The 10 Best-Looking Movies of the 21st Century, Ranked
Jeremy has more than 2800 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows.
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It’s great when a movie looks good, obviously, though it’s also worth noting, whenever talking about visuals, that a movie doesn’t have to look amazing to be amazing. If something gets by with particularly good writing, acting, music, and anything else that might go into a movie, all that can be more than enough, and make a lack of visual spectacle easy to overlook.
And it’s not always a case of more money equaling more beauty, either, because low-budget movies can look visually impressive, too. With the following films, though, a good many of them did have pretty high budgets, or more modest ones that were put to very good use. These movies generally excel beyond their visual components, too, but how each one looks is the main thing being considered here, and these really are some of the best-looking movies of the 21st century so far.
10 'Dune: Part Two' (2024)
Dune (2021) also looked amazing, for what that’s worth. And then on the topic of sci-fi movies directed by Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049 was no slouch in the visual department, either. They're worthy of honorable mentions for sure, but Dune: Part Two looks debatably even better, and really does justice to some of the strange sights and situations described in (roughly) the second half of its source material.
There weren’t any compromises here, in terms of ensuring things looked genuinely epic throughout, and the use of color here (or the lack thereof, during one very memorable sequence) feels like it goes beyond what the first movie did quite substantially. Dune: Part Two is an example of blockbuster filmmaking done right, and it really made the most of the undeniably large budget it was given.
9 'Sin City' (2005)
“It looks cool” is a way to review Sin City in just three words, and that’s all you need. Okay, maybe throw a fourth word in there: “It looks really cool.” It’s a comic book movie that goes much further than most in its efforts to look like a comic book brought to life, with the intensely stylish visuals here making Sin City oftentimes look more like a work of animation than a live-action film.
And that’s not a bad thing. The way Sin City looks is the best thing about it, but then again, the rest of the movie’s honestly quite good, too. This was made apparent thanks to the release of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was a miserable slog of a movie, technically having some impressive visuals still, but failing quite spectacularly in all other regards.
8 'Mulholland Drive' (2001)
David Lynch made some movies that looked pretty great while also generally feeling quite weird in the 20th century, and then at the end of that same century, he also did quite a bit by way of elevating the medium of television, since Twin Peaks looked and felt a good deal more cinematic than almost every other show of its time. It wasn’t until the very start of the 21st century, though, that Lynch directed what might well be his masterpiece: Mulholland Drive.
It’s worth talking about what he did for both film and television because Mulholland Drive was initially developed as a pilot for a show that was never to be, and the footage got reworked into a rather incredible film. Anything with Lynch’s name on it can be relied on to look and feel bold and unlike anything else out there by anyone else, with Mulholland Drive feeling especially so.
7 'Babylon' (2022)
Much as it was hard to single out one Denis Villeneuve movie earlier, it’s a bit difficult to pick a sole Damien Chazelle movie, with La La Land deserving the most by way of an honorable mention. Babylon is a bit more its own thing, though, and there is a greater variety to what it shows on screen, with La La Land working as a great homage, but looking unapologetically like some movies that already existed before it in the process.
Babylon is also something of a homage to cinema, but a more abstract one that does a lot by way of creating its own history, and then it’s also a condemnation of the film industry at the same time it celebrates some filmmaking achievements, so you get a lot by way of horrific imagery here alongside all the beautiful moments. And that’s before addressing just how gonzo and strange it gets visually (and also generally) during its very bold final few moments, too.
6 'The Fall' (2006)
It’s understandable that The Fall is best-remembered for its visuals, albeit something of a shame the movie beyond that is a bit flawed, with how it’s written and paced. The premise here is similar to The Princess Bride, except imagine the grandfather isn't actually an old man, he’s telling a fairy tale story to a young girl he’s not related to, and he’s also prone to dramatic shifts in mood, with how he’s feeling reflecting how breezy or dark his ongoing story gets.
So it’s actually pretty dissimilar to The Princess Bride, definitely once you consider tone, too. But what The Fall does succeed in doing is providing many opportunities for stunning and imaginative visuals, with the use of color and varied locations going a long way to keeping things engaging, and making the film’s flaws in some other areas a lot easier to overlook and/or entirely forgive.
5 'Avatar' (2009)
With James Cameron, once you get past his first movie, which isn't really a movie that’s easy to count as a full-on James Cameron movie (Piranha II: The Spawning), you can depend on him to deliver something that, at the very least, looks and sounds pretty darn good. His 20th century movies from The Terminator on showcase that, but then technically, he’s stepped things up considerably in the 21st century, thanks to the Avatar movies.
...It was the most impressive in terms of representing a huge step forward in technology while utilizing 3D in a more immersive way than pretty much any movie before.
The first one’s going here just because it was the most impressive in terms of representing a huge step forward in technology while utilizing 3D in a more immersive way than pretty much any movie before or since… okay, the sequels are also about as immersive, but outside the series, no one/nothing has really been on the same level. Say what you want about the rest of Avatar (2009), but the visuals cannot be faulted.
4 'Hero' (2002)
If Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon can’t be included here because the year 2000 might actually be the end of the 20th century, rather than the start of the 21st century, then sorry, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In any event, though, Hero might well look even better, as far as visually bold martial arts movies of the past few decades are concerned, while Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon stands out more because of its action and what it does emotionally.
There are still good fight sequences in Hero, and the story it tells is an eventually engaging one, but the real star of the show here is all the visual stuff. Pretty much every shot has something remarkable to marvel at in it, and then plenty of shots have more than one thing to marvel at within the frame. The level of beauty on offer here really can’t be praised enough.
3 'Spirited Away' (2001)
As hard as it is to single out one Hayao Miyazaki movie as his best, Spirited Away is probably the closest thing out there to a safe or expected option. It’s his most famous, and probably deserves to be considered his most impressive visually just because it goes even further creatively than various other great works of animation he’s directed throughout a strikingly consistent filmmaking career.
With Spirited Away, there are so many interesting sights, unusual-looking characters, and sheer variety to all the visuals, and it feels pretty relentless with how willing it is to throw them all at you in rapid succession. It’s honestly a bit overwhelming, but feels that way purposefully, and it’s undeniably a success in making you feel lost in its fantasy world in a not too dissimilar way to how the central character surely feels throughout.
2 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' (2018)
There’s an argument to be made that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the best-looking animated movie ever made, or if Spirited Away is right up there too, maybe they're both the most phenomenal-looking. They're very different sorts of animation, with Spirited Away being about as good as hand-drawn anime has ever looked, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse looking incredible and unique with its much harder to define style.
And Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has a lot more to offer than just great animation, potentially even outdoing all the great live-action Spider-Man movies that exist in terms of overall quality, but its look does contribute significantly to its greatness. Time will surely be kind to it, too, since there are already signs that this movie and its sequel have been influential on other works of animation, and its importance/influence will surely be even easier to see once some more years have passed.
1 'Kill Bill' (2003–2004)
For a while there, it was hard to watch Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair as one whole movie, but it’s now available and so counting the whole epic as a duology mightn’t be so appropriate anymore. For what it’s worth, Vol. 1 is probably the more visually in-your-face half of the overall story, and is bold enough to make Kill Bill worthy of this top spot, though Vol. 2 isn't lacking in great visuals either.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 has the greater focus on action as well as style, and then the fact it has a bit more variety with its settings means it has more by way of dazzling sights to see. The entire thing (The Whole Bloody Affair, if you will) represents Quentin Tarantino at his most maximalist and unrestrained, though, and it does impress if you're talking about sheer visual spectacle for almost its entire (very long) runtime.
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