4. The Raptors Looked Real Because They Were Men In Suits Jurassic Park
Jurassic Parks effects still stand up today; the film is twenty years old and yet its dated better than better than pretty much any other film thats come out since (were glaring at you, Avatar). The effects were utterly groundbreaking and are ultimately what motivated George Lucas to make the Star Wars prequels; technology had caught up to imagination. But much of Jurassic Parks groundbreaking effects are actually good old fashioned animatronics and men in suits; the reason everything looks so real is because it was. This is kinda obvious with the brachiosaurus (and the converse, with them being all CGI, is true of the stampeding gallimimus), but for the T-Rex and Velociraptors various different methods were used. So yes, CGI made an appearance, most notably in the T-Rexs final rescue, but it was alongside the effects that had been popular in Hollywood for a long time. I personally find it depressingly humorous that the film that brought all special effects methods together ended up directly leading to the current CGI saturation. By the time the third Park film rolled around, things were more and more computerised and everything looked less realistic than before.