Made to look like a single continuous shot with no edit cuts, 1917 is a unique spectacle that builds upon the techniques used in similar films, such as Birdman. As director Sam Mendes follows these two soldiers, the sound design and natural lighting work together to sell the illusion of a continuous take. To get through these treacherous locations, which were scattered all across the United Kingdom, the camera crew had to rely on many forms of transportation from trucks to cranes to Steadicams. The camera would even be unhooked from one crane and then hooked onto another while the film’s still rolling.
​
This was no easy task for the set designers either, as models for every set had to be built to plan out the blocking and figure out how to work around the filming equipment. They had to know based on the length of every scene exactly how long each set should be, which meant in total 5,200 feet of trenches were built. When it came to actually filming these ambitious scenes, there were some days when the weather would shut down production because every shot had to look consistent—even a tiny bit of sunlight could be catastrophic. While other films have utilized this gimmick, no other has done it at this scale, and it’s guaranteed that more filmmakers from here on out will pick up on Mendes’ innovative techniques.

R (LV​)
Action/Historic
1 hr. 59 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to THINK.
​Watch it to feel SAD and AFRAID.

Everyone knows it as the rare event when a sequel surpassed the quality of the original, but Terminator 2: Judgment Day particularly made its mark in film history as one of the absolute earliest uses of CGI—perhaps the first movie to prove the technology’s full potential. After James Cameron’s successful use of CGI in The Abyss two years earlier, this felt like the natural next step, and the VFX crew, sure enough, made the most of it. These artists took the time to study the movements of actor Robert Patrick, paint a grid on his body, and use a new laser scanning process on his face so they could replicate him entirely on a computer to animate his character, who was made of liquid metal. 

​Even without this revolutionary digital technology, every single special effects trick imaginable was used in the making of this movie. The opening war scene created the terminator endoskeletons with complex mixtures of puppetry, animatronics, and stop-motion animation. The course of a Los Angeles river was changed so they could film the canal chase. A whole four-story office building was blown up. The main cast went through military combat and weapons training. There’s so much that went into this enormous motion picture that shook up the entire filmmaking industry, and at the end of the day, it still can just be enjoyed simply as a thrill ride that gets better after every repeated visit.

R (DLV)
Sci-fi/Action
2 hr. 17 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.

James Cameron’s motion picture directorial debut, The Terminator continues to define the action/sci-fi genre thanks to all that the production crew exploited using their minimal resources. Even nearly forty years after its release, it’s incredible to see the different techniques used to make the near-invincible T-800 scarier than anything from a horror movie, right down to the shark-like way he prowls around in search of Sarah Connor. These techniques included the human-lookalike mechanics that were built to resemble Arnold Schwarzenegger’s head, which even then weren’t as ambitious as this one brief shot where the Terminator’s hand punches through a windshield; that was actually the first time a mechanical arm was used for a stunt like this. Furthermore, the elaborate Terminator endoskeleton puppet took almost a year to create.

​​To make the production requirements even more stressful, there were numerous miniature sets that had to be built, and for the future scenes, those miniatures had to include smoke on the set so the cutouts in the back couldn’t be as noticeable. It’s wild to think of how much was done to really test the limits of the budget, even the night scenes were immense leaps of bravery for the production crew! Yet it all paid off, as had they not done all this under James Cameron’s direction, other creators of action/sci-fi movies today wouldn’t be as brave to attempt going all out with a minimal budget.

R (DLSNV)
Sci-fi/Action
1 hr. 47 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.

In this grand finale to the iconic trilogy, more props and costumes were built than what the other two movies offered, with more CGI utilized in ways never seen before. The most beautiful setting in this movie, or any of the three movies, is Minas Tirith, with its exterior made mostly out of a miniature set piece, and scenic designs that are of the finest artistic craftsmanship. Settings like that, along with the epic musical score, help make the film feel every bit as huge as Middle Earth should be. While Gollum returns as viciously cunning as ever, more digital creatures make a proper debut to showcase all that CGI had the potential for.

​The Mûmakil set the stage for one of the most complex war battles in cinema’s entire history, while Shelob the giant spider is animated in a way like no other CGI creature up until that point. Even the Army of the Dead, which wasn’t even necessary for the plot in the first place, was present to run the extra mile in showcasing how much could be done in combining digital effects with innovative costume design. It’s so stunning how every single scene in this final movie of the trilogy is its own visual effects showcase, proving why The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, along with its two predecessors, are perhaps the most influential films of the 2000s.

PG-13 (V)
Fantasy/Action
3 hr. 21 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.

​The next adaptation in J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy could not possibly top what the first one did, right? Bzzt, wrong! The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in fact introduced even more new visual effects techniques that left a permanent effect on blockbuster movies. More enormous set pieces were built on location, such as Rohan, Isengard, and Helm’s Deep, while many more sets were built completely from scratch inside a soundstage, such as the Dead Marshes. Plus, a massive portion of the third act’s runtime is taken up by a battle at Helm’s Deep, which fully utilized the tools at its disposal: the heavy rainfall, the special makeup effects, the complex camera movements in the air, the miniature sets, the practical fight choreography, it’s mesmerizing to imagine the production challenges posed within every single frame of this sequence.

​Plus, Gollum is one of the first-ever instances of motion capture technology in film, and it could never have worked without Andy Serkis’ performance behind the mocap dots to bring so much humanity into the role. Furthermore, the CGI Ents move like no other digital creation had looked before, especially during the scene where they attack Isengard together. The computerized effects may have been the accomplishment most celebrated in this trilogy, but it’s ultimately more noteworthy how a massive project such as this could have possibly been completed in the first place.

PG-13 (V)
Fantasy/Action
2 hr. 59 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.

For so long, everyone thought adapting the entire Lord of the Rings book series into live-action motion pictures was impossible, yet Peter Jackson did it, hooking audiences in with this first of the epic trilogy. Under his direction, an immense plethora of previously established special effects techniques were expanded upon, and those new techniques went on to inspire other movie studios with their tentpole blockbusters. Today, these originally out-of-the-box approaches to combining digital and practical effects are still at work in the industry and are still growing fast.

​Among those techniques included the miniature sets surrounded by digital backgrounds, yet the biggest achievement was the use of forced perspective to make the actors playing the Hobbits appear tiny when next to the other human characters. To sell the illusion, duplicate versions of the same set were built, with one at a smaller scale when filming shots of the regular-sized human characters. Even then, the extra mile was run: digital shots combined Ian McKellen and Ian Holm into the same frame and had them exchange props with one another, extras with giant animatronic hands passed by the actors, and dummies were used when the Hobbit actors’ faces didn’t have to be seen. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring set the stage for what the trilogy did for movies—now any filmmaker can feel comfortable with adapting anything.

PG-13 (V)
Fantasy/Action
2 hr. 58 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.

It may have come out thirteen years too late, but this sequel works with how it improved on all that the first Avatar revolutionized for CGI technology. That includes updating the camera used in the first installment to work for filming underwater, as well as inventing a new camera system where the use of two lenses could capture more detailed facial expressions from the actors. On that note, a new facial recognition system was used to keep a database of every emotion each actor would express throughout the movie, which helped the animators in post-production. There was another new technique used by the animators called “motion grading,” which rendered the action at twenty-four frames per second during slower scenes, and forty-eight during the faster scenes.

Then there are the underwater segments, which while filming were shot under ultraviolet light, unlike the shots above the surface, which were shot under infrared light. To prepare for this, the cast underwent a year of training on how to swim underwater, including six months of diaphragmatic breathing exercises. Also, a fun fact: Kate Winslet broke the world record for the longest time someone ever held their breath on a film set: seven minutes and fifteen seconds! So despite its obvious flaws in story and dialogue, Avatar: The Way of Water is worth the time just to see what it will change about visual effects.

PG-13 (DLV)
Sci-fi/Action
3 hr. 12 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.

Everyone thought that James Cameron was mad to attempt making a movie like this, one that was far more ambitious even than the already impactful Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Titanic. However, he knew deep down he had something special on his hands. Cameron started developing the technology right after he finished directing Titanic, and it wasn’t until 2009 that his vision could finally be realized on the biggest screen possible. The motion capture technology was unlike any other movie before it, proving how this technology in fact doesn’t hold back on the art of acting but rather pushes it forward. To make the aliens feel as human as possible, life casts were made of the actors to design their Na’vi counterparts.

​Sony helped James Cameron create a new lightweight IMAX camera system to make the immense world of Pandora so dense; with this camera, there were actually two lenses: one pointed straight up, another pointed straight ahead, which to this day continues to influence how 3D is filmed for major tentpole blockbusters. The work of the animators ought to be applauded as well with the challenge that came about with the six-limbed alien creatures and the four-fingered Na’vi. Although the common criticisms about its character, dialogue, and predictable story are valid, Avatar still rightfully made its mark on filmmaking with the possibilities it opened for exhibition on the giant screen.

PG-13 (DLSV)
Sci-fi/Action
2 hr. 42 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.

Despite its shamelessly dumb plot, this classic crowd-pleasing blockbuster is perfect to watch on the Fourth of July. The writers, Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich, originally wanted to pay tribute to the old alien invasion classics from Hollywood’s Golden Age while also combining those tropes with the modern style of a huge disaster film, and huge this movie is indeed. One of these spaceships hovers over all of New York City, encasing every inch of it under its own shadow before it ignites explosions across the streets. Once the destruction is over, the overwhelming aftermath is presented in all its glory, complete with the Statue of Liberty broken off its foundation. 

​​Then there’s the iconic shot of the White House being blown up. This shot was used to sell the movie when the trailer played during the Superbowl; everyone went so nuts over seeing the White House blow up that a new standard was set for all film trailers airing during the Superbowl from there on out. Yet all the more spectacular to watch beyond the destructive mayhem is the aliens themselves; their designs are quite scary with the concept of this smaller more vulnerable alien hidden inside a larger, much more imposing alien. But it’s the way the alien moves and the texture of its flesh that really sells its disturbing screen presence. Therefore, Independence Day certainly deserves a one-time watch to see some filmmakers simply having fun.

PG-13 (LSV)
Sci-fi/Action
2 hr. 25 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.

Of course, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl needs no introduction: it spawned four sequels and even made the original Disneyland ride it’s based on alter its storyline to align with the movie. Yet it’s also an incredible showcase of elaborate sets and costumes that feel more like the world of pirates than any other pirate movie from Hollywood’s long history. The costumes were made with authentic materials, including the use of real 18th-century pistols, while the sets were quite ambitious for the time. The treasure cave was among the biggest interior movie sets ever built while all three of the main ships featured had miniature replicas built of them for specific shots.

​Then there’s Captain Jack Sparrow, who is still to this day one of the most imaginatively fun original characters ever made for a motion picture; Johnny Depp portrays this role with a drunken “sea legs walk” persona that forever redefined how pirates are depicted in pop culture. None of the other pirates featured are seen with the familiar hook hands or eyepatches, they instead look rather gross with disease, a look achieved with the help of contact lenses and coloring on teeth. So despite the ridiculous plot, this iconic summer blockbuster ought to be honored for how it revived a dead Hollywood genre for a new generation, making it look even better than it ever did before.

PG-13 (DV)
Action/Fantasy
2 hr. 23 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.