20 Most Important Blockbusters That Changed Cinema Forever

7. Jurassic Park

There'd been Terminator 2: Judgment Day and its liquid-metal T-1000 before, but it was Jurassic Park that finally showed us just what CGI could do.

Like John Hammond, the creator of the titular theme park, Steven Spielberg's dino-ride is all about the showmanship. The marketing didn't go as all in as it would today, teasing the ground-breaking special effects rather than giving them all away, while the film proper took its time revealing the creatures; although we get to see some herbivores early on the real stars of the show - the T-Rex and gang of velociraptors - don't show up for a good hour.

It only served to highlight how good the effects were, with the line of reality impossible to define. Immediately Hollywood woke up. Models and mattes began to feel immediately dated and suddenly previously out of reach ideas became possible; it was only after his buddy's success that George Lucas realised it was time to return to that galaxy far, far away.

There is a sense of irony to Jurassic Park's impact. Although it made great use of CGI, its real visual success game from knowing its limits; the dinosaurs are also brought to life by a mixture of models and the old-fashioned men in suits. That's primarily why the effects hold up today; in many cases what your seeing was actually there.