Is De-aging Technology An Unnecessary CGI?

De-aging Technology- Is this form of CGI really necessary? 

By Patrick O’Brien

Recently enough, I decided to sit down, place on a fedora, and watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

I had not watched the film in years, yet thankfully remained thoroughly entertained throughout, the film’s use of action, suspense, comedy, and of course Sean Connery, proving a timeless mix.

What struck me about my most recent viewing however was none of the above. Instead, I kept considering the film’s opening segment, in which the audience gets to witness a younger Indiana Jones.

These scenes have our hero Indiana, played by none other than River Phoenix, who before his untimely death was turning into the toast of Hollywood.

Is De-aging Technology An Unnecessary CGI?

The audience watches as a young Indy thwarts a band of thieves from stealing a relic from a time long forgotten, whilst also learning about classic trademarks of the character such as the scar on his face, his proficiency with a whip, and a bizarre phobia involving snakes.

For the brief time he is in the film, Phoenix excels. He seems entirely believable as a young Harrison Ford, mimicking his stubborn persona with supreme accuracy. When he grunts “this belongs in a museum” it is as if Ford controlled the young actor via demonic possession.

After the film ended the Phoenix segment of the picture, provoked me to consider modern cinema, and its recent use of de-aging technology to capture a character as a younger version of themselves.

The Effectsman

The most obvious example would be “The Irishman”.

Martin Scorsese’s Netflix crime epic garnered a lot of attention in the build-up to the film’s release for its use of de-aging technology in order render the films three leads, Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino up to thirty years younger, so to capture the character they were playing throughout different stages of their life.

The technology behind this feat is undeniably impressive. The use of motion tracker markers was meticulous, the effects group Industrial Light and Magic ensuring that every detail was perfect to appear organic.

They even scanned through old films in which the three leads starred, to accurately portray how their faces should move at the age they are in the film.

Aside from its impressiveness, it was also expensive. The film reportedly cost around €159 million to make, with most of this cost going towards the digital effects applied to the actors to make them appear de-aged.

A scene that shows the technology in full flow, features DeNiro as the protagonist Frank Sheeran fighting in World War 2. In the films real-time, DeNiro is a crippled elderly man, so in this scene, he would be up to 50 years younger.

And this is where my problem with de-aging technology comes from. Robert DeNiro is 76 years old. Despite CGI rendering him as a younger man, I as the viewer know he is old, and this is what stuck.

His movements and general frame are that of an elderly man. Movement is often associated with youth, as when we age our body begins to slow down and our limbs become less nimble.

This is easy to identify during viewing. His body does not move naturally. It is stiff and gives off the impression of age.

Even DeNiro’s face, which was obviously the focal point of the de-aging, is naturally old and appears as such. The de-aging CGI renders the actors younger, but it does not capture the main ingredient of being young, that of youth itself, and this felt highly un-organic to me.

Pirate Copy

Another film which recently employed de-aging technology was “Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Dead Men Tell no Tales”.

The film boasted the use of the technology in rendering Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow as a young man in his early twenties.

Yet again it is the face which for me is the vital problem. There is a sense of lifelessness, due to the CGI, that makes Captain Jacks’s face almost hard to look at.

In a film that is already overflowing with CGI and green screen, it is worrying to think that the most nauseating effect is that of the protagonist’s face.

And thus, I come to my dilemma. Why not briefly cast a younger actor in the role of the hero?

If done right, there is an effect such as that in The Last Crusade, where the audience seamlessly attaches the two actor’s performances to the character and is utterly convinced by it.

Say for instance they cast an up and coming actor such as Timothy Chalamet as Jack Sparrow. Not only would new life and fresh energy be breathed into the fictional character, but it also provides a younger actor the chance to show off their range, such as River Phoenix did in 1989.

CGI is an intrinsic and, in many ways, an essential element of modern cinema. Yet for me, de-aging technology is veering more towards the uncanny valley, than a completely immersive experience.
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