For years, the prevailing story in film criticism has been simple: CGI won, practical effects lost, and audiences learned to ...

Writer/director James Cameron and special effects artist Stan Winston decided to make the Alien Queen a puppet instead of an animatronic for safety reasons. After the director sketched out what he ...

These movie moments looked like CGI magic, but were actually done for real, proving practical effects still beat digital ...

CGI can build entire planets now, but bigger does not always mean better. Some older movies still look incredible because their effects had texture and real-world messiness baked in. Models, ...

Gray Harrison is a journalist, critic, and creative writer based in Seattle. She has a Master’s degree in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from NYU. While pursuing an arts journalism career, Gray ...