Gore Verbinski Questions Unreal’s VFX Impact

The director raises controversy regarding the impact of Unreal Engine on contemporary visual effects in the cinematic industry.

Director Gore Verbinski has brought industry debate when he criticizes the growing use of Unreal Engine in cinema, claiming it has stagnated creative development in gaming and VFX. During the premiere of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die at Fantastic Fest, Verbinski talked about the development of visual effects since he had previously worked on Pirates of the Caribbean and Rango.

Verbinski described the use of Unreal Engine in the film industry as one of the major factors that influenced the current visual style, having been initially developed in video games. Although the software is popular in real-time environments in large-scale productions, he has asserted that it has brought about a gaming aesthetic, restraining realism, especially in lighting, motion, and creature animation. In his opinion, this change is behind the uncanny valley effect and has been retrogressive against more conventional tools such as Autodesk Maya.

The comments have elicited a reaction with Epic Games, the creator of Unreal Engine. One of Epic's veteran VFX supervisors, Pat Tubach, declined the notion that software is the problem, saying that talent matters more than artistic quality and not tools. He has also mentioned that Unreal has enabled creators and opened opportunities to work more quickly across gaming and VFX by facilitating fast iteration and real-time.

The discussion points to a meta-discussion on how technology has helped in forming creativity, with gaming and VFX tools becoming more convergent in both film and interactive media. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die will release in theaters in the UK on February 20.