[Professor S]

Maybe it's my age, but I can pick out CGI from miniatures in a heartbeat, and miniatures just look better.I think it's the lighting. You just can't fake it in CGI.

My main complaints with the effects in the new movies aren't with the worlds, but in the overuse of CGI in characterizations. I HATE CGI characters. They look FAKE, and the live actors look like they're talking to empty space. I'll take crude puppets everytime, because at least the acting doesn't suffer horribly. The only successful CGI character I've ever seen in Golum, and that was because he was played by an actor and then the CGI was superimposed.

And puppeteering has come a long way. I was so happy to see that in Hitchhiker's Guide they used armatures and puppets for the Vogons. They looked incredible.

But thats besides the point. The storytellng, acting and writing are just better in the first three movies. Those movies had a soul, while the last three (except the end of Revenge) felt more like high production value mythology lessons.