Gore Verbinski Thinks Modern CGI is a “A Big Step Backwards”: “The Aesthetic of Games is Leaking Into Cinema”

Remember when CGI felt like pure magic? Think T-1000 in ‘Terminator 2,’ or the dinosaurs stomping through “Jurassic Park.” Those effects knocked our socks off in the ‘90s— more impressively, they’ve aged remarkably well, decades later, still holding up against today’s digital spectacle.

Fast forward to today, and honestly, I can’t help but notice that CGI just doesn’t hit the same way anymore. Audiences aren’t dazzled the way they used to be, and I get it—there’s a real fatigue setting in. Modern effects feel overdone, like they’re replacing anything practical, and even in massive tentpoles, especially superhero movies, there’s this weird flatness, this “video game-y” vibe that never used to be there. It’s like the magic has faded.

This debate has now flared up again, thanks to Gore Verbinski, director of The Ring, Rango, and the first three ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies, who spoke with But Why Tho? about why visual effects in cinema don’t hit the same way they used to.

It’s pretty simple. You’re seeing the Unreal Engine, which was built for video games, creep into visual effects. There used to be a clear line: Unreal for games, Maya for movies. Now, that line is blurring, and the aesthetic of games is leaking into cinema.

Unreal Engine became a household name in Hollywood with its use for virtual production on “The Mandalorian” in 2020, and its influence has only expanded—Marvel also heavily uses it nowadays.

However, Verbinski isn’t convinced it’s a step forward .. he thinks movies look more fake today because of it.

Replacing Maya with Unreal as the backbone? That’s a big step backward. It doesn’t capture light the same way. Subsurface scattering, skin reflections—those things behave differently. That’s why you get uncanny valley creatures, or animation that feels rushed because in-betweening is done for speed rather than by hand.

I think CGI really hit its stride during the era when Verbinski was movies. Since then, it feels like the magic has slipped a bit—so many modern movies just don’t have the same tactile, believable quality in their effects. For me, though, practical elements are still non-negotiable. Physical props, partial sets, even bits of real costumes—they’re what anchor digital effects in reality — they keep things grounded.

For his upcoming sci-fi comedy “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die”—set to hit theaters in February—Verbinski says he’s still using CGI, but with a firm rule: at least half of every frame has to be photographic.

Verbinski’s interview has had people talking today, especially as debates over the “game engine look” in modern movies continue to grow. Is cinema losing something in the race for faster, flashier visual effects? According to Verbinski, the answer is yes.