6 Sunshine (2007)


Pretty much everyone who's seen this movie agrees it's great up until the final ten minutes. That's when the thoughtful, sci-fi horror flick about a mission to reignite the sun unexpectedly became a slasher in space and sealed its place among the movies time would soon forget.

Though Sunshine fell just short of being great, it's given us some iconic imagery like Capa (Cillian Murphy) standing before the sun, Kaneda's (Tony Watanabe's) immolation, and Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) tending to her oxygen garden. Perhaps the most surprising appearance is Chris Evans as Mace, who is introduced in the Earth room assuaging his homesickness with holographic rain.

5 Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)


Who could forget the desperate showdown between the Resistance forces and the First Order gouging blood-red clouds across the salt flats? While narratively divisive, The Last Jedi is definitely the most visually impressive of the sequel trilogy, making use of shadow and light to create a cinematic experience and elucidate some of the larger themes of the movie.

4 The Fountain (2006)


The "real-world" plot of The Fountain takes place in the drab hospital where Dr. Thomas Creo (Hugh Jackman) is trying to devise a cure for his wife Izzy's (Rachel Weisz) terminal cancer. Things become much more visually appealing when most of the film bounces around an interconnected web of stories set in Renaissance Spain, the Mayan jungles, and a transcendental tree realm in outer space.

Director Darren Aronofsky deliberately avoided CGI out of a fear that the effects wouldn't stand the test of time. Instead, he hired a photographer to capture real-life visuals from the microscopic world, using actual footage of chemical reactions and microorganisms to create images that feel tangible and alive despite being utterly alien to us. We can only assume that actual footage was not used for the human sacrifice scene.

3 Jupiter Ascending (2015)


Not many people count the Wachowski sisters' stab at a space opera epic among modern sci-fi classics, and that's because it's really, really bad. The plot is incomprehensible and the acting is downright bizarre, but it looks amazing. The Matrix creators spared no effort building their ornate neo-feudal society across a string of decadently gorgeous planets, then spectacularly tearing them apart. The film is worth a watch for the visuals alone, and you may even find yourself among the cult fan base who insist the movie's flaws are outweighed by its unique flavor and lofty ambitions.

2 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)


The most stunning thing about Mad Max: Fury Road is that a shocking amount of the visuals were actually real. CGI was used in the early oasis scenes and then subtly throughout the film to add touches of variety to the desolate wasteland background that director George Miller literally smashes a truck through. If the film needed to show a man with a flaming guitar ride atop a rampaging fleet of battlewagons, Miller decided there was no need for fancy effects when you can simply put a man with a flaming guitar atop a rampaging fleet of battlewagons. The cast and crew spent months tearing across the Namibian desert to capture thousands of challenging high-speed stunts. The result is an almost-absurd concoction of velocity and violence that draws you in through its singular purpose and sheer audacity.