King Kong gets the call as the greatest technical achievement of the year, taking the 2006 Calvin Award for Best Special Effects. This is remarkable in some respects, since it looked for awhile that the film might go down the same road as Hulk in being a slam dunk concept ruined by shoddy images. There were no such problems here, as Kong became one of the most convincing looking CGI creations in history, thanks to the same motion capture methods that Peter Jackson used in The Lord of the Rings. There was even emotional depth in the giant ape's face, something I don't think anyone could have expected.

Second place goes to Sin City, which brought Frank Miller's graphic (in all senses of the word) novel to the big screen in slavishly faithful detail. Filmed almost entirely in front of greenscreen then transferred into black and white with strategically chosen color, this neo-noir's effect brought us incredible gore, fantastically disfigured creatures and style up the wazoo. Few other films had such an impact in pushing the boundaries of cinema in 2005.

Even though the series ended with a whimper rather than a bang, it's difficult to not grant Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith the benefit of its dazzling effects. Though the series is now not much more than a demo reel for effects, it's one hell of a reel. Incredible space battles and duels are the show stoppers here, with an effects shot credited for about one out of every four seconds.

Next up is the first edition of the Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Creating the fantasy world of Narnia and its legions of magical and fantastical creatures brought us in mind of an Animal Farm production of the Lord of the Rings. There were a couple of sketchy moments for a few of the creations (I'd have spent a little more on Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, for instance), but it made up for that in sheer volume.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth Potter film, is the next entry on our list, getting kudos here for bringing the dangerous Tri-Wizard Tournament to the screen. This is the second appearance of the Potter films on this list, as last year saw The Prisoner of the Azkaban place third in this category. Clearly this series is in good hands visually.

The next film here is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the new adaptation of the Roald Dahl children's book. Its main effects included the various fates suffered by the spoiled children at Willie Wonka's chocolate factory, as well as the numerous replications of Deep Roy as the 165 Oompa-Loompas involved in making his fantastic products.

The reboot of the Batman franchise comes in for a close seventh place finish, impressing us with various shots of hallucinations from the Scarecrow's powder, along with the virtual destruction of Gotham City. It may have suffered from so much of the film's action looking real enough to not seem like effects, and where some of the films above it integrated more shots into their proceedings, few were as effective at creating a real world.

Another update of an old concept makes it in for eighth place, with War of the Worlds. The Martian tripods and their death rays were one of the most stunning uses of effects this year. Few directors remain as skilled as Steven Spielberg at integrating visual brilliance with compelling stories.

Rounding out the list here is Serenity, which ported its ground-breaking-for-TV effects into merely well-above-average cinematic scenery. Constantine rounds out the proceedings in the top ten largely on the basis of a stunning sequence in Hell. (Reagen Sulewski/BOP)

---