Good News! The New Indiana Jones Will NOT Be Nonstop CGI
Tuesday, 08 April 2008
Indiana Jones
As the release of the new Indiana Jones film draws closer, fans are becoming increasingly tense. We want it to be good ... and yet we know it was produced by George Lucas, whose track record is spotty at best when it comes to highly anticipated films featuring beloved characters.
That's why we were glad to learn last week that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will NOT be rife with CGI special effects. Plenty of fine movies have made abundant use of CGI, but Lucas tends to lean on it like a crutch. He'll shove an actor in front of a green screen, give him some ludicrous dialogue to mumble, offer no direction whatsoever, and then have his artists draw a bunch of space lizards in the background in post-production. Slap together enough scenes like that and you've got yourself a prequel!
The new Indy film will reportedly not be like that. The vast majority of the locations are actual sets that were actually built, and they are populated by actual people who actually put on costumes and stood in front of the cameras. This isn't too great a surprise, given that Steven Spielberg (not Lucas) actually directed the film. Spielberg tends to be old-school. He even prefers old-fashioned film over digital video.
How he remains friends with George "embrace the latest technology even at the expense of telling a good story" Lucas, I don't know. One of those opposites-attract things, I guess.
What's so great about not using a ton of CGI? For one thing, even in 2008, even the best computer wizardry often looks slightly fake. A good rule of thumb is that if it's easy to spot which elements are CGI and which are real, you've used too much CGI -- and the CGI you used wasn't good enough. An adventure movie like Indiana Jones relies on drawing the audience into the excitement of the situation. If the situation is too obviously contrived or manipulated, it pulls us out of the action.
Furthermore, the Indy films are intended as homages to the old serials that little boys would watch as Saturday matinees in the 1940s. Those films didn't use CGI, obviously, and the best way to capture the same look and feel would be to duplicate some of their techniques. You don't need to copy everything, of course -- technological advancement is a good thing -- but you'll get a much more authentic product if you adhere to the same general principles.
I can understand Spielberg's fondness for the old ways. When I watch something like Ben-Hur or Lawrence of Arabia (and for sure on weekends I do nothing but sit around and watch old four-hour epics), part of my enjoyment comes from being aware of how much effort went into them. When there's a huge crowd scene, or a massive expanse of desert, a voice in the back of my head says, Wow! They really did have to assemble a huge crowd, or they really did have to shoot that in a massive expanse of desert. When I watch a modern film and see such an image, that voice in the back of my head is quiet, because I know there was probably some CGI shortcutting involved.
So here's hoping Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, despite its terrible, obviously Lucas-generated title, turns out to be a refreshing throwback and an exhilarating adventure. Heck -- here's hoping it just doesn't suck. That's really all we're asking for at this point.
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