CGI had existed for over four years prior to the release, in 1993, of Jurassic Park, the tale of a theme park that is thrown into chaos when its prehistoric attractions escape threatening the lives of its inhabitants.
Such effects, however, had previously been featured on screen for only a few moments at a time, and had always been used in such a way as to complement the story rather than drawing attention to itself. Steven Spielberg's blockbuster changed this as, in the form of killer dinosaurs, and digital effects took centre stage for the first time.
Spielberg had hired renowned model-maker Stan Winston during early pre-production, as his original plan had been to use only puppets. Indeed, before the invention of CGI there had been little alternative when creating the fantastical than to use models, stop motion plasticine or, when making a Godzilla movie: a man in a suit. None of these options are particularly effective when trying to convince the audience that these are living, breathing Dinosaurs that they’re watching. It was fortunate, then, that Industrial Light and Magic came to the director's rescue, upon demonstrating what was possible with CG trickery: (a T-rex crashing through some trees, a herd of smaller dinosaurs running in a field) he became convinced this technology should be used in his film.
“Looks like we’re out of the job,” muttered Stan Winston.
“Don’t you mean extinct?” replied Spielberg.
Of course, they can create Triceratops or a Brontosaurus for a BBC documentary nowadays but in 1993 the sight of a Tyrannosaurus pursuing a jeep and its terrified passengers through the jungle was nothing less than gob smacking. Indeed, for a film that is now over nine years old it has aged exceptionally well, the CGI looking no more dated than those seen in more recent blockbusters.
Jurassic Park would be criticised upon release with the plot and characters accused of being merely functional, that the special effects were the story. The movie, admittedly, doesn’t really work on any level other than providing expensive thrills. I imagine much of its success (it duked it out with Star Wars as the highest-grossing movie of all time until Titanic came along) was down to the jaw-dropping visuals rather than the story, and that it wouldn’t make anything like that impact on the box office, were it released today. That aside Jurassic Park was revolutionary at the time and the first digital technological milestone of the 1990s would ensure that movies would never be the same again.