Steven Spielberg’s most personal film went against the trend of other alien invasion movies by other filmmakers; unlike other popular movies of the genre like War of the Worlds or Alien, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial featured aliens who, similar to Spielberg’s other movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, don’t want to hurt humans. To create this non-threatening lovable alien adopted by a lonely boy, the designer for E.T. took inspiration from wise old people like Albert Einstein, with the alien voice provided by an elderly woman whose voice afterward was electronically modified and mixed with animal sounds. On set, many techniques were utilized to bring him to life, such as hiring a mime to control his hands, yet at other times, the E.T. puppet had to be controlled entirely by wires and computers.
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It may have been a kids’ movie, but Steven Spielberg understood what kind of film he was working on and spoke to the kid actors at their level. He did this by keeping the order of scenes filmed throughout production chronological to the story’s timeline so the kid actors wouldn’t be confused—the kids weren’t even told what would happen next in the story until the day of shooting each scene. And it all worked out: this nostalgic portrait of the 1980s suburb is one of the most influential movies of the decade and made possible many of the sci-fi movies of today.

PG (DL)
Sci-fi
1 hr. 55 min.

Watch it for FUN.
​Watch it to feel HAPPY, SAD and AFRAID.

While John Krasinski originally didn’t plan on a Quiet Place sequel, he still picked up on the success of his horror smash-hit by building on all that it had the potential for, including the possibility of this concept turning into a franchise. The expansion of this world devastated by an alien invasion is such a keen exercise in allowing the setting to dictate what the characters’ personalities and struggles are like, particularly in how others outside the movie’s main family were affected. The family by the way is now deprived of their familiar resources at the farm and is stretched beyond their limit, the deaf daughter, Regan, most of all. While this sequel isn’t nearly as focused on silent communication as the first movie, Regan takes on more of a protagonist role to inspire other girls, women, and the entire Deaf community.
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This form of entertainment is accessible to everyone, with large action set pieces that required a lot more hands-on work than the first movie. The open-endedness of the finale likewise proves that there’s still more room for this concept to grow into a third installment, or perhaps even a television series. But even if those don’t ever happen, A Quiet Place Part II shall solidify its legacy as an ideal blockbuster to set the standards for how to create effective popcorn entertainment while also crafting a narrative that delves into the psychology of loss and survival.

PG-13 (V)
Horror/Sci-fi
1 hr. 37 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to THINK.
Watch it to feel AFRAID.

A Quiet Place only has 2-3 minutes of dialogue, with a screenplay of only 67 pages, but it still works tremendously as a blockbuster that continues to challenge what defines popcorn entertainment. Its post-apocalyptic world is built with some frightening sound effects, dark lighting, and a slow-moving camera that are masterfully implemented to generate a sense of urgency. It’s a genius work of utilizing ambiance instead of dialogue to tell the story, and it had proven so effective that the audience in the movie theater was reportedly too afraid to eat their popcorn, thus making noise, while watching the movie.
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When John Krasinski was brought on to direct, write, and star in this groundbreaking exercise of orchestrating thrills, he pulled greatly from his own experience raising his newborn daughter. His efforts with this hefty project grew even more personal when his casting decisions relied on instinct rather than auditions, as his decision to cast his wife Emily Blunt to play his character’s wife added to the impact of the film’s major events. Also in this cast was Millicent Simmonds, a deaf actress who played the deaf daughter, and she along with a deaf coach on set ensured that all ASL communication between the family was clear and accurate. Ultimately, no movie exists quite like this one, and no movie may ever be quite like it either. Except of course, for its sequel.

PG-13 (V)
Horror/Sci-fi
1 hr. 30 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to THINK.
Watch it to feel 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.

This deserves the same type of praise as the previous editions of the saga: it’s a groundbreaking spectacle that builds upon the potential for special effects in blockbuster films. The precisely crafted action includes the throne room battle where Rey and Kylo Ren team up together against Supreme Leader Snoke’s guards, a sequence built without any quick editing or jerky camera movements. Even when there isn’t action going on, the engineering wizardry is put on full display. Just one of the locations the crew filmed on was a special effect spectacle in and of itself… the island of Ahch-To.

​​On this island full of rough weather and terrain conditions, the struggle to keep puffins out of each shot was just one of those many environmental factors that made production much more challenging. Yet these challenges gladly weren’t enough to make the crew’s efforts suffer, in fact, they encouraged further creativity, as the solution to eliminating the puffins resulted in the newest alien creation: the cute little porgs! Director Rian Johnson however wanted to go the extra mile with building the environment of Ahch-To, and decided to include extra shots of the porgs made out of complex puppets, with the controls removed by bluescreen technology. It’s really quite amazing how with each rewatch of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the more masterful techniques come to light, and the deeper the viewing experience becomes.

PG-13 (LV)
Sci-fi/Fantasy
2 hr. 32 min.

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

Over three decades after the original trilogy’s run, the series had gone through some drastic changes: the original movies received special edition changes, numerous TV shows/specials were made, countless spinoff novels were written, George Lucas created a prequel trilogy, and in 2012, he sold the rights of his franchise over to Disney. Thus, the new Lucasfilm produced Star Wars: The Force Awakens with a new direction to draw in new fans. Unlike the first three movies, this one had the advantage of CGI technology, all of which were wisely incorporated to enhance the action rather than to steal attention away from it. Therefore, most of the alien and droid characters, whenever possible, were puppets.

​Although the greatest special effect is BB-8, the new ball droid that couldn’t have been realized back in 1983, and as a bonus, was realized with almost no CGI. It delights the senses to see practical effects make a refreshing comeback, and now better than ever before since digital effects at that point could be implemented to enhance the realism of their presence. As a bonus, John Williams came back with his instantly iconic musical score, his standout new composition being Rey’s wondrous theme, which was made to harmoniously complement all other musical tunes from the whole series. The result of this ambitious collaboration was a blockbuster that met the full potential of George Lucas’s creation.

PG-13 (LV)
Sci-fi/Fantasy
2 hr. 16 min.

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

The first movie went to a desert planet straight out of a Western. The second went to a snowy trench battle, a swamp with a wise old hermit, and a majestic cloud city. And to cap all that off, Return of the Jedi went to a crime lord’s palace and a forest with a tribe of sticks and stones. It was the legendary trilogy’s third installment, and George Lucas somehow outdid himself yet again with his inspired eye for worldbuilding. John Williams’ musical score continues to be memorable, especially with more creative liberties to expand on the culture of this galaxy, with the tribal instruments of the Ewoks and a band whose tunes resemble 1980s funk. Yet even more amazing is how Lucasfilm pushed the envelope further in the visual effects department.

​The elaborate Jabba the Hutt puppet needed five puppeteers to bring this giant slug to life, which was still nothing compared to the Rancor sequence. Yet that’s just early on in the movie, from there, the showcase of stunts combined with ambitious visual effects includes the Sarlacc Pit battle, the speed biker chase, the Ewoks’ attack on the Stormtroopers, and the Rebellion’s flight into the unfinished second Death Star. Even the costumes are works of engineering mastery with the alien creatures in Jabba’s palace, which were made from costume materials that couldn’t have been afforded for the first Star Wars.

PG (LV)
Sci-fi/Fantasy
2 hr. 11 min.

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

Before The Empire Strikes Back, a “good” sequel rarely came around. While The Godfather Part II did win the Oscar for Best Picture, most sequels, especially those in the still rarely respected sci-fi genre, never met their full potential. Fans anticipated their return to the galaxy set far, far away, but even then, they had to question: “How does one top Star Wars?” Simple: Go darker and bigger. One of Lucasfilm’s ways of doing that was ironically by one of the smallest, purest characters in the series: Yoda. This was an engineering marvel with his wide range of facial expressions coupled with Frank Oz’s puppeteering on the sets built for his exchanges with Mark Hamill; it proved from there on that not all movie stars were going to be human.

​Besides just Yoda, there were many other massive visual effect spectacles the movie theater had never seen before. The Battle of Hoth alone is one of the most elaborate practical special effects symphonies in cinematic history, with its stop motion work on the AT-AT walkers and ship flying techniques from the first movie used once again, but this time in a bright snow environment instead of against the black of space. After going through this roller coaster of an experience, topped off perfectly by Vader saying, “No, I am your father,” everyone knew this new shift in Hollywood was only going to grow in maturity.

PG (LV)
Sci-fi/Fantasy
2 hr. 4 min.

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

This independently produced space opera prior to its release had no promise of becoming a mega-hit, seeing how it was a genre that nobody at the time took seriously. Yet George Lucas’s spectacle ended up changing everything forever. No storyteller had ever combined genres as different as Hollywood westerns, samurai epics, space operas, and fairy tales with as much fluidity as Lucas did, especially not with aliens and droids as innovatively detailed as they are here. Yet what really makes this galaxy far, far away shine bright is John Williams’ legendary musical score, which besides being a dramatic feast for the ears in a massive theater, also dares to be different with that jazzy Cantina Band tune played on alienesque musical instruments.

​Though ultimately, Star Wars was an exercise for the production crew as they worked with a new camera operating system, which was one step in their innovative special effects technology that created ships flying more flexibly than any other movie beforehand. It pushed for a permanent shift in the film industry; now everything about our culture has been drastically altered. The way we watch movies is different. The way we enjoy movies is different. The way we make movies is different. The way we think about movies is different. Think of any verb, and this first installment of cinema’s most famous franchise for sure made it completely different.

PG (LV)
Sci-fi/Fantasy
2 hr. 1 min.

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