Which 'older' CGI/ Visual FX still hold up really well today?

[levcore]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

The discussion begins and ends with Davey Jones.

Yes Davy Jones still seems to be the bar that digital characters especially should be measured by.

[Underworld54]

Contact

[levcore]

A lot of Contact is great but the finale on the beach looks pretty fake now.

[mastadge]

Starship Troopers, with the exception of the Brain Bug in some shots. I think the reason a number of 90s films hold up is because the CG is integrated with a lot more practical and in-camera stuff and so it didn't tend to feel as weightless as things did once CG ate everything.

[levcore]

Absolutely.

[CreasyBear]

Originally Posted by levcore

A lot of Contact is great but the finale on the beach looks pretty fake now.

It's supposed to. It's a simulation inside her head.

[CreasyBear]

Originally Posted by ChainsawJedi

Aw, diddums; so with an extended tea break you're saying Weta would have been up to the challenge? The film's an embarrassment, a laughing stock. Kudos to anyone who can sit through that turgid mess more than once.

And Kong was a much more complex film in so many ways. Practically every shot has some kind of effect and the wide range of techniques employed dwarfed even LOTR. For 2005, it was incredibly ambitious and as mentioned, aside from the dinosaur stampede, it all holds up tremendously even 15 years later.

You seem to be particularly stubborn with this conversation, so I'll leave it at that.

[trevanian]

Originally Posted by levcore

A lot of Contact is great but the finale on the beach looks pretty fake now.

That was supposed to be stylized, so I give the beach a pass, but I had a lot of trouble with some of the real world stuff, especially the ship in the water near the end when she launches. That seemed more like seaQuest than photorealism.

While some of the stuff with the Machine in Florida looks good, other shots are really weak, but I find most Zemeckis films seem to be all over the place with fx quality, probably because he uses too damn many of them (and yeah, I invoke that criticism for about 95% of movies from the last quarter-century.)

Honestly, I've only made it through 1-1/2 LOTR movies and maybe 20 minutes of Jackson's KONG, (the latter spread out over 3 or 4 flip-pasts on TV), and to me it all looks so stylized that I found watching almost impossible. I can get into stylization when it is part of storytelling, like WHAT DREAMS MAY COME or SIN CITY, but KONG just looked like a badly colored cartoon to me. I think if I tried watching more, I would start comparing it to the Rick Baker 77 Kong, which I found absurd to the point of laughter.

[levcore]

I rewatched the excellent Stargate last night. There are some great FX in that, and some not so great. The CG morphs for the helmets blew me away back in the 90's but they certainly look a bit wonky now. Also Ra's glowing white eyes stick out a bit as a visual effect. This is definitely a movie where the fx support the story though and the movie is a great one with or without them.

[spider-neil]

The CG in some movies is so good you don't even realise they HAVE CG. The CGI in Parasite blows my mind. Those are type of effect that will stand the test of time.

[TheWildWhelk]

Originally Posted by levcore

I rewatched the excellent Stargate last night. There are some great FX in that, and some not so great. The CG morphs for the helmets blew me away back in the 90's but they certainly look a bit wonky now. Also Ra's glowing white eyes stick out a bit as a visual effect. This is definitely a movie where the fx support the story though and the movie is a great one with or without them.

Stargate still holds up extremely well considering it had such a modest budget. Much more so than a number of the shots in Independence Day, where either due to lack of finance (or time) some of the vfx definitely needed more polish. The 'Asbestos Dog' scene springs to mind...

Additionally, What Dreams May Come, the Afterlife sequences justly won Mass Illusion vfx a deserved Oscar. Quite stunning.

[FiendishlyInventive]

Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl Blu-ray

[Mikezilla3k]

Originally Posted by LucyTheAlien

Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl Blu-ray

And Dead Man's Chest.

[Kaiju]

[Member-244966]

I think Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors still looks terrific

[brooks101189]

Starship Troopers
Reign of Fire
Hollow Man

[GaragePoet]

[Fenway55]

I think Star Trek 2, 3, 4 and 6 have the best FX of the saga. I'll take well constructed models every day of the week.

I am also firmly of the opinion that the limitations of effects from those days created better storytelling. These days it's just about squeezing as much as you possibly can onto the screen.

[Crispy0009]

For me the best looking stuff is a mix of good practical effects and CGI.

The thing I HATE in film now is when they blow up a car using cgi and it looks SOOOOOO fake.
Just pull a Nolan and blow the thing up for real. lol

[Mobe1969]

Starship Troopers