Pirates of the Caribbean Director Reveals the Real Reason Movie CGI Quality Is Declining—And Points to Unreal Engine

If you've been watching blockbuster movies lately and thought to yourself, 'Wait, why does that CGI look worse than it did a decade ago?', well, you're definitely not alone. Gore Verbinski – the guy who directed the first three Pirates of the Caribbean flicks – has some pretty blunt thoughts about why special effects in movies are starting to look, well, a little too much like video game cutscenes. And honestly, none of this is a big Hollywood secret.

The Game Engine Invasion

According to Verbinski, we can thank the rise of the Unreal Engine for what he calls a 'slip backwards' in effects quality. If you aren't familiar, Unreal Engine is this monster 3D creation tool originally built for top-tier video games like Fortnite and Gears of War. In recent years, though, movie and TV productions started using it to crank out their special effects quicker and, let's face it, probably cheaper.

Here’s how Verbinski sees it:

'You’ve seen the Unreal gaming engine enter the visual effects landscape. It used to be a divide, with Unreal Engine being very good at video games, but then people started thinking maybe movies can also use Unreal for finished visual effects...that’s how you get this uncanny valley when you come to creature animation. A lot of in-betweening is done for speed instead of being done by hand.'

So basically, the same toolkit used to build a fast-paced shooter or open-world RPG is now handling your favorite blockbuster’s VFX shots.

Where It Works...And Where It Does Not

Now, to be fair, Unreal Engine isn’t bad at what it does. In sci-fi or superhero environments – like in The Mandalorian or Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – it fits. You know you’re watching something heightened and stylized, so your brain kind of goes along for the ride. When it gets awkward, according to Verbinski, is when filmmakers lean on Unreal for projects set in the 'real world.' Suddenly things start to feel floaty or cartoonish, like you're accidentally watching someone else's playthrough on Twitch.

Verbinski thinks a big part of the problem is the way Unreal handles light and detail. The older, more traditional software (he mentions Maya specifically) used to require a lot of painstaking work from artists, layer by layer, hand by hand. Unreal? A lot more is automated nowadays, which means you get things done faster, but lose some of the natural realism – especially if you’re animating a digital boatload of undead pirates.

Pirates, Then and Now

This isn’t just theory for Verbinski – it’s something he watched happen to his own franchise. Remember Davy Jones, the tentacle-faced villain from Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End? Those films were released way back in 2006 and 2007, and their CGI still gets praise today. Contrast that with the most recent Pirates film, Dead Men Tell No Tales, which came out a solid 14 years after the original. The effects in the latest one… let’s just say they didn’t exactly raise the bar.

• First 3 Pirates movies (directed by Verbinski): Released 2003, 2006, and 2007. CGI acclaimed – especially Davy Jones.
• Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017): Released much later, but the effects left fans underwhelmed.

So, if you’re noticing that new CGI doesn’t always cut it (literally or figuratively), it’s not your imagination. Some big-budget productions aren’t just borrowing video game tech, they’re borrowing the entire look – for better or worse.

If you ever wanted to see pirates, superheroes, and galactic bounty hunters sharing a visual style, well… congratulations: You got your wish, whether you asked for it or not.