How important are visual effects as the main attraction for audiences?

Fraser McKean
AS Film


Visual effects are implemented to increase the immersion and overall aesthetics of a film, certain genres such as fantasy, sci-fi and other genres that utilize heavy use of this graphical engineering more than not, benefit from it.
Using visual effects can create a great deal of short cuts for the film-maker, including the creation of landscape, impossible architecture, monsters and other aesthetically pleasing sights, this can be used in some good ways to also increase a film's popularity when done correctly, this can also be the case for the complete opposite however, as some films are panned at the box offices for providing and implementing poor visuals which can completely ruin the immersion and the overall experience.




One film that makes a good use of visual effects is The Hobbit franchise, directed by Peter Jackson, as each of the three films use a high range of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) such as the ability to create large battle scenes as well as the dragon that is feature in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The franchise is praised for it's excellent use of visual effects and does not draw any consequences due to how in the franchise's latest entry; The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) had a budget of $250,000,000 and made $255,108,370 in the USA box office, this is noted as a success which also contributes to a well received visual effect effort.





Another film is J.J Abrams' Star Trek (2009), a science-fiction action film that makes use of a large portion of visual effects such as CGI, with a budget of $140,000,000, it is more than likely that a large percentage of this went towards the visual effects as this production. Visuals are a contributing factor to the Sci-fi genre such as the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, this is due to the expectation of space battles and demanding CGI elements that have become to be a standard for many films within this genre, it is arguably the most important asset of this genre.




Other films such A Two-Faced Charade (2015), an American independent short-film by Charlie Anderson uses some visual effects that have been poorly received by critics, one the effects includes colour alteration of a character's eyes, this is an example of when a visual effect that is originally intended for an enhanced viewing for the audience, becomes a "tacky" and "off-putting" experience that distracts from an already positive rating (9.1 - IMBD) from Charlie Anderson, who is a Digital Imaging technician that worked on box office successes such as 22 Jump Street (2014) and Now You See Me (2013).




James Cameron's Avatar (2009), is a film that has gained world renowned fame for it's execution of stereoscopy vision as well as it's animation quality, making $760,505,847 from the USA box office from it's budget of  $237,000,000, it made three times the amount that Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug made, despite a higher budget in the latter. This is a prove of concept that the execution of the visual effects which can justify the immersion that the audience has can greatly impact the success of the film.




Under the Skin, an independent directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Scarlet Johansson, is a sci-fi genre film that again, conforms to the expectation of using a large amount of visual effects that have come to be expected in the genre, however, the visual effects in this feature are more of lighting, hues and cinematography such as the strobe lighting and filtered views from colours ranging from blue, to green, to red as well as editing scenes together but replacing certain items with others, in one instance, a man is deflated and is similar to that of a plastic bag being popped.
This is all an extended element of visual effects and although they do not bear a strong resemblance to the CGI work of Avatar or The Hobbit, they offer an alternative to the recycled visual effects that are included in many modern sci-fi pieces.







As a conclusion, the importance of visual effects in the film industry largely depends of the quality that it is included in the actual film, as it has been proven that a film's rating and success can hinge of the validity of some visual effects, whether it completely hinders the overall film, or if it is it's own greatest asset, the status of visual effects can only be judge on the basis of how it is executed.