Great practical effects in film

Yeah, that’s a real visual feast.

I always liked the forced perspective shots in LotR. Gandalf sitting across the table from Frodo, where Gandalf is clearly at least twice Frodo’s height. Or sitting next to each other in the cart.

When I think “practical effects” the first thing that comes to mind is the first three Star Wars movies. I mean, the models (small and large), Jabba the Hutt, dressing elephants up as bantus, the huge sets, etc.

I’d toss King Kong in there as well… you can choose whether you think I mean the '33 or '78 version and you’d be correct.

Jaws.

Terminator 2 – lots of CGI work in that one of course, so it’s easy to forget all the vehicle crashes, Ahnold prosthetics and stunt-work.

2001 a Space Odyssey.

Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan.

Inception – yeah, your first memory is of course of the city-bending CGI scenes, but the rotating hallway fight was actually entirely physical, practical effects done using a rotating drum.

The Thing – lost of people mentioned it upthread, but it deserves every mention. Honestly, most John Carpenter films would fit in on this list – Big Trouble in Little China, They Live, Escape From New York, Dark Star…

2001 is, of course, pretty astonishing. It was 1968, and pretty much every frame holds up 100% today. (Honestly, although it’s a great accomplishment, the starfield section doesn’t compare well with what we could do these days, and you can just tell “oh look, they took some footage of landscapes and messed with the colors.” But all the spaceship shots? Are there any that are less than perfect?)

Forbidden Planet is another oldie but goodie, made waaaay back in 1956. It’s all matte paintings and practical sets and is clearly the template for Star Trek to come. It can get a little tiresome watching the entire male crew chasing after Anne Francis like puppy dogs but I guess after being stuck on a flying saucer for however long it takes to cross the galaxy can do that to a guy.

I liked TARS and CASE in Interstellar:

One of my favorites is the creation of the universe sequence from The Tree of Life, which was created by Douglas Trumbull using practical effects…

Damn it, you beat me to it.

These are all great! I think we have stepped overboard with CGI in today’s movies. They even do CGI squibs now, and fire. I was watching Kill The Irishman and while it’s a fairly special effects free, several of the car bomb scenes we’re clearly CGI. I always will choose practical effects versus CGI. I think CGI effects are in danger of being automated, the industry is painting itself into a corner.

Not a movie, but this thread made me think of the HBO intro from my childhood- all done with practical effects and models (there’s a making of short about it):

Just watched Superman with Christopher Reeves. The ending with the dam busting and all the model work was great.

Didn’t they resurrect some of that tech to make the Stranger Things credits sequence (which I believe is also practical)?

Oh wow, I didn’t hear that. I’ll have to look that up!

This brings back some great memories! Not just the early days watching HBO but also going to Bryant Park in NYC circa 2000ish to see an HBO-sponsored outdoor film. They played that at the start of the film and everyone got up off their picnic blankets to dance in the summer dusk. Amazing!

Not to rain on this pro-practical-effects thread, but bad effects are bad effects, whether they’re CGI or practical effects. It’s easy to say “CGI looks bad” because you only notice CGI when it stands out, and you don’t notice it when it’s seamless.

And I don’t think there’s any way that CGI effects are going to become automated. Not ones that are halfway decent, in any case.

That’s an awesome soundtrack! I’m pumped!

In LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring, there’s a helicopter shot of the fellowship traversing an open plain along with Bill the pony. Turns out it was too much stress to fly in a pony, so they used the old two guys in a horse suit effect! From the air, it’s hard to even spot. (Unlike the times they dressed children to look like the hobbits. My brain always spots those scenes.)

I always thought Daimajin did a good job. I feel it’s one of the best of the 60s era Kaiju films. A really solid mix of models, props, perspective shots and blue screen.

Didn’t Jurassic Park have some practical effects?

There are definitely practical effects of the T-Rex head and partial body, and some of the shots of the Raptors. They’re interspersed with CGI shots though. If you’ve seen it enough times, it’s pretty easy to spot the switch.

The sick Triceratops was all practical though!