HARRY POTTER and the CGI plague

If you've read to the end of the Harry Potter books, you know there's a scene at the conclusion of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows where we flash ahead to see Harry, Ron and Hermione as adults in their late thirties. Producer David Heyman tell the IMDB they are considering "Benjamin Button" technology to age the actors for the final film.

"A lot of Benjamin Button is making them look younger," he tells the site, "and we're taking people, who are 20 years old, and making them look like they're in their late 30s, so that's a different experience.

"We may use some of the techniques that they did in Benjamin Button, but we're going to do everything we can and it will be Daniel, Emma and Rupert in the parts and not some other actors."

I have a revolutionary special effects suggestion that will save Heyman a few million bucks and look a heck of a lot better than anything you could do with computer effects: use some damn makeup. You probably wouldn't even need elaborate prosthetics. Just smear a little greasepaint under the actors' eyes, maybe pencil in a crow's foot here and there, slap a mustache on Rupert Grint. Done and done.

One of the weaknesses of the Potter movie series (and pretty much every effects picture since 1990-something) is an over-reliance on CGI. Computer effects can be very effective, and they can do things that would be difficult if not impossible to do with old-fashioned effects techniques. But more often than not, they just look fake.

Compare the Yoda of The Empire Strikes Back and the CGI Yoda of the last two Star Wars prequels. The original Yoda has weight and a physical presence onscreen, he feels like a living character. The CGI Yoda is like a character from Shrek pasted on top of the live action footage. In the Potter series, characters like the Sorting Hat and the centaurs are distractingly unreal. The Sorting Hat would have been much more effective as a puppet, and the centaurs would have worked a lot better as live actors with artificial horse legs.

Of course, Heyman could just wait a few years, and film the actors without makeup. As it is, Daniel Radcliffe already looks about 30.

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