“I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.”

An example of the real scale of the pyramids. https://twitter.com/digbylidstone/status/1511165586344194055...

It looks fine, what am I supposed to notice?

It’s not the technology. It’s lack of vision, talent and passion combined with executive meddling.

Most directors hired consistently these days are low talent “yes people” who won’t rattle cages and will do what the execs want, produce milquetoast inoffensive movies that can be successfully marketed to China.

One of the major contributors to this is the increasing number of VFX studios and artists that have never done physical effects or camera work on set. Early CGI was made, or at least supervised by crews with extensive experience on real props and costumes. Theres a lot more than detailed textures and "physically based rendering" that go into making an effect look real, such as framing the effects shot with recongnizable features for scale and "presence". A poor quality 3d model with bad textures can feel convincing if the director and VFX artists coordinate to fully integrate the effects. Likewise a super detailed and well animated CG character can be ruined by poor shot placement and floaty camera movement. Honestly, so many otherwise fantastically rendered CGI scenes have been destroyed by virtual cameras that accelerate and fly with zero regard for physics. Cutting edge hair physics and multimillion polygon models still need the cinema basics of good camerawork, blocking, and editing.