Let’s face it, computers are everywhere. Technology grows and makes things more accessible, convenient, and in the case of the movies, more real. Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) has made fantastic new worlds and made our own cinematic world much richer.

“Jurassic Park” showed us living, breathing dinosaurs in a way that we had never seen before. “King Kong” made the title character a giant gorilla with incredible expression instead of a guy in a monkey suit. “Sin City” and “300” are completely comprised of CGI backgrounds. These achievements are wonderful. I love them. However, there are also films like “Ghost Rider” for example; that film had a main character that was entirely CGI and the flaming skull of the Ghost Rider character look ridiculous.

I recently watched the remake of “Poseidon.” I was thoroughly impressed with the film in terms of character development and plot, but I was particularly drawn to the use of real sets and minimal CGI work.

I watched the making of the film afterward and learned that the actors in the movie did much of their own stunt work. That impressed me more, because instead of having someone with Kurt Russell’s face put on by a computer, or a CGI made Kurt Russell swimming through the sinking ship, we have the real Russell staring into the camera.

There’s a scene in the film where part of the sinking ship floods in a horrifyingly fast fashion. The water bursts in from the windows. We see the glass fly into the camera; this is real glass, not CG. I loved it. The making of the film said that there were 90,000 gallons of water used for the movie. I love hearing that.

While CGI is a wonderful tool, it should be just that: a tool. Too many films rely too much on it, and there should be more films made minimizing it. It creates a great sense of realism. That realism may not be what all moviegoers want, but in certain films, particularly disaster films, it should be a requirement.

Here’s hoping upcoming directors don’t forget there are real sets, too.