This should be interesting. My all time favorite is X-men 2. The beginning night crawler scene, where he dissects the entire white house secret service!!! Also the scene were he rescues rogue from falling form the X jet!!! Anymore notable goodies?
2 of my favorites are a little less talked about but very good......
One of the beginning sequences in Armageddon starting with the space shuttle getting pelted with meteoroids, then NYC being rained on!! pretty crazy
Another is when the giant spinning space travel device gets blown to pieces in Contact. You see the thing starting to break apart from being unbalanced, then it just self destructs throwing giant pieces everywhere for what seems like miles!!
Are we talking about purely computer generated special effects, or all types of special effects?
For now, one of my favourites (its not really a special effect as such) was in the movie "Executive Decision", where they board a 767 mid-flight. When Stephen Segal was sucked out of the F-117 and died, i stood up and cheered! Can't say many other special effects have caused me to react like that.
jadkar just reminded me of one I like: in "Independance Day" at the start it shows a satellite dolly quickly past the camera then travel further and further and further into space, finally exploding against the side of the massive UFO. It was a very creative way of showing the huge scale of the UFO. I also like how in that film how NY city takes a laser blast, and in the aftermath scene the Twin Towers remain standing. hmmmmm...
I think that computer animation has come a long way. If you think of how primative the older classics are like snow white or lady and the tramp vs. Shrek, Finding Nemo, etc. I find myself staring at the surroundings more than the characters.
On the opposite end, I think the worst special effects that I have ever seen was during a get together at a friends house when I was in high school in 1990. We were watching some cheesy B movie about giant rabbits attacking everybody. It was so low budget that you could tell that they just laid the camera on the ground to make the rabbits look bigger and had them run towards the camera. The funniest part was when you saw a movie tech sneaking across the back of the set through the shot of the rabbits running which made him look like he was 1000 feet tall. They were too lazy to edit him out or too cheap.
1) The Queen in 'Aliens'. I don't care what anybody says, for a motorized model, she looks and moves realistically; better than CGI.
and
2) In the film "Ronin", when DeNiro blows up a moving car with a Bazooka driving down the side of a cliff. No computer graphics, but it's mindblowing! (IMHO )
3) The video clip "donut time" featuring a silver NSX doing a 180 and speeding off... allegedly the owner is <B>ChopsJazz</B>. No computer tricks there.
1. The most recent one is the fight scene between Spiderman and Doc Octopus on the side of the L-train. Never seen that before.
2. A more legendary special effects that still "wow's" me is the original Star Wars Trilogy. Still effective in suspending disbelief after all these years.
I think the best CGI effects are the ones you don't notice.
I wouldn't call it THE greatest movie special effects scene, but one shot that has always stuck in my head is the shot of the young Jodie Foster character in Contact running up the stairs after her father collapses, runs down the hallway, into the bathroom, and opens up the medicine closet, with all of the action happening within the medicine cabinet mirror and without any visible camera cuts.
Also, for me, one of the more awe inspiring shots is that single camera shot in The Longest Day where the action starts at the waterfront and continues down into the city for over a minute or so. WOW!!! The logistics to stage that entire sequence are simply amazing.
i have to agree with you Randy; i absolutely love Long sequences too. Even a few crappy music videos have amazed me because they've shot everything in one take - no cuts.
I'm actually surprised NeoNSX hasn't brought this one up, but one of my favorites is the lobby scene in the Matrix. Especially if you crank up the 5.1 sound, and watch it on a 16:9 TV.
My favorite movie special effect was the guy getting pulped in the head Pulp Fiction by John Travolta. I can't tell you how close to real life that looked.
My favorite movie special effect was the guy getting pulped in the head Pulp Fiction by John Travolta. I can't tell you how close to real life that looked.
My favorite movie special effect was the guy getting pulped in the head Pulp Fiction by John Travolta. I can't tell you how close to real life that looked.
Somewhat Mr.Donwon but not really. If you've ever seen what a 12 guage at close range can do to a man's cojones, movie violence will seem like kindergarden.
All this talk makes me covet your avatar Mr.Donwon.
best old school fx: Cameron's "Aliens"
everything in this movie still holds up today (except for the rear projection stuff, yuck.) The queen/powerloader fight at the end... kicks ass. I couldn't figure out how half of the stuff in this movie was done until the special edition dvd came out.
best cg fx: "Lord of the Rings" hands down.
the integration of Gollum with the live action characters and environments is mind boggling. Not to mention the countless gigantic battle scenes.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Can't say many other special effects have caused me to react like that. 
