Pirates of the Caribbean Director Blames Unreal Engine and Video Game Aesthetics for the Decline of CGI in Movies
Have you ever wondered why modern movies often have worse special effects compared to older ones? When you compare today’s blockbusters to those from the early 2000s — with a few exceptions — the difference is clear. Films like King Kong by Peter Jackson, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, or the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy are far superior in terms of visual effects.
According to Gore Verbinski, who directed the first Pirates of the Caribbean films and the 2002 remake of The Ring, Unreal Engine is to blame. While it’s primarily used in video games, several high-budget productions such as The Mandalorian and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania have adopted Unreal Engine for their visual effects.
Unreal Engine Is Ruining CGI, Says Pirates of the Caribbean Director
In an interview with But Why Tho, Verbinski explained that the mistake lies in adopting a video game aesthetic — trying to replicate the visual results achieved in Unreal Engine within the film industry. However, the difference between older CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) and what we see now is clear.
Verbinski said, “I think the simplest answer is you’ve seen the Unreal gaming engine enter the visual effects landscape.”
The director noted that there used to be a clear divide between game engines and film production tools, but more studios are now turning to Unreal Engine for final visual effects. Games like Silent Hill 2 Remake and Alan Wake 2 show how impressive Unreal Engine 5 can look in gaming, yet its translation to film is far less convincing.
He explained, “So it used to be a divide, with Unreal Engine being very good at video games, but then people started thinking maybe movies can also use Unreal for finished visual effects. So you have this sort of gaming aesthetic entering the world of cinema. I think that Unreal Engine coming in and replacing Maya as a sort of fundamental is the greatest slip backwards.”
Verbinski admitted that Unreal Engine delivers high-quality visuals, but they often make creatures and environments look unrealistic.
“It works with Marvel movies where you kind of know you’re in a heightened, unrealistic reality. I think it doesn’t work from a strictly photo-real standpoint,” he added. “I just don’t think it takes light the same way; I don’t think it fundamentally reacts to subsurface, scattering, and how light hits skin and reflects in the same way. So that’s how you get this uncanny valley when you come to creature animation, a lot of in-betweening is done for speed instead of being done by hand.”
The director’s opinion will likely connect with many movie fans who feel that films from the 2000s often look better than many of today’s CGI-heavy productions. However, in the gaming world, Unreal Engine continues to do very well.
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