I still find original Alien movies as the most impressing movies on effect side.
Or old Star Wars movies.
Even the old Dunes movie managed to make one.
New CGI movies just feels so fake. Some feeling is totally missing.
Even the old Dunes movie managed to make one.
New CGI movies just feels so fake. Some feeling is totally missing.
On the other hand compare "The Expanse" (Prime Video) with B movies of the Alien era, and the level of story telling they are able to do in a long form TV show. Then compare TV shows of the Alien era. The story telling there is much aided by CGI. Tho that show uses a good mix of practical and fake. Lots of small sets for ships, lots of fake displays. Many fantastical worlds that they can pump out with CG.
I would put Alien above all of them.
High budget movies could still use same techniques in these days but they aren’t.
Alien was released in 1979, but a few years later saw the release of An American Werewolf in London (1981) which featured a memorable werewolf transformation (all practictal effects). Then in 1982 saw the release of The Thing which took practical effects a notch higher.
Also, today filmmakers sometimes use a hybrid approach: combining practical and digital effects.
I do wonder how much further practical effects would have developed if CGI haven't overtook the film industry.
Although I’m curious what your thoughts would’ve been had you been around to see the Wright brothers on their first flight. Or the first cell phone that came in a suitcase. Or the first camera that was just a photo sensitive plate and a hole for a lens.
How would any of this had been improved if people just gave up the second they realized something about the technology wasn’t perfect?