It's no secret that CGI put a dent in the industry of stunt work. In fact, I actually know stuntmen who became graphic artists just to keep up with the changing world.

But the trend is reversing my friends. Oh yes, real people are making a comeback...

The mid 90's saw the rise of CGI. Films like the "Congo" sprinkled action scenes with CGI lasers and gorillas. Sci-fi films like "Event Horizon" would toss in a brief shot of a CGI watch floating around for a bit of flare. And the first total CGI film was born, a Disney flick called "Dinosaurs" which almost no one saw and is all but forgotten today. But soon enough, Toy Story came out, and people were blown away by the new form of cinema. It was like introducing sound into previously silent films. Suddenly everyone wanted CGI, the more the merrier. CGI shots became the climactic swells of action movies and the goriest fun of horror.

A decade later, Peter Jackson took the game to a new level with Lord of the Rings. The series blended real and CGI to an unheard of level. Whole battles played out almost entirely in digitals, an overload of of graphic details. And within earshot of the Rings' trilogy hordes of CGI battles were waiting. Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, Star Wars. If there weren't millions of little cartoons fighting, it just wasn't a summer blockbuster. Frank Miller upped the stakes by creating entire CGI movies save for the actors.

And finally in 2007, the graphical shit hit the fan. Transformers, Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Spider-man 3, Beowulf. All of the main characters for most of the time in these movies were rendered computer graphically. Audiences had had enough. The dazzling effect had worn off, CGI no longer had any sway to improve a movie, or even a scene, on its own. CGI, as with everything about film became one more element to serve the higher purpose of telling a good story. People didn't want to be dazzled by cartoons. In fact, the opposite happened, people became more fascinated than ever in "practicals," the new term for non-CGI. A "practical" movie had more merit. And who makes the practicals dazzle?...

The stuntmen.

And now we arrive at this summer. Indiana Jones, Iron Man, and the new king of the hill, Dark Knight. Iron Man's charm wasn't in the battle scenes, is was in Downy Jr.'s acting. Indiana Jones relied on good old fashioned (and I stress the old) stuntmen. And CGI was barely ever present in the Dark Knight. Stuntwork makes its comeback, the movies are better than ever, and my friends are employed again.

Finally, let's get some linking going on...
Best multivitamins: There's plenty, oh yes sir, plenty
Vitamin information: exactly as you read it, information about vitamins