James Cameron has a long list of movies in his filmography (i.e. Titanic, The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, etc.) that can all be praised as being effortlessly gorgeous to look at, but by far his most technical achievement to date comes in the form of Avatar. The visuals are a big reason why Avatar, 12 years after its release, still remains the highest-grossing movie of all time. Audiences were awe-struck with its visuals back then and continue to be today.
There are not a lot of aesthetically pleasing movies out there that can be considered technical masterpieces, but those that can, deserve to be billed respectively alongside James Cameron's Avatar.
10 The Royal Tenenbaums: A Different Kind Of Aesthetic
While all of the movies on this list are aesthetically pleasing, not all are aesthetically pleasing in the exact same ways. Certainly not in the same ways as something ambitiously extravagant as Avatar. One of those such different aesthetics comes from The Royal Tenenbaums, something that's more grounded in reality, but also just as quirky thanks to the tone and colorful visuals of Wes Anderson.
Tenenbaums concerns itself with the figurehead of a family (played by Gene Hackman) falsely claiming to suffer stomach cancer in order to reunite his estranged family. A dark story full of melancholy becomes absurdly comic, thanks in large part to that story being told against such a brightly lit backdrop.
9 Your Name: The Most Gorgeous Anime
Your Name arrives with a high recommendation of being arguably the most gorgeous-looking anime movie to ever grace cinemas. Animated or otherwise, Your Name is simply one of the best-looking movies in existence.
For those unaware that this movie ever even existed in the first place, it's a rom-com fantasy about a Tokyo-born schoolboy and a Japanese country-bound schoolgirl suddenly switching bodies.
8 The Love Witch: Accurate Old School Throwback
A lot of movies try to duplicate the tone and look of a movie from a bygone era, but only a few succeed in doing so. Planet Terror's duplication of Grindhouse movies or House of the Devil capturing a '70s horror aesthetic are both notable examples, but one overlooked example that brilliantly and perfectly recaptures the look of 1960s Technicolor pictures is The Love Witch.
By filming on 35mm and printing on original cut negatives, director Anna Biller was able to craft not only a throwback to classic horror movies, but a smart commentary on gender roles in society.
7 The Fall: Dark & Light Make A Fantastical Story
A dark story told against bright, beautiful cinematography can go a long way in either heightening the darkness or showcasing the lighted imagery. For The Fall, both provide a perfect balance for each other.
In The Fall, Lee Pace (who MCU fans will recognize as Ronan the Accuser from Guardians of the Galaxy) plays a suicidal stuntman sharing a hospital room with a little girl recovering from a broken arm. She urges him to tell her an epic fantasy story and he obliges. Her imagination gives weight to some incredible imagery, but as his mental health worsens, the stuntman's story darkens and his words start putting the heroes in her mind in peril.
6 Zack Snyder's Justice League: Director Excels At Visuals
Zack Snyder's Justice League has had its fair share of critics and as a director's cut appears to divide audiences almost as much as the original theatrical cut. However, one thing that those same audiences cannot argue against is Snyder's astute eye for visual storytelling.
Even when the scriptwriting in his movies is not quite up to par, audiences can always bank on Snyder delivering some gorgeous visuals and his director's cut of Justice League is arguably his most astonishing and impressively gorgeous movie to date.
5 Aquaman: DCEU's Best-Looking Movie
For all of the praise that Zack Snyder's Justice League deserves for being an astonishing achievement in visuals, Aquaman is even more impressive, which surprised everyone upon release. The visuals are a large reason in part why Aquaman stands tall as the most successful DCEU movie to date and the first movie in the DC Extended Universe to cross one billion dollars at the box office.
James Wan—the co-creator of the Saw and Insidious franchises—went in a much lighter, brighter direction to create Aquaman and the movie is all the better for it.
4 The Beasts Of The Southern Wild: Nature Grounded In Reality (Somewhat)
Avatar is such a jaw-droppingly beautiful movie that it may be easy to miss or forget the root of its story, which is rooted in environmentalism, emphasizing the importance and beauty of nature itself. Such messages can also be found in a movie like Beasts of the Southern Wild.
This theme takes center stage in Beasts of the Southern Wild because it is far more grounded in reality, and because the story is told through the eyes of a little girl (played by Quvenzhané Wallis, whose performance gives her the distinction of the youngest Best Actress Oscar nominee ever), this is enough to give birth to some equally aesthetically pleasing visuals.
3 The Tree Of Life: Nature As Poetry
Themes of nature can also be found in Terrence Malick's Tree of Life, although it can't quite be called more or less grounded in reality than previously mentioned movies when this movie isn't heavy on narrative.
Instead, Malick uses a 1950s era Texas family as the basis to tell allegories of nature, family, and ultimately the meaning of life. He lets the visuals speak for themselves, opposed to putting heavy emphasis on anything in the screenplay. This unique approach to cinematic storytelling earned The Tree of Life three Oscar nods, including Best Picture.
2 Thor: Ragnarok - MCU's Most Visually Stunning Entry
After Marvel produced two straightforward Thor movies, they decided to take a hard-left into the surreal once Taika Waititi came onboard as the director of Ragnarok. Behind the camera, Waititi injected his own brand of absurdity, quirky dialogue, and of course, trippy visuals.
On paper, such a tonal shift would be risky for any trilogy, let alone a franchise that normally takes the safe approach to their movies, but the risk paid off as critics and fans everywhere adored Thor: Ragnarok as soon as it hit theaters, some continuing to praise it highly as potentially one of the best MCU movies in the franchise.
1 Blade Runner 2049: Visuals Ahead Of Their Time
When Blade Runner first came out, the 1982 Harrison Ford vehicle was considered ahead of its time not so much for its visuals, but more so for its philosophical, metaphysical implications within its plot that went on to be the topic of many debates within the sci-fi realm.
When the sequel Blade Runner 2049 came out, it also received its own "ahead of its time" label, but more so for the absolutely breathtaking visuals that had yet to be accomplished on film beforehand. Some movies still have yet to craft visuals as awe-inspiring as those found in Blade Runner 2049.