A rated-R biographical drama may sound like a hard sell in terms of generating box office dollars but Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer may just have the cure to something that has been plaguing this year’s biggest flops: absolutely “zero” use of computer-generated imagery.
That’s right, Nolan has confirmed that he not only recreated the nuclear explosion seen in the movie with practical visual effects but he is now claiming there isn’t a single CGI shot in the entire movie, according to Collider.
It’s a statistic that is frankly hard to believe considering CGI is often used in remarkably subtle ways nowadays, such as hiding the stunt wires in action scenes that would otherwise have no VFX associated with them. An inconvenient pair of headlights on a darkened woodland scene can also easily be erased, thanks to the use of computers, in low-budget horror movies, for instance. To claim a film has “zero” CGI shots, as Nolan has now said, would be an impressive feat for an indie A24 film, let alone a Marvel superhero spectacle.
Maybe this commitment to practical effects is actually the antidote moviegoers have been searching for this year considering some of the summer’s biggest flops — like The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — had a rash of very negative word of mouth regarding their bad-looking computer effects in the weeks leading up to their respective releases. Perhaps Nolan is wise to the fact that audiences may be getting fatigued at the soulless, assembly-line approach that seems to back blockbuster franchises these days. Such a scenario arguably results in not only gaudy visuals but absurdly burdensome budgets as well, leading to an increasingly elusive bottom line for studios.
We will have to see just how impressive the visuals truly are in Oppenheimer — and whether that translates to hefty profits — when it explodes into theaters on July 21.