By Andrew Liszewski
It’s that time of year when everyone is compiling their ‘Top Blankety Blanks of Blank’ lists, and if you’re a fan of movie special/visual effects, you’ll want to check out Den of Geek’s list of the Top 50 Movie Special Effects Shots. To keep the fighting in the comments to a minimum, Den of Geek laid down some ground rules for the list which only includes individual effects shots that have to be “exceptionally convincing”, “ground-breaking” or “an exemplary execution of an oft-used technique.”
Overall it’s a pretty solid list, though there are some odd exemptions. I’m no fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but there were a handful of shots created with Weta’s Massive software that were pretty impressive. And Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was the first time I was ever actually fooled by CGI, since I assumed at least part of his face was prosthetic makeup. But I do agree with their #1 choice, which is a shot from the T-Rex attack on the tour vehicles in Jurassic Park. For a film that’s over 15 years old and featured some of the first living, breathing CGI creatures, it’s amazing that the visual effects are still better than what’s seen in many summer blockbusters today.
