Some of the impressive CG work on Master and Commander even fooled director Peter Weir. ™ and © 2003 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and Universal Studios and Miramax Film Corp. All rights reserved.

Master and Commander occupies perhaps the most innovative spot. Never before in film has a historical era sprung to such vivid life. But on careful examination, it was the harmony between all aspects of the film, everything from makeup to costume to the meticulous design of the miniatures and CG ships, with everything playing in unison that created what is probably the most convincing historical drama in decades. When we think of the historical classics of the past, such moments as the boat battle in Ben-Hur comes to mind, in which boats without sailors are shown, and the viewer must complete the scene imaginatively, based on the cues of the images, not the images themselves.

The Near Future of CGI
With Hulk and Gollum, 2003 brought forth the two most convincing CG characters ever created. Eight-time Academy award winner Dennis Muren of ILM thinks that a convincing human CG character is still years ahead. “ It has taken us a long time to get to the point that we can do characters that are somewhat recognizable as living things. Nobody knew what dinosaurs looked like. If you saw a real dinosaur, I’m sure the Jurassic Park stuff would look really fake, but you’ve never seen one, and we did a good artistic interpretation of them. But if you start getting into a human shape, it gets a lot harder, because audiences have a reference point. The closer it gets to being human, whether it’s Hulk or Gollum or any of those things, the harder it gets to do it realistically. Because, for instance, in The Hulk, the creature is in the same scene with Jennifer Connelly, and your eye goes back and forth between the two of them, so the acting better be up to it, and they better look like they fit in there.”

Polar Express looks to become the most debated visual effects-related film of 2004. © Warner Bros. Pictures.

Soon, in such films as The Polar Express, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, I, Robot and The Day After Tomorrow, we will see even more perfect accomplishments in CG characters and environments.

We are far from the time when, to put it in as broad terms as possible, a script is put into one end of a computer and a completed feature film churns out the other end. Not because it won’t be possible, but because it is not desired. As we must accept living in an era of the most rapid technological advancements in the history of humanity, we also must make sure that we never forget that it is the flesh-bound aspects of ourselves that ultimately gives the heart and soul to any narrative undertaking.

Henry Turner is a writer and award-winning filmmaker, whose Lovecraft-inspired horror feature, Wilbur Whateley, won top awards at the Chicago International Film Festival. His writing on film has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, L’ecran Fantastique, Variety and many other publications. A longtime film festival executive, he has programmed for the Slamdance Film Festival, and currently heads FilmTraffick L.A.