Reader Sujay pointed me to this interesting article on an ABC affiliate news site. Basically it’s a top 10 list of the most revolutionary effects movies of all time.
Now it’s important to keep in mind that this list isn’t “The Top 10 BEST effects movies of all time”, but rather movies that came up with some innovation that pushed the world of special effects forward.
At first I wasn’t thrilled with the list… but after reading the article over, I started to appreciate it more and more. The only film that I would have added to this list was Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I also don’t really like the ORDER the list is in… but other than that I kinda agree that they all belong on there. Here’s the list:
11. King Kong (1933)
10. Twister (1996)
9. Independence Day (1996)
8. Jaws (1975)
7. Toy Story (1995)
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
5. Jurassic Park (1993)
4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
3. Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope (1977)
2. What Dreams May Come (1998)
1 The Matrix (1999)
I’d really suggest going over to read the whole article as it explains a little why they felt each of those films belonged on the list (and why there are 11 on this top 10 list). It’s a pretty interesting one. You can read the article here. What do you think?
Hey, don’t go on a personal attack. Revolutionary effects should spawn more and better of the same type of effects. They don’t have to be the first to do something. Man, when America was discovered by Leif Ericcson, no one cared. But when Columbus did it, evryone cared. Some one posted that the lost in Space movie featured bullet time, but it was named bullet time because of the scene in the matrix.To my knowledge, revolutionary effects should be revolutionary AND good. the first attempts at CGI sucked! That’s my opinion and I’m sharing it kindly. Please don’t insult me for an opinion.
D’OH! Make that “A Trip To The Moon”, not “From The Earth…”. Bonehead.
Brian, please purchase a dictionary. “To my knowledge”, revolutionary effects should be, uh, revolutionary. Roughly half of that list of ten doesn’t belong there. More deserving: “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Tron”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”, and the great-granddaddy of ’em all, “From The Earth To The Moon”.
Darren: Are you sure? I was pretty certain that the Star Wars featured “real” CGI. Either way, Futureworld (1976) came out before Star Wars.
This list is really opinionated. if you read the article, which is nearly 3 years old, you’ll see what i mean. Revolutionary effects, to my knowledge, should be GOOD. If they were first and suck, then no one cares. This is the case with Tron. The effects were not that good, at least in my opinion. Toy Story should be on the list because it was the first full length completely 3-D animated movie. Jaws should be on the list because it looked so…real! it still does. Who cares if it malfunctioned off-screen. On screen the shark was awesome. Oh, and here’s a movie that i’m shocked hasn’t been suggested yet, American Werewolf in London.
Right where do I start?
King Kong, great movie but as noted above Willis O’Brien had already unveiled his Stop Motion techniques on “The Lost World” and other silent films many years earlier.
Star Wars. No dispute here. We had seen spaceships before but never like this!
Terminator II was just a further extension on what had already been done on the Abyss. The Abyss should have been listed in place of it.
Jurassic Park should definitely be there as that was the first time that CGI had been used to create living breathing animals. That was when we really learned what CGI could do. Surely everybody remembers that scene when we saw the dinosaurs for the first time.
Saving Private Ryan: Huh? What new effect did this give us a shaky camera with a gauze over its lens?
Toy Story? Does a totally animated film really count?
The Matrix, everybody says that this film introduced “Bullet Time” but the basic effect had already been seen in commericals and more importantly in the “Lost in Space” movie.
Jaws, one of my favourite films but a rubber shark does not constitute a great special effect.
Twister, possibly, problem is that I have seen so many similar effects now that it is hard to place the film in the correct context.
Independence Day, certainly spectacular but did it pioneer any new effects?
Other films that could be mentioned Metropolis, Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds (Original), 2001 even Titanic had some groundbreaking CGI work in it.
Joel: Star Wars (the original-before Lucas enchancement) did not use computers for those shots. Those effects were traditional animation at that time..
Joel: Star Wars (the original-before ucas enchancement) did not use computers for those shots. Those effects were traditional animation at that time..
True The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898) was to my knowlege the first to use stop motion. I’d like to see more lists. What does your look like James?
With regard to Joel’s list:
“1. Star Wars (rotoscoping, bluescreen, motion control and overall creativity)”
You’ll find rotoscoping was first used for animation in the 1910s, and bluescreen (or at least the technique) dates back to the early 1900s. I don’t know about motion control, but “Star Wars” was certainly several decades later than either of those two.
“3. King Kong (stop motion)”
Without wanting to deny the importance/greatness of “Kong”, if we’re going to celebrate the first film to use stop motion animation on such a big scale we should really be celebrating “The Lost World”, which follows much the same narrative arc as “Kong” and stop motion effects by Willis O’Brien just like “Kong”, but which came out eight years before “Kong” did. And even then O’Brien hardly invented stop motion either.
I did consider 2001, but while it was a big budget sci-fi flick it didn’t bring anything new.
Darren: Tron is nice, But Star Wars had CGI; Remember the spinning 3D deathstar and the 3D trench?
Hap: You’re right. The Massive software might be a true milestone.
you know i’m a big ID4 buff as it is.
but even so, and i have to say, i think it should have been a bit higher on the list.
i agree with most of the choices, and all of them should be regarded as gigantic bench marks. BUT… remember. when independence day came out, there was NOTHING remotely like it .
and i have to say, star trek generations should be there too. the crash sequence was one of a kind for it’s time. and may very well be one of the greatest sequences in any space movie.
we forget it now, because star trek is kinda… well.. you know.
I think its a pretty solid list. I would completely remove What Dreams May Come and replace it with 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
Then maybe play with the order a bit (SW should be first, then Matrix although debatable).
I also agree with The Abyss, it came out 2 years before T2 and they’re basically the same effect. I would go with that instead. Still, damn fine list.
-Drewbacca
http://www.moviepatron.com
You have to look at the time this article was written too, From what i can tell you could probably place the article in the Winter-or-Spring-2003 date range based on the comment “but I have a really bad feeling about the female Terminator in “T3″ coming up later this summer”. Given that, I think the article would miss out on the (at the time) incomplete Lord of the Rings movies, as well as the current King Kong..
Kevin
I think most of this list is good, but I would put The Abyss and any of the LOTR movies in the list and take out Saving Private Ryan and What Dreams May Come.
You really need The Two Towers in here, don’t you? I know someone mentioned Gollum, but the real advance in The Two Towers was in the Battle for Helm’s Deep. In most movies, you see massive armies of human extras smash into each other and look like they’re having a nice chat about the weather. Or, you see big CGI armies all doing the same thing. In The Two Towers, they built video game style AI into the orcs and elves and let them go at it. I believe that was the first time that had been done, wasn’t it?
Jason and the argonauts will still be one of those sunday afternoon films that i enjoy. especially the fight scenes with the skeletons.
i find films of today have tedious CGI. what do i mean?
well, shock horror mr producers and directors CGI doesn’t guarentee a suspense fill well executed action film. most of the time(if done wrong) will completely F*CK it up.
DON’T USE CGI(special effects) IF IT ISN’T GOING TO ADD TO THE FILM… and relax.
Saving Private Ryan? I totally agree with Joel though. The water tentacle from The Abyss did pave the way for the T-1000 in Terminator 2 and so on. Also the under water filming should be considered. Star Wars Episode IV does deserve to be number 1 since it did create new methods for creating special effects.
Should 2001: A Space Odyssey be in the top 10 for both special and make-up effects? Also for make-up, I was thinking of Planet of the Apes (the original). I would also add some older movies like Metropolis and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.
Boooo….Boooo….Boooo….Boooo….Boooo….Hiss….
Are these guys on crack?
While Star Wars: A New Hope, Terminator 2 and Matrix belong; Jaws does not
(remember: they had problems with the shark, so they elected NOT to show it as much)
But let’s talk TRON. Remember TRON, don’t you? You should- the **first movie** to have CGI effects ever! The movie was passed over for an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects because the Academy felt TRON “cheated” by using a computer. And TRON isn’t ‘groundbreaking?”
Okay, most lists are subjective, but to leave TRON off the list (or ‘2001’ for that matter) is highly suspect.
Independence Day? What Dreams May Come? Saving Private Ryan? Sober up! Twelve Steps! One Day At A Time! All that stuff!
:o
Not a really good list.
What happened to major effect movies like:
1) Metropolis
2) Things to come
3) Wizard of Oz
4) 2001: A Space Odyssey
5) Planet of the Apes
And these are just science fiction films. There are probably others, which use effects in more conspicuous ways.
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how they created the pseudopod in the Abyss. This was the first movie (to my knowlege) that featured photoreal 3D graphics. When I found out how it was done I decided that I’d become a 3D-animator.
My own top 5 list (based on importance in film history for technical achievement)
1. Star Wars (rotoscoping, bluescreen, motion control and overall creativity)
2. The Abyss (introducing photoreal 3D)
3. King Kong (stop motion)
4. Attack of the Clones (using HD 24f system)
5. The Two Towers (realistic CGI character: Gollum)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cinematography
/Joel