Anna Daniels
The advent of CGI has made so much possible. In particular, fantasy, science fiction, and superhero adaptations have benefited from digital contributions to moviemaking. Without it, most if not all of the big-budget event films of the past few decades wouldn’t have happened — at least, not in a live-action format. Green screens, motion capture technology, and other digital moviemaking innovations make a kind of spectacle possible in other big-budget action films that Westerns simply can’t compete with.
Consider the Siege of Gondor in The Return of the King and remember the heroic Rohirrim charging the Mumakil — the massive, horned elephant-like creatures. Remember watching Thor and the Hulk bat aliens off a space beast gliding through Manhattan in The Avengers or the unbelievable final battle of Avengers: Endgame, featuring villains and heroes from over a half dozen different franchises. Think of the wizard wars in Harry Potter, the explosives and high-speed chases of a Fast & Furious film, or the clashes of space fleets in Star Wars.
A Western? If it’s a straight Western and not mixed with another genre like Cowboys & Aliens, then at best, it will have a bunch of people shooting at each other. Listen, we’re not dissing Westerns. It’s just that they’re usually set in a time where the potential for stunning visual spectacle can’t compete to armies of giant war elephants or a 50-foot-tall Paul Rudd breaking a flying space whale’s jaw.
Written by: Looper
