It was in the 1990s when audiences were first starting to see the future of movies, as the transition from practical effects to CGI were happening right in front of viewers’ eyes.
More often than not, it was through groundbreaking effects like in Terminator 2: Judgement Day where audiences’ would see huge technical advancements. But there were other times when viewers would be watching a movie and they’d be looking at computer generated images without even knowing it.
Jurassic Park
The CGI in Jurassic Park is one of the reasons it’s a perfect blockbuster. The movie perfectly blends together computer generated images and animatronics to make the world and its inhabitants look completely realistic. But one of the major CGI effects in the movie isn’t related to the dinosaurs. When Lex is climbing up through the air vent, it’s actually a stunt double who inadvertently looks up at the camera. In post production, the effects team had to digitally alter the stunt double’s face so it looked like Lex.
Waterworld
Though there are a lot of interesting facts about the box office bomb, one of the biggest CGI effects of the movie is hidden in plain site. Clearly preferring not to follow the James Cameron method in which the whole cast and crew acts and shoots in the water, the whole of the sea was added in to the movie in post production. It must have taken a slew of teams and a ton of time, but if there’s any saving grace of the movie, the water sure does look great.
Supernova
In what is one of the strangest sex scenes in movie history, as Angela Bassett and James Spader get it on in zero gravity, just like the whole movie, this scene is full of special effects. Though there were clearly some VFX used to make it look like they were in zero gravity, it was actually two other actors that were used, and Spader and Bassett’s faces were digitally superimposed onto the bodies.
Contact
Contact features one of the most mind bending effects in cinema, and though many people believed it was some sort of camera trickery, it was done using CG. In the movie, we watch young Ellie run through a house, up the stairs, and in to the bathroom to the medicine cabinet, and it is revealed that we have been watching her reflection the whole time. It is one of the best ever instances of CG in the 90s and one of the finest examples of an image warp.
Back To The Future Part III
As the first and second Back To The Future movies were released in the 80s, the third instalment looked much better as the industry had massively evolved in the time since the first film. Though Back To The Future Part III, arguably the better sequel in the series, still used miniatures and practical effects for the most part, there were slight CG touches added to the DeLorean that are indistinguishable in the movie.
Total Recall
In the year of its release, Total Recall won the Academy Award for best visual effects, not because of its CGI, but because of its practical effects such as miniatures of full towns and character prosthetics. In fact there was virtually no CGI in the movie.
One of the very few instances of CGI in Total Recall went over everybody’s heads, which was the walk through X-ray machine. Interestingly enough, it might be one thing about the future that the movie predicted correctly, as scientists are currently trying to create such a thing.
The Matrix
It’s no secret that The Matrix is laden with special effects and totally pioneered CGI as we know it today. From the slow motion bullet time to the insane fight scenes, there are very few shots that don’t include some form of computer generated image. But adding to the insane behind the scenes facts of the film, there are photoreal digital versions of Neo and Agent Smith in the first instalment that nobody would ever notice.
The Truman Show
Compared to the other sci-fi movies, The Truman Show, which is the best Jim Carey movie according to Rotten Tomatoes, is much more subtle with seemingly little need for any visual effects. The only time it’s really needed is for a few aerial shots when it’s explained that the set of “The Truman Show” can be seen from space.
However, due to Florida’s laws on how high the building can be, the crew could only build sets a certain height, which means that any building higher than that that’s seen in the movie has been digitally added. But it’s impossible to tell if viewers aren’t looking out for it.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Though there were a lot of issues with The Phantom Menace, many of which being the disastrous CGI of the characters, one of the few great things was that R2-D2 remained largely unedited (that was until he was able to fly in Attack of the Clones.) However, there are some smaller CG effects that were added to the character that remain largely invisible, but it massively adds to the overall aesthetic.
12 Monkeys
12 Monkeys is one of the greatest time travel movies of all time, with career best performances from Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, and one of Terry Gilliam’s most thought provoking works. As Gilliam is known for preferring practical effects more than anything else, it’s hard to believe that he was actually one of the very first users of computer generated images, as the movie was released in 1995.
The three giraffes that appear at the end of the movie are completely CG, though they look real and many people suspected that it was the background that was edited in at the time.