Every single big budget movie nowadays has at least a hint of CGI in it – no matter if it’s a summer blockbuster with crazy large monsters and mechas and lightsabers, or simply a little drama film. Back in the good old days (aka 80s) CGI was being incorporated only in short scenes. A notable example is a racing scene from the movie Tron. And 11 years later, Jurassic Park changed everything. It was the first example where live actors were sharing their space with computer-generated images, and to this day it’s mind-blowing how well they blend together. Nowadays, however, we’re so used to the effects, and we’ve come to a point where we’ve been spoiled enough to detect badly incorporated CGI. Movies that have heavy use of the latter do not seem to age well. In lieu of the very nice Sonic movie coming up, this is a nice interesting video on good and bad CGI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4WrKeoeZhk
And even though CGI can be extremely well done, it still has a long way to go. In the last decade a LOT of improvements have been made, especially when it comes to hair/fur, natural lighting, and environments (buildings, grass, fire, water especially) in general. And yet, it still manages to feel… off. Let’s take the upcoming Lion King for example. It’s fully CGI, incredibly realistic (especially landscapes), but the animals don’t feel real. There’s this feeling of uncanny valley whenever you see these creatures do things (at least judging from that trailer footage). And there still hasn’t been a single scene of any of the characters talk, which could lead to a whole other area of uncanny valley.
