Favorite Special-effect Scenes.

[Smokey]

Specials effects on a movie can be over done (Matrix 3), but if it is done right and at the right time, it will add another dimension to the movie. Here are few of my favorite.

Not in any particular order:

X Men, The last Stand: Magneto moving the Golden Bridge.


Aliens: Last part of movie where Weaver fight the alien.


Jurassic park: Trex shows up. Elementary, but revolutionary.


Polar Express: The part where ice is meting beneath the train and track going under water.


Terminator 3: The Crane chase scene. It made me jump

[diggity]

the entire terminatore 2 movie. for a movie as old as that it stillstands up to most current movies.

cheers: dazza

[victemizer]

One of my favorites would have to be the part in Independence Day where the aliens blow up the white house, and the carnage that follows.

I also like the way the pulled off the fight scenes in the most recent Resident Evil movie.

[Rich-n-Texas]

The latest rendition of the Batmobile.

[Smokey]

I agree with T2 and Independent Day having groundbreaking Special effects. Matrix probably deserve a nod also.

And Rich, any pictures??

[diggity]

i was thinking of matrix but the thought of keanu made me pass out and when i woke i forgot to type it in. and i know it sounds corny, but the final batlle scenes of transformers, from the highway chase on. the effects added with the sound sound track are awesome.

just on bad effects: i dont know if it appears on anyone elses copies, but on lord of the rings (the first one) when the horseman (name of these?) are chasing the hobbits through the forest at night before they go into the pub. there is a scene where the camera follows these horseman and it looks like the cloth covering their faces falls off, and the editor just puts a black dot with blurred edges over the face. it looks stupid for a movie of that budget.

oh almost forgot, another bad effect was in a corny japanese movie (yes they exist) a bad guy put a bomb onto a persons neck. the bomb looks like a peice of see through masking tape. and so as the viewer doesn't miss it the movie pauses for two seconds and the word "look" is embossed on the screen with a arrow pointing down to the see through bomb. hillarious....

cheers dazza

[basite]

see transformers.

[audio amateur]

Alien

[Rich-n-Texas]

I agree with T2 and Independent Day having groundbreaking Special effects. Matrix probably deserve a nod also.

And Rich, any pictures??

There were some pics in another thread Smokey. GM posted them. The only one I could find was really small. I should qualify my selection by saying every scene the Batmobile was in during the movie was awesome. Love that thing!

[SlumpBuster]

Sunshine - just watch the trailer. Alot of people missed this movie. I think it might have been limited release. It is very heavy on the special effects, but still unmistakeable as a Danny Boyle movie. If you liked Trainspotting or 28 Days Later, you should check out Sunshine and Millions. All very different genre movies, but none of Boyles movies disappoint. Sunshine is more about ideas and mood and texture then it is about rock 'em sock 'em robots. But, it still had my wife and I on the edges of our seats, and has a particularly unique scene that I have not seen in any other sci-fi movies.

[Smokey]

I must admit that haven't seen Transfomers or Sunshine. I am usually two years behind when it comes to new movies

[ForeverAutumn]

This isn't special effect in the traditional sense, but there's a scene in the movie Signs where the family is in the basement hiding from/fighting the aliens. The only light in the scene is a flashlight that is being kicked around in the scuffle. The scene is total darkness with the occasional flash of light and lots of sound effects. This is one of my favourite movie scenes of all times.

[sgt bass08]

Smokey I dont think matrix speacial effects are over done they are awesome.But if i had to pick my special effect favorite scene it would be this scene in kung fu hustle.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd0Ufazo2qo

[Smokey]

There's a scene in the movie Signs where the family is in the basement hiding from/fighting the aliens. The only light in the scene is a flashlight that is being kicked around in the scuffle. The scene is total darkness with the occasional flash of light and lots of sound effects. This is one of my favourite movie scenes of all times.

You know the old Chinese saying: "Less is more."

Smokey I dont think matrix speacial effects are over done they are awesome.

I was specifically refering to Matrix3. I thought the scenes were robots are fighting were little bit over done. On thing that got my attention was how fake the blood looked on driver's face. Not to metion this fight scene that seem to go on for ever....

[SlumpBuster]

This isn't special effect in the traditional sense, but there's a scene in the movie Signs where the family is in the basement hiding from/fighting the aliens. The only light in the scene is a flashlight that is being kicked around in the scuffle. The scene is total darkness with the occasional flash of light and lots of sound effects. This is one of my favourite movie scenes of all times.

Well, you propose a question then: "What is a "special effect?" I agree with your assesment of that scene. It is a powerful film that is one of the few DVDs I actually own. That scene is filled with lighting effect, sound effects, and a simple fake latex "hand" coming through the coal chute great. Combine that with the production design (how the basement actually looked) and the performance of the actors and you've created an atmosphere and fear that no amount of CGI can match. e.g. Cloverfield.

[Kam]

here's a few great effects scenes imo:

-Rope and the 6-7(?) invisible cuts.
-Russian Arc and the NO cuts.
-Ong Bak and tony jaa's NO wires.
-The other Tony Jaa movie with the elephants and the 3-4 minutes fight scene with NO cuts as he goes up the winding staircase.
-the battle with the Kraken in Clash of the Titans
-the battle with the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts
-scenes with andy serkis (as gollum and kong)

[SlumpBuster]

here's a few great effects scenes imo:

-Rope and the 6-7(?) invisible cuts.
-Russian Arc and the NO cuts.
-Ong Bak and tony jaa's NO wires.
-The other Tony Jaa movie with the elephants and the 3-4 minutes fight scene with NO cuts as he goes up the winding staircase.
-the battle with the Kraken in Clash of the Titans
-the battle with the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts
-scenes with andy serkis (as gollum and kong)

The Protector was the Tony Jaa movie with the elephants. That movie was sweet. I haven't seen Ong Bak, but will add it to my queue.

Rope was also just a good movie. It helps when an effects heavy movies would be a good movie even without the effects. Reading about Russian Arc was good enough for me. I don't need to see it.

[Kam]

.... It helps when an effects heavy movies would be a good movie even without the effects. ....

i agree! this to me is the difference between good/bad anything. all these toys are just tools in telling the story, but so many filmmakers make the TOYS the story. i'll take Tora Tora Tora ANYDAY over Pearl Harbor.

Think of your favorite special effects scenes, and how impactful is the importance of that scene MINUS the special effects. Case in point:
Darth Vader vs. Obi Wan in the original Star Wars. (A)
Darth Maul vs. Obi Wan and Qui Gon in the new ****. (B)
A, imo, is hands down the better scene. FAR more powerful and far more interesting story and important to the narrative. B is hands down the better TECHNICAL scene, and better SPFX scene but... all in all, meaningless.

[Smokey]

here's a few great effects scenes imo:

-the battle with the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts

That is also one of my favorite scene also. Given that it was done in stop motion method, it is an amazing piece of work.

[Spancticles]

poltergeist-where they first show the scientists the room
twister-the cow

[SlumpBuster]

Case in point:
Darth Vader vs. Obi Wan in the original Star Wars. (A)
Darth Maul vs. Obi Wan and Qui Gon in the new ****. (B)
A, imo, is hands down the better scene. FAR more powerful and far more interesting story and important to the narrative. B is hands down the better TECHNICAL scene, and better SPFX scene but... all in all, meaningless.

Here is a counterpoint though: Yoda's first light saber battle. Lots of special effects put to good character use. A huge reveal of character. I remember seeing that on opening night. The crowd was wall to wall nerds. The theater was filled with the kind of people that have a position on Gredo shooting first. The place went apesh!t when Yoda first fired up his light saber. It was like a rock concert.

[Kam]

Here is a counterpoint though: Yoda's first light saber battle. Lots of special effects put to good character use. A huge reveal of character. I remember seeing that on opening night. The crowd was wall to wall nerds. The theater was filled with the kind of people that have a position on Gredo shooting first. The place went apesh!t when Yoda first fired up his light saber. It was like a rock concert.

i do agree with you somewhat, but to play devils advocate....

i think that scene worked in spite of itself. the writing was so ludicrously clunky and the way the scene played out was the same way. The spfx helped elevate the scene to reveal something we had never seen Yoda do up until that point, but other than that reveal (which granted is a very cool reveal) the scene held very little impact. However, yes, it did set up the narrative point of giving Anakin "revenge" against Dooku in Ep.III and another step on his way to the darkside, showed a little bit of Obi-Wan's own arrogance and his failure because of it, Anakin's impetuousness and hot-headedness as well. So there were plot points that were furthered by the action.

but even when yoda shows up and dooku does a running narrative of their battle AS they are in battle. i couldn't stop laughing at the "well since it is obvious that our powers of the force are equal we must now battle with light saber" line, or whatever he said. (which by itself is another indicator of the power of the original Obi Wan-Darth fight, how much more memorable THOSE lines were.. "only a master of evil Darth" etc). why did Dooku have to TELL us what was obvious by the action we are SEEING. There telekenetic powers matched up... their electricity powers matched up... what was left? light sabers. no reason to have to narrate that as well.

so within the entire structure of that scene, yes... the Yoda section was a very nice reveal for the fans to show them the "master" HOWEVER... even then... the master 'lost' to his student. was he really much superior to dooku? his own apprentice. dooku fought him to a stand still. i didn't see yoda being visibly superior to dooku at all.

ok, i've extolled my nerddom enough lol.

[kelsci]

YOu mean that there King Kong, 1933 did not have nifty special effects for its time? Even some of the Republic and Univesal serials had some nifty special effects thrown in here and there that set the stage for some of the future special effects done in contempary films and they did it pretty well at times even way back in the thirties. Ray guns were animated much the same as they are today as an example. Rocket ships are still models.