22 Movies With the Best Practical Effects of All Time
CGI this, CGI that. How about we see “gee, I don’t think a computer could have accomplished this” kind of effects in more movies? It’s amazing what digital effects can do these days, but you always know in the back of your mind that it’s not really there. On the other hand, when a screaming puppet attacks an actor who surely had higher aspirations when they dropped out of med school to move to L.A., it’s excruciatingly there. It might just be a guy’s arm, but it also might really be a monster. Who’s to say?
It was a difference keenly observed by user barbariantrey when they were watching Ghostbusters and “the opening scene made me miss the magic of practical effects,” they told r/Movies. “As the older librarian walled through the aisles, books started flying from shelf to shelf, the cards fluttered out of the drawers, and more. I don’t believe it would have captured my wonder the same way if it was CGI. It’s almost as if I had a sense of the time and effort it took to make it happen. I know creating realistic graphics isn’t easy, but having it in the moment felt more real to me.”
They then asked, “Which films have incredible practical effects?” and their fellow Redditors got very practical with their answers.
The Thing
Aliens
Dante’s Peak
Waterloo
Dune
Last Night in Soho
Dead Alive
Tremors
Speed
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
The Lord of the Rings
The Dark Knight
Escape From New York
Edge of Tomorrow
Fast Five
Return of the Jedi
Blade Runner
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Starship Troopers
Little Shop of Horrors
Mad Max: Fury Road
Jurassic Park
