Special Effects that are still impressive!?

[TX85]

Is there any special effects from any old movie or in recent years that you feel are still impressive/cool/real looking/good/time-less&just ahead of it's time??I'd say from the top of my mind and that I can remember.....

-The ape suits&masks from the original two POTA&Tim Burton's version!

-Star Wars!(all 6 films and for the most part)

-Alien suits in Aliens/Resurrection&both AvP!

-A couple of things in Total Recall!

-Ninja Turtles suits for all live-action movies!

-T2!(mostly all effects in it)

-Most Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park1-3!

 

[MadVillainy]

BLade Runner city

 

[TX85]

I was going to mention that But not sure IF sets would be considered as a special effect,In that case BR city and one from Judge Dredd!!

 

[Darkness Falls]

jurassic park comes to mind

 

[8wid]

Independence Day and Air Force One both have very convincing planes and a lightbulb.

 

[Soapy]

The predator from...Predator, and the tyrannosaurus from Jurassic Park were the first two things that popped into my head.

 

[Motown Marvel]

blade runner definitely looks amazing. they did some stellar work on that film. i wish more filmmakers today were inspired by what they were capable of doing in that movie without any computer effects. it took genuine ingenuity and movie magic, which is something modern movies definitely seem to be lacking.

 

[redhawk23]

^Nonsense, theres still great stuff that gets pulled off and new tools as well as old ones being used well. Theres a lot of crap also but crap has been a consistent element of the variety of films from any given year or era. Overtime, most of the crap gets forgotten and its the the things that truly wowed us that we remember. It creates a very skewed view of our past.


Not every shot of the film was quite up to par with this shot, but truly the Curious Case of Benjamin Button amazes me.

Also a lot of the effects in AI: Artificial Intelligence as well as Minority Report, two movies Spielberg made back to back, are still top notch.

 

[The Morningstar]

John Carpenter's The Thing

Alien and Aliens

 

[Motown Marvel]

^Nonsense, theres still great stuff that gets pulled off and new tools as well as old ones being used well. Theres a lot of crap also but crap has been a consistent element of the variety of films from any given year or era. Overtime, most of the crap gets forgotten and its the the things that truly wowed us that we remember. It creates a very skewed view of our past.

filmmakers today are far more quick to rely on CGI and computer effects rather than make the effort to devise traditional in camera effects that would very well result in more convincing and impressive effects.

 

[dude stannis]

If they're practical, they've earned my amazement.

I'm aware a lot of work goes into CGI, but at the end of the day it's still some guy on a computer sitting on his ass clicking the 'render' button. There's absolutely far more ingenuity in stuffing a latex dummy with pig guts and exploding it than simply drawing in a zombie on a computer.

 

[The Morningstar]

Agreed.

My biggest problem with CGI is using it for sets/backgrounds/environments. You can always tell it's fake, it's just a green screen, no matter how good the CGI is.

You can't beat a well constructed stage/environment or a real life location.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

I' pretty sure this same thread pops up every so often. Usually my top answer is the original Jurassic PArk. It still looks so damn good.

 

[TX85]

Curious Case of Benjamin Button amazes me,Also a lot of the effects in AI: Artificial Intelligence as well as Minority Report, two movies Spielberg made back to back, are still top notch.

I can't believe I forgot about those 3!,Oh and I must also mention a whole lot of stuff in LOTR&King Kong!!(Peter Jackson's)

 

[WolfCypher]

The werewolf transformation from American Werewolf in London. The best transformation ever. Painful and disturbingly exciting to watch.

Can I throw the Wolfman (Wolfmen?) and Dracula from Van Helsing? Its not the best of films, sure, I won't deny, but I still think that the werewolves, specifically Helsing himself as a werewolf, is the best CGI werewolves ever.

 

[Bunker]

Alien and Blade Runner both still look amazing. I contribute it to Ridley Scott's awesome shot compositions.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Agreed.

My biggest problem with CGI is using it for sets/backgrounds/environments. You can always tell it's fake, it's just a green screen, no matter how good the CGI is.

You can't beat a well constructed stage/environment or a real life location.

How do you know though? You might have sat through a modern movie watching something you thought was a real background, and it was in fact greenscreened in.

edit: ok, you mean CG rendered backgrounds.
But, in some films, you are obviously going to know they are CGI constructions, cause the actors can't really be there, like Coruscant in Sw. But, in some cases, like in ROTS, where the sfx were at their best, it doesn't look fake, to my eyes anyway.
I mean, I bet there have been a couple of films that have used CG rendered cityscapes(y'know, from Earth), and you have been unaware that they were fake.


and as for your suggestion of Alien, I agree, apart from one scene that always bugs me, when the alien gets Captain Dallas, it's the one bit you can tell is fake and just a guy in a suit, mainly cause of the way the alien opens it's arms. I wish they had just had the alien's face/head poking in or something, that is one bit I wish RS had went back and fixed for the SE.

 

[TX85]

The werewolf transformation from American Werewolf in London. The best transformation ever. Painful and disturbingly exciting to watch.

Can I throw the Wolfman (Wolfmen?) and Dracula from Van Helsing? Its not the best of films, sure, I won't deny, but I still think that the werewolves, specifically Helsing himself as a werewolf, is the best CGI werewolves ever.

I almost agree about AWIL(I think"ever"is way to strong),Not too sure about ones in Van Helsing either since I think even Teen Wolf&Too did it better(maybe not,I have to look back at them)!!

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

I thought miniatures used in Lord Of Rings was amazing. Learning about them on the extended box set was fascinating and made me appreciate them all the more. Something like Transformers though, it's just like watching a telivision static. Nothing going on round about it. It actually ends up being boring.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Something like Transformers though, it's just like watching a telivision static. Nothing going on round about it. It actually ends up being boring.

Man, you just put something into words that I couldn't when I was watching the 1st TF movie.
I was wasted when i saw it at the pics, so didn't recall it, so i bought the dvd.
I'm sitting there watching the final battle in the city and I have a bit of a mini-epiphany, i was watching one of the robots swing arm by arm over building by building, and I was just thought to myself, 'Wtf am i watching here, this is just pure sh**.'
So I guess my brain was telling me on some level, what you just did, all i was really watching was some boring ass shots of buildings, there was nothing interesting going on around the robots.
What I did think to myself was something like, 'this just feels like a toy advert', but I think it was more along those lines, cause once my brain took the robot out of the scene subconciously, cause I did think to myself, 'that isn't even really there, what the hell am i watching', it realised i was just watching some buildings.

 

[The Morningstar]

How do you know though? You might have sat through a modern movie watching something you thought was a real background, and it was in fact greenscreened in.

edit: ok, you mean CG rendered backgrounds.
But, in some films, you are obviously going to know they are CGI constructions, cause the actors can't really be there, like Coruscant in Sw. But, in some cases, like in ROTS, where the sfx were at their best, it doesn't look fake, to my eyes anyway.
I mean, I bet there have been a couple of films that have used CG rendered cityscapes(y'know, from Earth), and you have been unaware that they were fake.


and as for your suggestion of Alien, I agree, apart from one scene that always bugs me, when the alien gets Captain Dallas, it's the one bit you can tell is fake and just a guy in a suit, mainly cause of the way the alien opens it's arms. I wish they had just had the alien's face/head poking in or something, that is one bit I wish RS had went back and fixed for the SE.

I don't mean so much city scapes and what not.

I'm talking about actual environments. Back in the day film makers used to put a lot of effort in when creating environments practically. They used to actually construct the sets etc.

These days they just do it all on a computer. It doesn't look tangible or real. You can tell the actors aren't on an actual constructed set/environment. They're just standing in front of a green screen.

 

[vinsanity]

5th Element has some great special effects for it's time, District 9 also comes to mind, a great example that a movie doesn't need 100+Million dollar budget to make great special effects

 

[jmc]

How do you know though? You might have sat through a modern movie watching something you thought was a real background, and it was in fact greenscreened in.

edit: ok, you mean CG rendered backgrounds.
But, in some films, you are obviously going to know they are CGI constructions, cause the actors can't really be there, like Coruscant in Sw. But, in some cases, like in ROTS, where the sfx were at their best, it doesn't look fake, to my eyes anyway.
I mean, I bet there have been a couple of films that have used CG rendered cityscapes(y'know, from Earth), and you have been unaware that they were fake.


and as for your suggestion of Alien, I agree, apart from one scene that always bugs me, when the alien gets Captain Dallas, it's the one bit you can tell is fake and just a guy in a suit, mainly cause of the way the alien opens it's arms. I wish they had just had the alien's face/head poking in or something, that is one bit I wish RS had went back and fixed for the SE.

There's a certain lack of tangibility that's fairly obvious when it comes to CG sets and backdrops. They always seem to feel flat and have a lack of depth and weight. A fairly obvious one off the top of my head is the St. Peter's Basilica sequence in Angels and Demons.

 

[Heisenberg]

BLade Runner city

Without a doubt, not an ounce of CGI in that, it's mind-blowing.

 

[The Morningstar]

Yea, the LA in Blade Runner was an actual constructed mini city wasn't it?

I watched it recently, still holds up today.