The movie actually takes place in the present, which is now our past, not the future. There are a couple of short scenes in the future though. The first one was made before CGI and some of the animatronics and stop-motion are going to seem really bad by the standards that you're used to now. But there are only two scenes in the whole movie that I remember standing out as obvious SFX. Otherwise it's a really good movie. The second one is the one that most people talk about, and that one has great SFX for its era. You're right, it's pretty neat that you can watch an iconic movie for the first time. Some of it may seem cliche, but that's only because everyone has copied it since. It is the original. Enjoy!