I agree. A lot of stuff in sci-fi film making that looks so sophisticated is really very simple. It's a lot of light, shadow, smoke and mirrors, and an ingenious redirection of audience attention that makes simple effects appear to become larger than life.
I get amazed at what I see done by the average Joe in terms of VFX these days, stuff that easily compares with visuals on at least a television standard of sophistication (on the level of Firefly or new BSG). I become envious of their computing power. Even with the powerhouse computers I have, I can't quite render anything on that level...of course, I'm sure that has to do as much with my very amateurish skills at this point.
To deal with some of the limitations I have, I use a technique I like to call "Neo-Old School". Using old school techniques to workaround new tech limitations to achieve a sophisticated result. (Example: when shooting a fleet shot, I can only put a couple of high poly ships on screen at once...so I set up the entire fleet shot against a virtual blue or green screen. Then, after saving the project, I delete which ships I do not need for the first pass, shoot the ships that remain, reload the project, delete the used ships and the ships I don't need for the next pass...lather, rinse, repeat. After all shots have been completed, I shoot the background pass, and then composite it all in a movie editor. It is the same technique used for physical models in the old ways...and I get a surprisingly good result out of it.)
