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I guess that's it then. Effects have reached their peak. Anyone who tries to push effects even further will look too "Starwars Prequel".

It's true that visual effects aren't growing with the same leaps and bounds (sorry, but it *is* a Superman thread) as in the past -- take a look at the diversity of visual effects related SIGGRAPH talks and papers of recent years, compared to, say, a decade ago -- but they are far, far, far from reaching a peak. What's happening now is that much of the research is going into refining techniques, such as introduction of more scientifically accurate models that were, previously, too prohibitively computationally expensive for use in visual effects. For example, some of the scenes in Superman required more than one PhD-holder writing and supporting fluid and gas simulation software, using fluid dynamics simulation algorithms that were just "discovered" a few years ago in conjunction with mathematical models of ocean behaviour from a professor of oceanography.

From a film-goer's perspective, you may "see" a plateau, but in reality, you're just not "seeing" all the effects, which really is the point (unless the story calls for something special).

The "Starwars Prequel" look is the result of having no artistic vision, and confusing FX with story. It's the same problem you get anywhere else -- just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Sometimes less is more.

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I guess it is a good point that effects should blend into the movie. I thought many of those LotR "Massive" orcs were somehow acted at first glance.

Technically, they were. Massive forms coherent movement of an agent by blending between different "movement phenomes", if you will. Typically, in the case of humanoid creatures, those phenomes have been recorded by motion capture of human actors.