Bay CGI spectacular and one directed by Ang Lee. Maybe they'll stop cutting all the trailers the same frickin' way. Sure, it's wishful thinking, but I'm clearly not the only one getting tired of the movies that are all flash and no bang.
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