Originally posted by: zombie84
I think its ultimately the way the character is concieved and directed. I mean Gollum looks utterly realistic and his performance is one of the best in the entire LOTR trilogy, which itself is brimming with fine performances. Ultimately it comes down to how you use it. Watto was very well done. I wouldnt want any of those two characters done by puppets or stop motion or suites or anything. Ultimately the bottom line is that most of the CGI characters weren't used properly by Lucas.
I think its ultimately the way the character is concieved and directed. I mean Gollum looks utterly realistic and his performance is one of the best in the entire LOTR trilogy, which itself is brimming with fine performances. Ultimately it comes down to how you use it. Watto was very well done. I wouldnt want any of those two characters done by puppets or stop motion or suites or anything. Ultimately the bottom line is that most of the CGI characters weren't used properly by Lucas.
This all comes because Andy himself was on the set and played his performance to the actors. The CGI artists matched his performance, facial expressions to the CGI model.
While on Star Wars, there were just stand-ins used for the cgi characters, which explains the dry and stiff reaction from the real actors to them.