Is it bad to say that the CG in the Walking with Dinosaurs movie looks a lot better than the CG in these films?
Do you think its laziness? That artists and animators no longer put the attention to detail in anymore? Or is it money based, the movie companies want to save money by not spending more on detailed designs and blending with real world environments? Or is there another factor?
I think I might have a little insight to this!
You're definitely on the right track, the reason being money based, but – as it is always with Hollywood – it goes a bit deeper than that. To put it short, it's because CGI studios haven't unionized.
Practical effects in the movie industry became obsolete in a short period of time, considering how popular they were (King Kong, E.T, Die Hard, you name it), and I kinda hate to admit it, but Jurassic Park had a big influence on this. The CGI in it was something that nobody had seen before, and it truly showed the full potential of what CGI could accomplish (at that time, nevertheless). While the practical effects in the movie were stupendous, it was the CGI that made it a box-office hit. Not the sick Triceratops or the Dilophosaurus in the car, but the Brachiosaurus towering over the humans like an edifice, and the iconic sideview mirror shot of the T-Rex chasing the main characters. Those scenes were some of the reasons what made Jurassic Park a milestone in the history of cinema.
CGI is faster and cheaper than practical effects (but not necessarily easier), and when Hollywood saw what kind of movies you could do with CGI, it was a no-brainer for them to go with the cheaper option. But, it's not
just because it's cheaper – it's because there is no union to protect the workers in CGI Studios. What this means is that the competition in the industry is staggering (everyone wants to get to big projects like Jurassic World etc.), the CGI animators have to work crunch time/forced overtime because there is no proper regulation for their work hours, safety or payment.
One nasty example is the Sonic movie redesign. Before the movie was released, the first trailer had a very negative response from the audience – everyone criticized how Sonic looked, and I agree, it was pretty horrible. So, after the initial response they changed the design, and it meant that all the scenes with Sonic's old design had to be done over again. It took five months to finish, raised the budget another $5 million, and after the redesign got a positive reaction (and the movie was another blockbuster) the CGI company branch that was responsible for it, got shut down. CGI takes a lot of time to look good, and while I think Sonic looks okay, it was really unfair on the workers. Same with the new Cats musical. People blame the CGI studio employees when it is not their fault. If you don't have the time and resources (and a healthy work environment) to do your work right, of course it's gonna be a mess.
And here's where "Do you think it's laziness? That artists and animators no longer put the attention to detail anymore?" comes in. It's not that they don't want to put attention to detail, it's because they
have to cut corners to get as much done as fast as they can, as cheap as they can. Big studios don't really care if a dinosaur is anatomically correct, or has the right amount of teeth, or if they have feathers or scales or what. They want them to be marketable and make a profit. And when big companies don't care about the craftmanship and artistry, it makes CGI artists more or less cynical. CGI studios are easily exploited, and especially with Disney buying and destroying other studios it makes working in the industry very, very hard.
So I would say that yes, it's money related, but because of that, the people working on the Jurassic World CGI can't live up to their full potential.
Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to seeing Dominion. Personally I can't imagine it being worse than The Fallen Kingdom, but my hopes aren't too high. At least I'm going to see dinosaurs other than raptors and t-rexes :')
