Cast your vote!

I'm not a fan of cgi infested films. I think cgi has made filmmakers lazy. A lot of effects can be done better (but maybe not cheaper) using other methods.

I'm expecting a virtual kicking for this, but I think the first LotR film was guilty of some bad effects. I can't speak for the other two as I disliked the first one so much I didn't bother with them. A lot of the cgi backgrounds grated badly with the real shots, and the wide and high cgi shots of the fellowship running looked cheap and nasty. The amount of money they spent, they should have got little things like that right.

The Matrix is a nice idea that gets lost in cgi. Some of the effects in Send in the Clones were rubbish, but I'm one of those who thought it was even worse than TPM. The effects in The X-Men films and Spidermen struck me as well done. I forget what other options Svein gave us.

My vote goes to The Thing. It's amazing what they managed to do with the technology of the time, and it more than stands up today.

But that was not in the last five years and I don't think ANYONE could accuse Peter Jackson of Laziness... There's no way to have made LOTR without CGI...?

And where's my script mate?

The intro to X-Men 2 was mindblowing!

-m0r

No, they couldn't have made LotR without cgi, but that doesn't change my opinion that there was some lousy cgi in the 1st film (as well as some very good cgi).

All right, I will admit I didn't notice the 'last 5 years bit'. I like my effects efficient and unobtrusive. I'm not a big effects movie kind of person.

Scriptwise? The honest truth is I'm suffering from a severe lack of confidence at the moment. I feel I've given myself something to live up to and I don't know if I can. I need to get back in whatever zone i was in when I did the first stuff.

I was particularly fond of the effects in Hulk but I know no fucker's going to agree with me there. Hellboy had some great stuff as well, as did Blade 2

Decrying a major effects flick for having a couple of shit effects seems a little unfair when there are probably hundreds of little ones that you don't even know are effects. AOTC had a fair few shit moments, CGI wise, but there are shots in there which I know are digital but that still look real to me. there's a couple of occasions where digital doubles have been used, one specific one springs to mind and even now that I know it's not real my mind still wants me to believe that it is actually Ewan McGregor.

The major mistake most of the above films have made is relying on too much CGI when a proper combination of practical effects and digital enhancement would have served them better.

The Hulk was a disappointment to me and Hellboy was good even if no one else liked it and Spiderman was good but a big sell out on crap merchandising.

lotr used effects the right way, i loved it. star wars was a tacky mess

Its hard to vote, i HATE cgi it always looks fake. I would say Day After Tomorrow but those wolves where the crapest thing id ever seen.

I think people are overly harsh on CGI. There's nothing wrong with CGI if it's used as a tool to achieve something that was necessary in the plot which couldn't have been otherwise achieved. The problem is when it's special effects for the sake of having special effects, trying to hide the fact that the plot is utter rubbish (*cough*matrixtrilogy*cough*). Some film makers are approaching things from totally the wrong angle, they think "what cool effects could we have, and how would we fit a plot around them?" as opposed to "here's the plot. What do we need to do to achieve everything in here?"

I'm not surpised Van Helsing wasn't on the list.

Return of The King got my vote.

Shaolin Soccer & Kung-Fu Hustle make good use of CGI. It looks a little tacky but in the context of the films it works well

Also (though I think it misses the 5 year cut-off), Gladiator. When you realise how much SFX are in there and you barely notice any, its pretty impressive.

As great as CGI is, I do miss the old physical effects of Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Tom Savini etc

These guys are still working but in conjunction with the digital folks. Blade 2 was full of makeup effects combined with CGI stuff.

Bucking the trend of people voting for Return of the King I've gone for Fellowship of the Rings as I feel it achieves a lot more with camera trickery and false perspectives than Return of the King does will it's epic CGI shots.

There were only one or two scenes in Fellowship where I was conscious of it being an effects shot but there were a lot more in Return of the King.

This is a tricky one.

Do I go for CGI sequences that are "set" in cities that we know with recognisable landmarks that make me go "ooooooh", or go for a Lord of the Rings Fantasy location?

Easy - Lord of the Rings. The sequence at the start of The Two Towers is breathtaking. I had goosebumps when watching it. Although that also happened in the Voyager episode Timeless when the ship crashes on the ice planet, and some of the DS9 battle sequences.

Oh that film with Micheal Keeton, Shite Noise, there was 1 good effect in that - not worth the effort of the rest of the film, but 1 very nice effect

-m0r

It is hard to choose. The best special effects are the effects that you can't see.
The ones you don't know are special effects. In the case of all the above they are obvious effect movies, - cos you know they couldn't've been done any other way.

I'm voting for Spiderman 2 though. With the exception of some of the swinging shots of the man himself, the rest of the movie was fairly convincing.

Wow... X-Men is the only one without a vote...

LotRs Return of the King. nothing (thus far) has beaten Aragorn and his Army of undead warriors... Ash has nothing on this dude!

can't....choose....too...hard....

I'm torn between X-Men 2, the opening sequence of which was one of the most sublime pieces of CGI I've ever seen, Spiderman 2 which was excellent in terms of mixing CGI and regular shots IMHO, and LOTR.
I'll have a think over my tea and get back to you.

I'm kind of regretting having chosen ROTK now, having just read Raven's comments.
...I so nearly chose between Fellowship/Two Towers. I think the term "Special Effects"
tends to be broad-brushed simply as "CGI" these days - when they are in fact so much
more than just computer wizardry (pun semi-intended, 'scuse I). What Jackson
achieved with respect to character scaling with simple forced perspective techniques
was simply brilliant.

Nevertheless, Gollum, for me, is still the best CGI character I've ever witnessed
in any motion picture. I'm half inclined to wanna change my vote to Two Towers, I think...


And Whitey, looks like I may well be the only 'f*cker' who agrees with you regarding Hulk.
I thought the effects in that were superbly done.

They weren't bad but for me they don't hold a candle to the Nazgul!

Legolas felling the mumakil, ahhhhh perfection.

It was amusing the first few times around but it get's old (and a tad silly) pretty quickly . . .

I thought that, after all the hype the Matrix Rehashed and Rebuggered effects were absolute rubbish! If the films themselves hadn't been so stomach-pumpingly awful the effects would have really let them down.