Great video showing a compilating of 100 years of special effects, but to be honest, it is over dominated by the last 20.

I must say (except for Benjamin Button 'youthing' of Brad Pitt)  the digital effects post Tron are somehow disappointing. Why? They're much more real in some way - which is part of the problem. The old stop action trickery Harryhausen, or indeed the simple magic of matteing or cut edits, is much more obvious, but somehow more satisfying. It plays to what film does best - portraying reality, if edited and composed - whereas computer graphics create a new digital reality which, though detailed and realistic, somehow lacks the grain of real life.

I wrote about the limits of digital versus analogue 15 years ago in The Work of Art in the Digital Domain, and complained that CG lacks a feeling for 'mortality'. This compilation only confirms it.