Monday, May 14, 2007

50 most influential visual effects films

List. (PDF link) From the Visual Effects Society.

THE VES 50

1. Star Wars (1977)
2. Blade Runner (1982)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) tie
3. The Matrix (1999) tie
5. Jurassic Park (1993)
6. Tron (1982)
7. King Kong (1933)
8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
9. Alien (1979)
10. The Abyss (1989)
11. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
12. Metropolis (1927)
13. A Trip to the Moon (1902)
14. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
15. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
16. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
17. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
18. Titanic (1997)
19. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
20. Jason and the Argonauts (1963) tie
20. E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1982) tie
22. Toy Story (1995)
23. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
24. The Ten Commandments (1956)
25. The War of the Worlds (1953) tie
25. Forrest Gump (1994) tie
25. Citizen Kane (1941) tie
25. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) tie
25. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) tie
30. The Terminator (1984)
31. Aliens (1986)
32. Mary Poppins (1964)
33. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
34. Forbidden Planet (1956)
35. Babe (1995)
36. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) tie
36. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) tie
38. King Kong (2005)
39. Planet of the Apes (1968)
40. Fantastic Voyage (1966)
41. Jaws (1975) (tie)
41. Ghostbusters (1984) (tie)
43. Sin City (2005)
44. Superman: The Movie (1978)
45. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
46. The Lost World (1925) tie
46. Return of the Jedi (1983) tie
48. What Dreams May Come (1998)
49. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
50. Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1958) tie
50. The Fifth Element (1997) tie


My only quibble is where is The Last Starfighter? It was the first film to have scenes that were entirely CGI.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Are you sure about The Last Starfighter? It came out two years after Tron did, and Tron had a lot of scenes done with CGI. I also seem to recall another film coming out just prior to Tron that claimed first use of computer graphics for special effects, but I can't recall the name of it.

Jeff said...

We're both partly right. Tron had the first large use of CGI, but the Last Starfighter had the first large use of photorealistic CGI.
I got my information from: A Brief, Early History of Computer Graphics in Film and Wikipedia

Westworld was the first with 2d animation and the first 3d was in it's sequel Futureworld.

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