#are part and parcel of entertainment at large or even just disney specifically

[alltingfinns]

I’ve said it before. CGI works best when it’s used to enhance practical effects. (Like Jurassic Park that did have CGI, but not like later movies that only used CGI.)

I wouldn’t blame Marvel movies though as 1) the increased reliance on CGI predates the MCU by a far bit (most infamously in the SW PT that came out 1999-2005 when IM came out 2008) and 2) the mcu still has used practical effects. You think the fake chest Tony asked Pepper to stick her hand in was digital?

It’s honestly annoying how everyone wants to blame “marvel movies” for the decline of western civilization or whatever. Just say that you don’t know that other movie franchises exist, and have no idea of the larger trends of the entertainment industry.

Besides, we all know the real blame lies with T2; Judgement Day.

Producers were always going to prefer cgi over practical as computing gets cheaper and cheaper. CGI effects don’t require storage or upkeep, and won’t break down on set.

But Terminator 2 made even less realistic usage of CGI look “cool”. (Though it’s worth pointing out that one of the more visually engaging effects, the drops combining to reconfigure the T-1000, is actually a practical effect.) Regardless of wether the CGI was good/bad/correctly implemented, the point is that this movie had some of the most obvious examples. And it was an absolute blockbuster.

The popularity of this movie with the audience would certainly have convinced the producers in Hollywood that movies made this way could still make money. And it was the early nineties so computers had started to become cheaper and cheaper.

You can see a pretty clear break between the eighties and nineties in terms of practical effects (including puppetry) being replaced by cgi. Nineties cgi is horribly dated now, but immensely popular at the time. Though even then, by the late nineties at least, people were getting sick of it.

But sure. “Marvel movies” are why people nowadays aren’t used to practical effects. They’re also why silent film stars can’t catch a break with the “talkies” and why everything is in color.

Marvel movies have completely eliminated the concept of practical effects from the movie-watching public’s consciousness