Star Wars: Attack of the Clones – 2002
The visual effects in this movie were pretty good, but I feel they could have been a little bit better. While they were not nearly as hokey as they were in The Phantom Menace, I don’t think they got everything right. The creature effects, while pretty competent, still looked too cartoonish, and the movement of some of the CGI characters still looked unnatural. But aside from those minor flaws, the effects were mostly photo-realistic.
One of the things they got totally right was the realistic skin textures on the CGI characters and creatures, of which there were many. These computer-generated images held up fairly well under close scrutiny, at least visually. Yes, there were a few of them that looked too much like drawings, but if that was the case, they looked like incredibly good drawings. I think that their biggest failings were in the way they moved, and that tied in very closely with their designs.
The worst offenders of this were the tall and slender aliens of the planet Kamino, where the clone army was grown. The super thin and elongated design of their necks looked physically impossible. But I get it. This is science fiction, so I can let it pass, but then the hyper-graceful way they moved looked really fake and forced. They moved in slow-motion, and when they walked, only their legs moved with their steps, and nothing else. Everything from their hips to their heads were completely motionless. My brain would have accepted the illusion if their entire bodies, strange as they were, would have moved like they were taking steps. Even the fabric of their robes seemed to move in slow-motion, breaking the illusion even more for me. Their motion just looked mechanical and fake. But then we look at Yoda, who was also completely CGI, and he looked just fine. So were the insect creatures of Geonosis.
But I will say that the filmmakers always got one thing absolutely perfect: the unique alien environments. Whether it was the busy landscape of the planet-sized city, Coruscant, the turbulent waters and rain of the ocean planet, Kamino, the beautiful grasslands of Naboo, or the Romanesque colosseum of Geonosis, the varied environments all looked fantastic. I also really liked the cloning labs on Kamino. In fact, I think that’s one thing that all the Star Wars films have always done a pretty good job with. And lastly, I’ll mention one really cool CGI moment that I absolutely love every time I watch the movie. It is when Yoda takes out his lightsaber and fights Dooku. The way he leaps around, spinning like a Dervish, was actually pretty awesome, and the visual effects team made the duel seem both believable and exciting. The first time I watched it in the theatre, I remember cheering like everyone else.