This Wired article on The Fountain is a pretty good read, but the most surprising thing is the space scenes are not CGI! I'm really not sure if there's absolutely no CGI in the movie whatsoever but Aronofsky is right when he says CGI in movies doesn't age well.
Liked the movie, absolutely *hated* the stupid CGI zombies. IMO, CGI has gotten WAY too stylized with it's movement, nothing looks even remotely real these days. It's a major step backwards in realism.
Here's one I got searching for "character rigging reel cgi movies" [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni3R4FkC6YI"]CGI VFX Showreels HD: "Character Rigging" by - Matt L Derksen - YouTube[/ame]