Glad to have your counterpoint, maegnus. I would agree that CGI is often overused these days. Put human actors next to a CG character, and it's obvious which one isn't really there. This can be really distracting and take you out of the movie.
For some reason, I just thought of the film version of Lost in Space. Remember that random monkey-like creature the family encountered and ended up keeping like a pet (apparently named
Blarp). It served no point to the plot, and was so overly cartoony, I still can't figure out why they included it (other than to show off some silly CG and appeal to little kids).
The more recent Star Wars trilogy also comes to mind. Acting and story aside, I think these films lack the "magic" of the old trilogy because it's so obvious that almost everything on screen isn't really there. I've watched the making-of documentaries, and it's no surprise that some of the sets were entirely green/blue screen. Heck, they even turned the sacred Yoda into a leap-frogging CG blur.
CG is often distracting, unless it can be done in a realistic way. As you mentioned, Transformers does a good job with this, mostly because the robots are hard metal shapes. Easier to mimic than organic matter. Can you think of some more natural CG creatures that blend in well with their human counterparts? I think Gollum from Lord of the Rings series is an example of one that works well.
But in defense of Burton's Alice in Wonderland - I would agree that the characters are obviously not real, but that seems to be their intention. When they double the size of Helena Bonham Carter's head for her role as the Red Queen, they're clearly not trying to fool the viewer's eye with realism.
From the start, I heard that this movie would be CG animated, with human actors mixed in (as opposed to a real world setting, with a couple CG characters). Who knows, perhaps we'll get so used to all the colorful CG, that it's the
human actors that seem to be out of place.
I'm keeping an open mind, but trying to not get my hopes up either. Which is tough to do. I'm a long time fan of the Alice and Wonderland stories (I dressed as the Mad Hatter a couple Halloween's ago) and obviously I'm a big follower of Tim Burton's work. The cast for this movie is also full of some favorite actors. It seems like a sure fire hit with me...
Which is why I'm concerned. It seems like a no brainer that I'll love it, which means it has some lofty expectations to match. So I'm planning to go into the movie with as much of a neutral point of view as I can. Because as much as I think I may love it, I can also see it being a major let down if it's not perfect. So.... we'll wait and see!
If anyone is curious about the Tim Burton (and surprise guest) appearance at the San Diego Comic Con, you can find some recaps of the Alice in Wonderland panel
hereand
here.
