Here are two that I love:
Mallick’s Days of Heaven: Unforgettable photos of Gilded Age America set to the Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saeans.
Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky: the credits evoke a by-gone age of technological wonder perhaps brought down by hubris. Some wonderful music by Joe Hisaishi.
The Watchmen
Anything by Saul Bass.
“If they move, kill 'em!”
You may think the movie is fluff, but you have to admit the opening to The Sound Of Music is awesome.
Ditto, Fiddler On The Roof.
And there is one of the all-time nominees: 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Spider-man 2 opening credits are great. The web graphics are intercut with comic book-like drawings/paintings that recap the events of the first movie.
G.I. Joe: The Movie (the first one). Imagine if the whole movie had been like that…
The Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns. The music is so damn awesome.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Gettysburg
It is interesting to see the historical figure and then the actor portraying them
One of the funniest movies never seen-Brain Donors. A Claymation movie all on its own.
Revolutionary for its time. The style was reprised in Superman II and Superman Returns. It was also imitated very cheaply in the horrible Superman IV.
Agreed. To this day, between Smallville (which has utilized cues from this score) and Returns John Williams theme is still associated with Superman. On a similar note the Batman '89 opening with Danny Elfman’s theme. The… uh ‘visuals’ aren’t much to speak about but the music absolutely makes it. Nolans films are far and away superior but this is still the Dark Knight’s theme in my mind.
Dammit. I can’t find it on YouTube, but my vote is for The Dead Zone (the movie). The shards fit perfectly with the story. Same goes for Alien – right away, you’re wondering what you’re looking at – you’re uneasy.
Rocky Horror of course!
A lesser-known one I love is the opening credits for Madonna’s 2004 tour documentary I’m Going To Tell You A Secret, which features Madonna in a series of ridiculous (and ridiculously beautiful) Middle Eastern-inspired outfits, while she writhes around with cages on her face, climbing around an old bed frame, etc. all to the tune of a song almost solely composed of Madonna reading from the Book of Revelation. It sounds unbelievably odd and pretentious - which it is, especially for a dance-pop artist like Madonna - but it is glorious at the same time, and it sent 16-year-old me into a tailspin. The song in question, ‘The Beast Within’ is still one of my favourites.
Speaking of making you feel uneasy right away, I thought the opening credits for Se7en really set a disturbing tone. The style was frequently copied after Se7en came out.
One of my favorite movies in recent years was Tarsem’s The Fall.
Watch these opening credits and tell you don’t want to see the whole movie!
David Fincher used to have really cool opening credit sequences for his films. Panic Room, Fight Club (I can’t find the clip on Youtube) and Se7en.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Arguably both the best and worst (parts are physically uncomfortable to watch) credit sequence ever. With llamas!