Star Wars voted top for effects

Star Wars was groundbreaking when first released

The opening sequence to the original 1977 Star Wars movie has been voted the best special effect in cinema history.

The sight of the huge Imperial Star Destroyer outshines anything from contemporary cinema, including The Matrix, an SFX magazine poll says.

The climax of the 1933 King Kong film came second, with the spider head from 1982's The Thing in third.

"It was the Big Bang of modern special effects," said SFX editor Dave Golder of the Star Wars opening.

"Star Wars winning the best special effects sequence ever shows just how significant the film is to movie fans," he added.

Top 10 Special Effects: Top 10 Special Effects: 1 Star Wars - opening (1977) 2 King Kong - climax (1933) 3 The Thing - spider head (1982) 4 Jason and the Argonauts - the skeletons (1963) 5 Terminator 2: Judgment Day - the T-1000 (1991) 6 Forbidden Planet - Krell machinery (1956) 7 The Lord of the Rings trilogy - Gollum (2001-2003) 8 The Matrix - bullet-time (1999) 9 Alien - bursting chest (1979) 10 Spider-Man 2 - train fight (2004)

The opening sequence sees a rebel ship racing into the distance pursued by blasts of gun fire.

Then its pursuer, a vast ship, comes into view, taking moviegoers' breath away when the film first hit the big screen.

"Even now, nothing beats the feeling you get when you see this huge flying spaceship coming across the screen - which is breathtakingly enormous," said Mr Golder.

The climax of King Kong sees the giant ape climbing the Empire State Building with Fay Wray.

The gruesome scene from The Thing sees a severed head sprouting spider's legs.

The Matrix won an Oscar for its special effects

Most of the special effects in the top 10 were from older films.

The 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts came in fourth for a fight scene involving skeletons.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's nemesis T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day came fifth.

The smash hit Lord of the Rings movies only managed to scrape in at number seven thanks to the computer-generated character Gollum.

The Matrix's "bullet time" effect came eighth.

The most recent film to make the list was 2004's Spider-Man 2 for the scene in which Spider-Man fights Doc Ock aboard a speeding train.