CGI is now commonplace in the world of movies.
Everything from characters and buildings to skies and entire cityscapes can be created
with computer-generated imagery.
It's done for a variety of reasons - sometimes simply because it looks better, other times
because it's cost-effective, and for a number of other reasons too.
Without the CGI applied, any movie that utilises it looks very different, but certain movies
look totally unrecognisable - and that's what this video is going to take a look at.
So, sit back, enjoy it, and don't forget to subscribe to our channel to see more highly
enjoyable videos in the future.
Here are ten movies that look nothing like you'd expect before CGI.
The Avengers In 2012's The Avengers, the titular superhero
team took on an army of aliens in New York City.
It will come as absolutely no surprise to you to learn that the aliens in the movie
weren't real, but the majority of the battle wasn't even filmed in New York.
The main actors could only be in the Big Apple together for a couple of days, so a majority
of the battle scenes in New York were actually filmed in New Mexico using a green screen.
So when you see Captain America, Thor and company fighting an alien in NYC, you're actually
watching them taking swings at actors with sensors on them in New Mexico!
Jurassic World Now, it goes without saying that real dinosaurs
weren't used in 2015's Jurassic World - you know, given that they've been extinct for
65 million years - but how some of the movie looked before CGI was applied may still surprise
you.
In many scenes, the actors filming scenes involving dinos had to pretend something was
there.
In others - such as some involving velociraptors - they actually had actors with motion sensors
on them as a point of reference.
Moreover, some of the scenery in the movie was nowhere near as vivid or spectacular as
it was prior to CGI being applied to it.
Gravity You're probably already aware that 2013's
Gravity wasn't filmed in space.
If you're not aware of that, it wasn't!
The majority of the scenes in space were filmed in plain white rooms - and the space backgrounds
were applied using CGI later - but that's not all that was CGI.
The equipment that the astronauts were using wasn't really there - even the small stuff.
When the actors appeared to be turning knobs, pressing buttons or holding onto handles,
they were actually just motioning in thin air.
Yup, even the gadgets they were using were all computer-generated!
Life of Pi 2012's The Life of Pi sees the titular Pi
Patel spending most of the movie in a boat, at sea, accompanied by a Bengal tiger named
Richard Parker.
It may come as a surprise to you, therefore, to learn that none of the movie was filmed
at sea and no real tigers were used in the filming of the movie.
The boat was on water, but it was in a studio surrounded by green screens - and the tiger
was completely CGI.
In most instances, there was nothing present to represent the tiger.
Although, for the scenes in which Pi physically interacted with it - such as when it was sleeping
across his lap - a blue doll was used.
The Wolf of Wall Street 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street is one of the
last movies you'd ever think required CGI - it's not as if it was a fantasy or sci-fi
movie that was full of weird creatures or spectacular alien landscapes - but the fact
is it was actually teaming with CGI.
The foreign locations the main characters visited - such as Monaco - were created using
green screens, whilst even the areas surrounding the beach houses they partied in were massively
enhanced by CGI.
No wonder the movie's budget was so inexplicably high!
Captain America: Civil War Like The Avengers before it on this list,
the Marvel Cinematic Universe's flagship 2016 offering, Captain America: Civil War, heavily
utilised green screens for locations that you might not think required it - such as
the airport scene for the epic battle between Team Captain America and Team Iron Man.
One scene in particular that looked very different without CGI was that one in which Captain
America stops the helicopter with his bare hands.
Not only is the entire surrounding scenery produced via CGI, it's also filmed at near-ground-level
in a studio - and not on a rooftop at all.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Another superhero movie that is obviously
absolutely littered with CGI is 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
A lot of the backdrops - such as those in Metropolis - were created using a green screen,
but there was a lot more to the CGI than that.
For example, when Batman was wearing his powered armour to fight against Superman, a huge chunk
of that fight was Henry Cavill acting alongside a stuntman with sensors all over his body
- there was no actual physical prop armour, like Robert Downey Jr sometimes wears as Iron
Man, for example.
Godzilla Like so many other characters and creatures
on this list, it goes without saying that 2014's Godzilla was created using CGI.
However, titular monster aside, there was a lot more computer-generated imagery in the
movie that might actually surprise you.
For example, in the scenes where the army are on the coast attempting to attack the
monsters, not only are there no monsters, there isn't actually a coast either!
It's just a green screen!
The sea, the battleships, the clouds, the monsters and everything else in front of the
soldiers isn't really there.
Avatar 2009's Avatar is the highest-grossing movie
of all time, so you're probably familiar with it.
You'll know it's based on the planet of Pandora and that the alien species the Na'vi are the
movie's main stars - and you'll obviously know that's all fictional - but that still
might not prepare you for what the movie looked like without CGI.
The spectacular scenery on Pandora probably made you think the movie was at least filmed
in a jungle - but it wasn't.
It was actually filmed in a very plain, boring studio, with actors running around wearing
tight-fitting, customised helmets that had a carbon fibre boom with a camera on the front
for facial recognition purposes.
Suicide Squad Although there are obviously some very unrealistic
and outright fantasy elements to 2016's Suicide Squad movie, it's actually fairly grounded
in comparison to many of the more "out there" superhero offerings - especially in relation
to its setting - so it may shock you to discover that there was a lot of CGI in the movie.
Take the scene in which Harley Quinn falls from the helicopter for example.
That's actually just Margot Robbie, standing upright, with a whirring fan and a green screen
behind her.
There wasn't any falling of any kind involved!
Thanks for watching our video about ten movies that look nothing like you'd expect before
CGI.
Do you know of any other movies that look very strange without CGI?
Have your say in the comments section below and be sure to subscribe to our channel for
more great videos like this one.