The Mummy (1999) still looks great.

I'm currently watching the 1999 version of The Mummy as background while I internet, and I'm really impressed with the special effects. I remember watching this in 1999 and being blown away by the face in the sand storm that consumes the plane (if I remember correctly, this was something everyone was talking about when the movie came out).

One of the main problems with aging special effects is once you're used to better, old special effects don't look like they belong in the scene. They don't have the right texture or the right lighting. But I'm having a hard time finding a blatantly bad special effect. The worst one I've seen is Benny holding a golden object that has a very obvious bling effect in the light. And that includes the not so great foggy Anck-su-Namun spirit when Imhotep tries to resurrect her. The bling is worse than that.

Imhotep turning into sand when he sees a cat? Looks good. Imhotep walking around fresh out of his coffin? Not bad. Imhotep missing parts of his flesh? Looks great. Scarabs under the skin? Almost looks natural.

And then there are scenes with Imhotep's mummified fighters, and honestly it's difficult to tell most of the time what's a physical costume and what's entirely computer generated.

I mean, a few years later we get a really shitty animated half Scorpion/half King, which looked outdated when it hit theaters. I really don't have a point here. I just like it when things like this happen.

Edit: Okay, Imhotep being swallowed by the pool of woeful spirits is probably the worst effect.

Submitted August 20, 2017 at 11:57AM by machenise http://ift.tt/2fVRt2K