Doh, my bad

Black Hawk Down. When the choppers crashed it looked real. I was surprised it was recommended for best sfx because I didn't know they used so many. I second Master and Commander. With these two movies I couldn't really tell they used sfx, which in my book makes it better!!!

The effect used in Adaptation with Nicholas Cage playing two twin brothers. I know this effect has been around for decades, but it's never ben quite as flawless as it was in this movie.

Legolas climbing Oliphaunt in ROTK.
Agent Smith Gangbang in Matrix Reloaded.

I'd have to say that's probably the worst FX sequence in all of the LOTR movies, there was just no physics at all in the way he managed to stay on the Oliphaunt.

The Jurassic Park dinos impressed me as the most realistic

The flogging of Jesus in The Passion of the Christ

Another good call, It was so well done that I didn't even bother looking for an error once. Damn, this one slipped my mine completely.

I agree that effect was great, though a lot of credit should go to Nic Cage for giving such a wonderful performance that you could believe this lookalikes were not only two different characters, but interacting with each other so smoothly.

I myself would say Starship Troopers is one of the best SFX movies out there. Ok, but we said realistic so maybe that doesn't count, but that film still holds up in the FX arena, with perhaps IMO some of the best spaceship effects work out there, not to mention the bugs.

it counts, i don't care just as long as the aliens/spaceships/bugs look real and not cg.

OMFG - that was SO CGI-obvious that it was PAINFUL to even watch and to this day i still FFWD through that scene

Well, not the best pure SFX, there are too many to list, but the best CGI I've ever seen is when Jamie Lee Curtis is dangling from the helicopter in True Lies. I was shocked to learn that was not a real shot(I thought they hung her from a rig but it's all green screen). That blew me away.

Nothing will ever top those first shots of the brontosorous(sp) in Jurraisic Park. Like nothing I ever saw, and I recall crying when I did.

And it gets lost in the shuffle, but the work of Star Wars is amazing in just how good it was, and how well it holds up. It looked SO much better than this new trilogy. I especially loved the Death Star flying sequences and cloud city.

To me, the most realistic special effect sequences are those that don't even seem like special effect sequences. There's an incredible amount of CGI on the island in Castaway that I wasn't even aware of.

The scene in which the wind shifts direction on the island before is a brilliant example of this.

Jurassic Park and LotR-best Fx and the benchmark CGI is at now.

i acutally agree with the first statement, i can't find the cgi.

If you sincerely can't spot the CGI in the burly brawl scene, sorry to say Rypro, but you're not very good at spotting CGI. I'm not saying the CG was horrible, but they tried to do way to much with it, and the result was some pretty obvious effects.

I don't think Saving Private Ryan was mentioned so far. Hopefully it qualifies into this. :)

yeah it does. also as long as the squibs/makeup don't look obvious.

a new one...Troy...by god...I couldnt tell what was CG and what wasnt...tremendous work done...you see that $200mil on the screen!

Yeah, I spotted at least 20 images of the actor Hugo Weaving in multiple frames.

The animation was very nice, but the details were so very lacking that all of the Smiths and Neo looked like plastic toys. Final Fantasy had more realistic texture shading.

bullshiate! The texturing and details were exquiste...I have some high res screencaps and they look great...

No, devilshalo's correct. The motion of the characters was fine, but they looked like action figures. Check out the shot just after Neo grabs the pole, where he jumps in the air and twirls in slow motion. Look at his face. He looks like a character in a Pixar film.

But I'd love to see your hi-res screencaps to see what you consider "exquisite."

Screencaps! Screencaps! We want Screencaps!

As much as I loathe to agree with QGJ :)... I concur, the computer effects are very, very good. I know real extras-filled 'armies' were used and so was CG, but it's incredibly hard to tell. I recall only a couple obvious CG shots (the greek advance, for instance).

Didn't save the movie, sadly.

Exactly the one I was thinking of when I read the title to this thread. Man it was hard to get that out of ones head...