There are plenty of shots in The Two Towers were Weta didn't even get remotely close with blending in Gollum to the environment.

Secondly, Gollum really wasn't very good at all in FOTR.

Gollum was hardly in FOTR. That was rough design of the character, because it didn't need to be fully shown yet.

I think that WETA gave Gollum a great deal of character, thanks in part to Serkis. Really, whatever one's opinion on the films, it's difficult to deny that Gollum is interesting, if nothing else.

With ILM, they tend to get it right 85% of the time.

The nightime scenes in Speilbergs JP films with the T-Rex, anyone? Still looks phenomenal almost a decade and a half later. Same thing with Cameron's T2.

Then again, I might just like LOTR more than the PT.

Originally posted by: auraloffalwaffle
Seriously, the CG Yoda was bound to blend in with the CG sets, wasn't he? The CG Gollum had to be integrated with real location shots. I regard the achievement as being much greater on WETA's part.

As for matching the movements of Oz's puppeteering, I don't buy it. That sounds like an excuse. Hell, they'll probably go in and replace the original with their beloved CG version for next year's SEs anyway...

Didn't Kurtz say that as long as there was breath in his body, he wouldn't let Lucas alter Oz's work in ESB and ROTJ?