Anchorhead said:

I agree 100%. The moment that guard showed up on the screen, I felt a huge let down. It was comical. At least I assumed it was meant to be. That rubber suit is so fake & silly looking that you know immediately our heroes are in no danger what so ever. Same with Jabba. Both looked like Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. I half expected 3PO to say "Hey, big daddy".

Weird that you would feel a "huge" let down after seeing the creatures in the cantina. Jabba looked great. But if you think CGI looks more real...I guess we just have different perceptions of reality.

timdiggerm said:

Oh, I agree the Iguana-Thing is pretty awful. However, I maintain that just because CGI enables bad decisions doesn't mean it's inherently bad. Just because Jabba shouldn't move doesn't mean that he can't be CGI. Perhaps Lucas, the concept artists and the animators need to learn what is believable. That's not the same as not using CGI.

Jabba shouldn't be CGI because CGI Jabba looks awful. The revamped CGI Jabba was better, but still pales in comparison to puppet Jabba. The picture perfectly captures the problem with CGI. Why in the world did Lucas use that CGI Jabba? Because he could.

CGI is a good tool in my view. But I think the debate over whether CGI is inherently good or bad is a red herring. What people actually object to (even when they inartfully declare CGI "bad") is the use of CGI when it doesn't work...which is becoming more frequent.