When I saw the title of Olly Richardson’s rant on The Empire Blog asking if CG has killed our imaginations, I presumed he meant filmmakers’ imaginations and how special effects are less creative when done with the ease of computer graphics. But no, he’s really talking about our imaginations, meaning me and you and everyone we know. I’d never given it too much thought, but maybe modern audiences are really losing their ability to believe at the movies:
We never used to be so picky. If somebody watches the original King Kong or any of the works of Ray Harryhausen, you will never hear them complain about how the skeletons were a bit jerky or that the big ape’s fur didn’t blow realistically when he was climbing the Empire State Building (if they do complain, however, you should feel free to shoot them on the grounds of wrongness and philistinism). You just watch the film, acknowledge that what you are seeing couldn’t possibly exist, admire the artistry it took to create it and choose to believe it anyway. That’s what suspension of disbelief is: ignoring the protests of your eyes and more logical parts of your brain in order to enjoy a good story.
Yet I don’t think most complaints regarding the realism or believability of a film like The Incredible Hulk (which sparked Olly’s piece) is really focused on acceptance of the Hulk’s existence or even how realistic he looks in CG. It’s about believing a creature’s existence and tangibility within the world of the film and within the context of the filmmakers’ intentions.
Ray Harryhausen effects were featured in a lot of movies that weren’t supposed to be taken seriously. Today’s blockbusters, however, come with the pretense that they contain more realistic effects. Otherwise, they would just use cell animation and puppets like they did in the old days. Speaking of which, part of the problem is that characters like Yoda and the Gremlins (look at that BT ad to see how puppets are still excellent) were already truly realistic more than 20 years ago, because they were made from real, tangible substances, and were able to be accepted within the worlds of their films.
Meanwhile, a film like Labyrinth, in which the puppets and animatronics look more like puppets and animatronics than real breathing creatures, is still fine because it makes no claim to be anything but what it is. But ever since Jurassic Park, we’ve come to put up with a Hollywood that wants us to buy every little CG thing as photo-realistic. At least Olly acknowledges the present conditions:
We’ve now arrived at a place where technology is capable of producing something so photo-realistic that if we can detect a small patch of skin that doesn’t fold in the right way or an eye that fails to glint with emotion, we cry foul and declare what’s on screen to be ridiculous and unbelievable. I’ve done it myself, huffing through Spider-Man 3 about the fact that the giant man made of sand just didn’t look like a real giant man made of sand. I base this complaint on precisely no experience of giant men made of sand, just a belief in what he should look like. Apparently my vision contrasted with those of the vastly more talented and able people at ILM (or whomever created it). So, why have we become so demanding? Why have our eyes taken over the job of filmic enjoyment from our brains?
The issue is not with our visions not coinciding with ILM’s, though. That kind of thing was happening more than a 100 years ago to Verne fans watching a Melies film (and in 1902, they were believing everything on screen was real). And the belief of what a man made of sand looks like shouldn’t really vary too far from what an effects technician believes. Complaints about the detail and realism behind Spider-Man 3’s Sandman likely have more to do with where the effects guys cut corners and ended up failing to deceive our eyes.
There is no way that Universal or director Louis Leterrier mean for the Hulk in their movie to not look realistic and tangible. Not after the criticisms against Ang Lee’s The Hulk. So, yes, fans do have a right to scrutinize the reboot for not looking any better, and it has nothing to do with a lack of imagination or ability to suspend disbelief. They could easily just go and read another Hulk comic or even watch the ’70s TV show, which may have been totally cheesy but at least had a palpable character in simply using a green-painted bodybuilder.
