8 Movies That Changed Filmmaking Forever

The world of cinema has gone through quite some motions in its relatively short existance. We went from silent movies to black and white movies to the action-packed CGI fests we have now. But what were the movies that sprung to life some of the bigger changes in Hollywood? Which movies crossed certain thresholds as the first, leaving everyone else to follow or get left behind?

Prepare yourself for a deep dive in Hollywood’s history, and take a look at some of the films that had the biggest impact on the way we make movies today.

Avatar (2009)

James Cameron’s Avatar, while storywise being nothing more than Pocahontas with blue people, revolutionized the way we watch movies by being the first movie that did 3D effects right. Before Avatar, 3D was considered to be a fluff feature that wouldn’t stick, but now pretty much every big movie gets a 3D release alongside the “regular” 2D version.

Jaws (1975)

The thing Jaws did better than any movie before it, was create a full-fledged blockbuster. Spielberg’s masterpiece had everything we’ve come to expect from even our modern blockbuster movies (suspense, strong characters, sentimental parts, great music scoring, …) and arguably did it better than most of the modern ones.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

This movie didn’t change Hollywood because of how amazing it was written, because it wasn’t, but it did do something exceptionally well. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was the first movie to use motion capture technology so extensively and so freakishly good. The animations on the apes are second to none and this alone has raised the bar for visual effects.