Several components go into a successful film, but as photographers, aesthetics are always at the forefront of our minds. We’ve recently been on the lookout for the most aesthetically striking films. So, what constitutes a good and visually stunning movie? Just as in photography, we focused on three essential components: composition, color, and lighting.
Aside from being a visual pleasure, these three components working together make filmmaking a significant storytelling strategy, creating the tone for each scene. In watching movies, cinematography is a key component. In a movie visual storytelling is made more effective by stunning cinematography.
For those who are studying and working simultaneously, essay writing may help save time and allow you to watch your favorite movies instead. In that light, we thought we would review some great options for visuals-stunning movies with excellent cinematography.
10 Visually Stunning Movies:
1. Avatar
- Director: James Cameron
- Star By: Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver
- IMDb Ratings: 7.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 82%
- Where To Watch: Disney+, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Redbox
About Avatar:
“Avatar” is more than just a thrilling piece of entertainment. Its message is unequivocally Green and anti-war. It is destined to establish a cult. It has so much visual detail that it will reward multiple viewings. Navi invents a new language.
The film isn’t very long, at 163 minutes. It’s jam-packed with information—human experiences. The Navi stories are developed as people as well. The planet’s intricacy hides a worldwide mystery.
Jake joins the resistance against his old colleagues in the ultimate battle. Small delicate features, such as a floating creature that resembles a blown dandelion seed and a drifting jellyfish, epitomize kindness—or amazing floating cloud islands.
Avatar’s Plot:
An earth-size moon orbiting a huge star in the year 2154 is the target of a mission by the United States Armed Forces. Pandora’s new world is a rich supply of material that Earth sorely needs. We send in ex-military mercenaries to attack and capture Pandora, even though it poses no danger to Earth.
Pandora is home to a tranquil planetary forest populated by the Navi, a blue-skinned, golden-eyed species of slender giants, each around 12 feet tall. Humans cannot breathe in the atmosphere, and the terrain turns us into pygmies. When we leave our landing craft, we use avatars, which are replicas of Navi that have been developed biologically and mind-controlled by humans.
2. The Fall
- Director: Tarsem Singh
- Star By: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Marcus Weasley
- IMDb Ratings: 7.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 62%
- Where To Watch: Prime Video
About The Fall:
Tarsem’s “The Fall” is a madcap visual trait, a free fall from reality into unknown regions. It has to be one of the most outlandish pleasures a director has ever allowed himself. Tarsem, a major filmmaker of music videos and TV advertisements for the past two decades, spent millions of his dollars to finance “The Fall,” There will be no other like it.
There’s Catinca Untaru, a young Romanian actress who may have been dubbed for all I know, yet talks with the innocence of a child, weaving her way through twists of words. She is astounded by both the reality she lives in and the dream she claims to live in.
Roy’s imagination creates the visuals in her narrative, and they are pure and powerful beyond all measure. Roy is her ideal storyteller, she is his ideal listener, and they work together to create a universe.
The Fall’s Plot:
A bomb-throwing Italian anarchist, an escaped black slave, Charles Darwin, and a monkey called Wallace are among Roy (as the Black Outlaw)’s companions. A desolate island has been abandoned by Governor Odious, who abandons his sworn adversaries there. But they fight him (riding swimming elephants, of course).
Roy fabricates the tale for selfish gain; after Alexandria delivers him communion wafers from the hospital chapel, he convinces her to steal morphine pills from the dispensary. He plans to commit himself after being paralyzed and losing his great love (she is the Princess in his narrative). Her attempt to revive him is one of the best scenes in the movie.
3. Life of Pi
- Director: Ang Lee
- Star By: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu
- IMDb Ratings: 7.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 86%
- Where To Watch: Disney+
About Life of Pi:
Life of Pi is a thrilling drama about the mysteries that illuminate our lives but have no rhyme or reason on their own; faith that allows us to take a leap into the unknown; animal lessons; nature’s furious and serene sides; and the overwhelming instinct we all have for survival. This spiritually enticing video can alter your respect for the perplexing, mysterious, and unfathomable qualities of life and the universe around you.
Life of Pie’s Plot:
The tiger is the biggest obstacle Pi faces during his 227-day voyage at sea, and he needs to make peace with him after facing puzzles throughout his journey. In addition to dealing with the death of his parents and brother, he must also cope with his sorrow.
Pi is unprepared for the unpredictability of his existence aboard the boat with Richard Parker. He acknowledges to himself that while his dread of the tiger keeps him awake, caring for both of their daily requirements gives his life meaning.
4. Mad Max: Fury Road
- Director: George Miller
- Star By: Tom Hardy, Nicholas Hoult, Charlize Theron
- IMDb Ratings: 8.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 97%
- Where To Watch: HBO, Netflix
About Mad Max: Fury Road
Mad Max: Fury Road is packed with wonderful visual gags, with the desert serving as a legendary backdrop for a punk-rococo carnival of misfits. Watch the bald warriors descend from the massive pile of steering wheels, holding their own with reverence as if they held Excalibur.
An army of bongo drummers on the back of a War Rig sets the stage for the masked, bulky rocker guitarist chained to the front, his instrument spewing flaming flames as if he was on fire.
Mad Max: Fury Road’s Plot:
Mad Max: Fury Road comes to life when Max and Furiosa meet, initially with (rousingly manufactured) fisticuffs but gradually with greater tenderness. At least somewhat more. Both their hearts have been weathered into the leather by tragedy, and Furiosa isn’t very trusting of men, to begin with. Theron gives an amazing portrayal, scarcely emoting yet whose harshness is shattered by glints of shame and anguish.
5. Interstellar
- Director: Christopher Nolan
- Star By: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway
- IMDb Ratings: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 73%
- Where To Watch: Netflix, Amazon Prime
About Interstellar:
Earth is forever gone,” Christopher Nolan’s frantic and deafeningly loud film about astronauts searching for a new home for humanity in the cosmos. It employs rousing music to heighten the intensity of moments that might otherwise be uninteresting.
Throughout the movie, characters talk at each other with technobabble and philosophical arguments, and a handful of them have no personality at all. Although the director advocates using 35mm and 65mm films, the film’s composition does not match its tactile richness. Unlike other directors, Nolan rarely uses the camera to tell his story.
Interstellar’s Plot:
The movie’s visuals and brilliant move of the film’s storytelling derives from its adherence to relativity principles: the astronauts see time differently depending on where Endurance is, which means that when they walk down onto a potentially livable world, a few minutes, their equal weeks or months back on the ship.
Meanwhile, everyone on Earth is becoming older and losing hope. Even mundane housekeeping discussions become monumental in such circumstances: one must think twice before fighting over what to do next because individuals elsewhere are getting grey, suffering despair from being alone, or fading and dying.
6. Grand Budapest Hotel
- Director: Wes Anderson
- Star By: Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes
- IMDb Ratings: 8.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 92%
- Where To Watch: Hulu
About Grand Budapest Hotel:
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” is a film about the masks we wear to fit our ambitions and the cost of maintaining appearances. “He certainly maintained the illusion with great elegance,” one character says of another admiringly near the end of the film.
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” indicates that, as a species, sometimes it is all we can accomplish. Anderson, the illusionist, is not only elegant but also brilliant, and with this film, he has created an art refuge that both soothes and sympathizes.
Grand Budapest Hotel’s Plot:
Gustave H. served as a concierge at the Grand Budapest Hotel in the 1930s, a prominent European ski resort. (Ralph Fiennes). Gustave’s companion and protege are Zero, a subordinate lobby boy.
Gustave takes pleasure in delivering first-rate service to the hotel’s customers, including meeting the sexual requirements of the numerous elderly female visitors. When one of Gustave’s lovers dies unexpectedly, he becomes the owner of a valuable painting and the prime suspect in her murder.
7. Blade Runner
- Director: Ridley Scott
- Star By: Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer
- IMDb Ratings: 8.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 89%
- Where To Watch: Amazon Prime Video
About Blade Runner:
Blade Runner is probably the most discussed sci-fi film ever created. It earned this honor by being a flop at its initial release, gaining the precious gloss of a real cult classic. When it was re-released in theatres as a Director’s Cut in 1992, it was lauded by previously snobbish reviewers, and more people paid to see it.
The irony is that the Director’s Cut is more enigmatic and confusing than the original, and — essential for the type of fan who roams the Internet — supports the widespread belief that Deckard himself is a fraudster.
Blade Runner’s Plot:
In order to eliminate a gang of murderous androids, Rick Deckard becomes a special agent. His doubts about his existence deepen as he explores his purpose.
8. Drive
- Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
- Star By: Ryan Gosling, Carry Mulligan, Bryan Cranston
- IMDb Ratings: 7.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 93%
- Where To Watch: Amazon Prime Video, Disney+
About Drive:
The film, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and based on a novel by James Sallis, populates its tale with individuals who put their entire lives on the screen, as opposed to the driver, who gives as little as possible. Ron Perlman appears to be a big-time operator operating from a small-time cover, a strip mall pizzeria. This is an unfunny movie starring Albert Brooks, who plays a stunt-driving stuntman who also has a criminal side. These individuals are cruel.
Drive’s Plot:
The Driver is a hired driver. He doesn’t have another name, and he doesn’t have another life. When we first meet him, he’s the driver of a getaway vehicle, fleeing police pursuit not merely with speed and power but also by coolly manipulating the street topography and outwitting his pursuers. He works as a stunt driver for action films throughout the day. He has no problem between the two professions because he drives.
9. Moonlight
- Director: Barry Jenkins
- Star By: Mahershala Ali, Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders
- IMDb Ratings: 7.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 98%
- Where To Watch: Amazon Prime Video
About Moonlight:
Jenkins and his technical team photograph Miami in a unique way, making fantastic use of the backdrop, particularly the way the sea and the beach around it may feel like a respite from the stresses of everyday life. A film like “Moonlight” revolves around the appearances of its characters and it is a visually stunning movie. Chiron’s eyes reveal so much that this young man hasn’t been trained how to say.
As a young black, queer, impoverished, and essentially friendless person, he is faced with many challenges—the type of person who feels like he could be physically gone because he is invisible to the rest of the world. During one of the film’s many memorable dialogue exchanges, Chiron confesses his wish to dissolve into liquid and roll into the ocean since he has sobbed so much.
Moonlight’s Plot:
Chiron’s life in Miami can be summed up through three defining chapters. A caring, supportive, and loving community guides him through his epic journey to manhood.
10. La La Land
- Director: Damien Chazelle
- Star By: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stones, J. K. Simmons
- IMDb Ratings: 8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 91%
- Where To Watch: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video
About La La Land:
In La La Land, the heart and soul are rooted in the past, but the story is set in contemporary Los Angeles. In addition to Sebastian, a slick jazz pianist in silk ties who is an obsessive purist about what he listens to and plays, Mia, an aspiring actress and playwright who is deeply enamored with the old movie stars, though she isn’t as obsessive with them as she once was.
Her day job is as a barista at Warner Bros. lot, and she’s always cutting work short to go to auditions; if one of them led to an acting gig, she would be ecstatic regardless of the situation. It’s a charming love story that involves two scurvy, scuffled, and falling-in-love characters who meet, scuffle, and fall in love through a series of catchy, anachronistic song-and-dance numbers composed by Justin Hurwitz.
La La Land’s Plot:
Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) strive to achieve their goals together. The popularity of their love affair begins to pull them apart when they are confronted with decisions that threaten to unravel the delicate fabric of their romance.
