When did CGI go bad?

     I for one am not a fan of using CGI in movies or television. There are hardly any movies that I watch and say, “Oh wait, THAT was CGI?”. I can always tell, especially when it’s a pasted-in background. I wasn’t always so down on CGI. I was like many people when it first started coming out. The best word to describe it was “awestruck”. But when did it go bad? At least for me? Well, let me start with when it was at it’s best.

Awesomeness

     The Jurassic Park films will always be the best movies using CGI. Ever since I was a little kid and saw those dinosaurs stomping around, I was hooked. But the thing was, those dinosaurs looked as real as they could get. I would say that it was the CGI work in general, but it was actually the CGI being used as just a part in the machine of special effects. Puppets were still being used in this movie, which melded well with the digital aspects of the film. This use of puppeteering with the CGI created a realistic portrayal that I really don’t think is seen anywhere else in Hollywood. And to think, Steven Speilberg originally wanted to use stop-motion. It was a good call by Speilberg to switch over to CGI, but this would lead to many ramifications in Hollywood.

Jar Jar Binks where he should be: In chains...

     So let’s bring it a bit forward now. Star Wars Episode I came out, and almost everything in it was CGI. It looked fake to me, even back then. But the technology was still so new that it didn’t bother me. Plus I was only a kid. Looking back on it now, having characters that were fully CGI was a mistake. They looked weird, and weren’t easy to connect with. Jar Jar Binks was already frustrating, but being an “imaginary” character probably didn’t help many people. Two more prequels were to be made, and each was filled with more CGI trash. My disenchantment was starting to come a little closer.

Humans! Now with 100% more CGI!

     Cue I Am Legend. I was really excited for this movie when it was announced. I had just read the original novella by Richard Matheson and was psyched to see it on the big screen. But before the movie came out, I read about how the “vampires” being played by actual actors were replaced by CGI characters. It was a breaking point for me. Why change something that was so close to being human into a digital being? I tried not to be stuck in my beliefs, but after seeing the movie, my nightmares were true. The vampires looked so horrible that my anger was beyond words. Everyone I saw the movie with loved it, so I kept my true feelings hidden for a while. It was just dumbfounding. I think using real actors would have been much more effective in putting forth the idea that Will Smith was the real monster in the film (but really, you can’t have that now, can you?). How awesome would it have been to never actually show the vampires until he had one sitting on a table in front of him? Make it so he keeps making them out to be so inhuman in the beginning that when you get your first glimpse of one actually being human it was a shock to the system. That would have helped the movie for me. But of course, Hollywood ruined it.

"You're too late, Dr. Jones. We have already replaced your world with something called 'digital imagery'."

     The last straw was Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull (nice name). The original Indiana Jones films are my favorite movies, so I was excited to see the newest one. I was worried about George Lucas being at the helm after his craptastic  Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. I read an article a few months before the film came out detailing how George Lucas said only a small portion of the movie was CGI. This cooled my jets quite a bit, and I became even more excited for the film to come out. Well George Lucas is a liar. EVERYTHING was CGI. Even the desert in the background at the beginning of the film was CGI. The whole film may as well have just been green screen to me. I had had it. CGI was the worst thing to ever happen to movies (well there is also 3D, but I’ll get to that another time). 

Where did this go? :'(

     So now it seems like everything has to be CGI. Movies have lost the luster they once had. Whatever happened to practical effects? Epic stories were able to be made in the past before CGI, why not anymore? Trash like Transformers, Clash of the Titans (not the original, that one was awesome), and Avatar dance across screens around the world. People have forgotten the classics that looked good and told a good story. CGI should be used as a tool along with other special effects to create something as close to "reality" as possible. Real-life is what should be used in films that have real actors. A film may be fake, but I shouldn’t feel like everything in it is as well.

How Would Colonization of Other Planets Affect Humanity?

     Technology is slowly creeping its way to new pastures.  Advancements are not as common as they once were, or at least, not as public.  Someday, we may have the capability to move between worlds.  Slowly at first, but maybe in the future there will be instantaneous travel between planets using some form of technology.  Most people think about the technology portion of this equation.  But what of humanity itself?  What will happen to us?  By colonizing other worlds and splitting up the population, what will happen?  What changes will we see?

     I would first like to discuss how these colonies would be split up.  How will people be chosen for worlds?  Will it be a mix of different peoples?  Will there be select groups chosen for certain aspects?  Most people would say that specially chosen groups would be the best.  Groups that have a mix of different qualities.  Be it race, gender, profession, IQ, or anything else.  This seems the best course as it would allow for the colony to be diverse like Earth from the start.  But would having these different people together really create a perfect colony?  Probably not.  I’m not saying I would choose having a single type of person on each world, but it could be feasible.  The reason the world is such a nasty place is because there is no tolerance anywhere really.  Sure, places have “tolerance”, but not enough to get rid of hatred and war.  Differences in people are what start these altercations.  So sending certain groups to other worlds would make sense.  Each world could be populated with it’s own race, religion, or political belief.  Could this really work at all?  Maybe at first.  People might start off in agreement, but there will always be factions within factions.  And who is to say there will not be altercations still?  There would almost have to be some communication between worlds.  There will still be disagreements between these different groups.  Nothing will stop them from fighting across the vast distances between them.  So would it be better to start with a mix of people, or separate between them?  

     My next point is the changes in humanity itself.  By separating the human population, will each planet gain a distinct look?  Or even a distinct species?  This might not be the case if travel between planets was instant, or even in a few months or years.  People could then move around the planets at will, and maybe relocate to another planet and broaden the gene pool.  The human race is always changing now, but that is on one world.  We never notice because of this.  But humans on distinct worlds could change in dramatically different ways.  What will happen?  Will some worlds have giants?  Will others have amphibious humans?  Who knows? Changes in biology would of course take a lot longer than cultural ones.  But by being able to travel to other planets quickly, trade would be possible. It is safe to say that each planet will have it’s own distinct “culture”, be it in architecture, clothing, and food.  Trade could keep each planet in check, at least in staying “human”.  But if travel took decades, at least in the sense of relativistic speeds, would the human race on each planet change?  If travel took forever, each planet would have to be self-sustaining.  Trading would not be in as large a scale as it would be if travel was easier.  Would the diet of each world be different then?  How different will architecture and clothing be?  Mostly it would depend on the environment of the planet.  Certain aspects of the environment could force the colonists to adapt in varying ways that could change them drastically.  Without contact from other worlds, will they stay “human”?  Or will others change around them on other planets?  But of course, what is human, and what isn’t?  That definition could change on each planet.

     What about Earth?  Who would stay?  Who would go?  Would people who left feel banished in some way?  Would the people left on Earth feel abandoned?   Would life go on?  Someday, no matter what, the human race will have to leave Earth.  The sun will expand and overtake Earth with it’s fiery mass.  Then our solar system would be unable to sustain life.  The human race’s home would be destroyed.  Would it be forgotten?  Probably.  Over time each world would come up with it’s own history of how it was the homeworld of humans.  Maybe humans would be smart enough to keep our true history intact.  But we have a certain forgetfulness when it comes to our history, so I doubt it.  Earth would probably start out as the “core” world.  It would send out supplies  to the other colonies.  If travel was instant, it wouldn’t be a problem.  But if travel was slow, shipments would have to be sent right after the colony ship was sent in order to accommodate the colonists.  Over time each world would become independent.  Or maybe not.  Earth could stay the authority figure for a very long time.  Or war could break out and another planet would become the “core” world.  Who could ever know?  Some despot could have delusions of a galaxy-wide empire and try to take over.  Or, some planets could go isolationist and stay behind closed doors.  Both could even happen.

     Could a galaxy-wide government even exist?  Maybe.  As long as travel times were halfway decent, it could be possible.  There would be a “core” world, but there would also have to be garrison worlds throughout the galaxy to make sure the government stayed intact.  These garrison worlds would be sort of like a state capital, or maybe a “sector” capital if you are feeling spacey.  It would definitely be hard to keep together, but with certain systems put to work, it could be possible.  Now, if travel took even just a few years between planets, a galaxy-wide government could not stay together.  Problems on each planet could be handled by their respective government, but planet-to-planet disputes would take years to handle, and who knows what will occur during the voyage to another planet.  If communication was instant, it would still be hard to keep the government together.  Sure, a telephone call from the “core” world will have you stop in your steps for a moment, but an armada coming in when you are still alive causing mischief is another deal.  The trouble is, if someone is sent to stop another person or planet from doing something, they probably already did it while they were in transit.  And who is to say they will even be alive when you get there?  Galaxy-wide government would be difficult without instant travel between worlds.

     Sure, this little “essay” is pretty irrelevant.  There isn’t a colony ship going out anytime soon.  But hopefully this has got some people thinking of something other than what’s on television.  Maybe it will make people think towards the future. Someday, this could very well be our descendants problem. What would our culture be? Would a galaxy-wide government work? Would the definition of being human change? I for one would be excited to catch just a glimpse of a future with colony worlds just to answer these questions.