What older movies made a good use of either side stepping special effects or have effects that somehow still hold up today? Why are they good movies?
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Not as old as some mentioned, but I love Gondry’s use of practical effects in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Also want to drop in Fx: Murder by Illusion, just 'cause I loved the movie when I first saw it many decades ago…
FX…omg haven’t thought of that movie in forever. Gotta do a rewatch.
12 angry men.
Came here to mention this.
The way Lumet uses camera angles to create tension and reinforce the personalities of the characters, especially how he makes the room look smaller and more claustrophobic as time moves on, is simply masterful.
I did not expect the viewing journey when I started to watch it. I was so impressed!!
Slightly related but I rewatched robots this past weekend and the animation held up quite nicely for being vintage now.
Matrix 1. Other than some CGI, it doesn’t have so much special effects as much as it has special camera tricks.
Older than LOTR and has aged better, in my opinion.
I agree. Even when it was new and I went “wow look where the technology has gone!” I still felt that it was insufficient and would age. Honestly the movies are fantastic until they try to show giant orc armies and then it’s a bit MEH.
How dare you, matrix does not qualify for old movie yet. Right? Right???
Anything before the year 2000 is old. Ask any Gen Z/Alpha.
probably the best simpsons quote ever
ladyhawke smartly did the zoom into the eye and have it morph and zoom out to the animal. Holds up much better than using the limited technology of the time.
I’ve never heard of anyone else who’s seen Ladyhawke. Everyone I’ve shown it to hated it, but there’s something I love about it. The sets, locations, costumes, dialogue, all great. The transformations they tried to do on-screen are my least favorite part, though.
Love it! Broddrick is great in it, and his perspective helps keep the more legendary character and plot line believable. Looks gorgeous too (the film, not MattyB)
Blasphemy! It is a great movie.
you have to look at other movies from the time like the howling 2 you will see how using what they did for transformation was genius.
A24 film, but they hide those aspects.
The Thing. Effects hold up astonishingly well today.
Lord of the Rings.
Jurassic Park
Yup, it was lauded for its amazing CGI when it came out, but the vast majority of the movie was shot with puppets and practical effects. It’s also a great example of “less is more” in the sense that the movie is over two hours long, but only has like 15 minutes of actual dinosaur footage. That meant they were able to focus their time and resources effectively, to make the few bits of CGI as good as they could be.
Almost, if not everything, Stan Winston ever had a hand in making. Looking at the new Predator movie out just now, and its all CGI. But back in 87, Stan was creating something that looked so fucking real it was actually scary. Think back even further to 79, and what Carlo Rambaldi, among others, were doing with the “Alien”. Carlo focused on the head of the creature, and fucking hell, it holds up like fucking gangbusters. Carlo would go on to help bring ET to life as well.
Having less to worth with, made for some VERY smart people to create timeless works of art. Not only using clay, rubber and glue, but light and shadow as well. CGI has made modern Hollywood lazy, IMO. When was the last time a monster actually lived up to the hype once you saw it? I remember back in 2001, watching Jeepers Creepers and thinking it was the best horror movie in years. Then I got to the mid point and they revealed the monster and it… dropped off a fucking cliff.
Thinking back to Alien, and Carlo engineered the Alien’s head with over 900 moving parts, using a system of cables and hinges to create the lifelike jaw and inner mouth movements. This level of engineering gave the creature a physical presence that actors could react to in real time, rather than a fucking tennis ball and some guy shouting “Now imagine its a big Alien. Its mean looking, its got teeth and eyes, and you’re scared of it.”.
Only thing I can really think of that matches this level of detail, was the rings trilogy. And you can see the difference when you watch the hobbit. It just doesnt hit as hard because its CGI. And no matter how good CGI is, you can always tell and pulls you out of it a little.
The ridiculous, videogamesque barrel ride pulled me out of the Hobbit completely. I just couldn’t take the movies seriously after that.
Reading through I see no one has yet mentioned dark crystal which I think is hensens magnus opus.
I watched the Netflix series and then the Making Of show about it. Apparently they tried CGI gelflings to cut costs and just couldn’t live up to the puppetry, so eventually Netflix relented and gave them enough budget to match Henson’s original quality.
The series was a solidly decent story, but the production was spectacular. The practical puppet effects are mind-boggling.
It’s really a good showcase of how CGI should augment practical effects, not replace them. Fury Road is another good example.
Definitely Forbidden Planet. Killer electronic music soundtrack as well.
The 50’s version?
I think there is only the 1956 version. Maybe you’re thinking of Day The Earth Stood Still?
It is a little slow at times, but the fun bits are really awesome. And you can get a linux package to display system info as !Krells
Ah, had to scroll too far to find this one. It should be higher. The production quality and special effects are absolutely stunning for the era. The scenes where they’re walking around in Morbius’ giant machine are awesome. Blows my mind, underrated.
Nice job of building tension with the invisible monster. It’s also a solid movie despite the trope of “military men out on a lark fighting monsters, plus a hot chick.”
Going to add krull. This is another were less was more with special effects which makes it do much better than others of the time.
There are dozens of us that like Krull. DOZENS!
It’s a fine film.
InnerSpace. I’ll die on hill that this movie deserves better.
Well that takes me back a spell. Great movie. I’d have to rewatch it to assess the effects but I remember them as awesome when I saw it as a kid.
