It doesn’t have to be the ONLY draw, just that if you remove the universe creation and set design the film would not be good at all. Where the joy in rewatching is to catch further small background details, where sometimes you only put something together on repeat viewings(are there any terrorists in Brazil? Or is it all false flag bombings?).
Star Wars Original Trilogy
Blade Runner
Brazil
That kind of movie.
Is Avatar an example of what you’re referring to? The sheer spectacle was the whole reason for that movie.
Avatar (if only so I can be the first to say it.)
Edit: Dammit!
100% of Tim Burton movies.
That guy is just aesthetic, and I’m not a fan.
The City of Lost Children
Steamboy
Tron
Waterworld.
I was going to say Tron, but since it has been mentioned already, I’ll add Legend.
ETA: And maybe Dark Crystal.
Alien
Dark City
Das Boot
Mystery Men
It’s a Lost Civilization, but definitely Forbidden Planet
This is really the point of Titanic – not the wimpy love story between Leo and Kate – that’s just an excuse to let us wander around and through the wonder of the recreated Titanic.
As others have pointed out in a current thread, Blade Runner is of this type – it practuically singlehandedly defined the look of Cyberpunk.
For that matter, Star Wars pretty much set out to define its own universe.
and arguable 2001 – most of the film is really spent in luxuriating in the environment Kubrick cinematically describes, not in getting to know the characters.
Hijack - I just realized something. While the aesthetic of his Alice, to me, somewhat fits the books, I realized that it’s partly because of this phenomenon, since we’re used to seeing the Burton aesthetic invoke an Art Deco feeling, yet that era is decades after the Alice in Wonderland era, yet it feels vaguely in place since it’s all really old.
This happens all the time to the despair of those of us who know history. Any events that occurred in the past are assumed to have all occurred at around the same time.
I recently watched the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Okay, sure it’s fantasy but it used real people as characters, like Blackbeard and King George II. Which was as historically accurate as having Teddy Roosevelt fighting Nazis.
Heh, this says it best:
The Matrix
The world of Middle Earth was certainly a “main character” in the Lord of the Rings movies. Not the main reason for them, tho.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again - there isn’t a story out there that wouldn’t be improved by having Teddy Roosevelt show up at the end to beat everyone’s asses.
The Fifth Element.
The Fall
The Fountain
John Carter
Seven
Drawing Restraint 9
I don’t know if it was visually a main draw, but conceptually how about Inception?
Definitely. The movie became charged with excitement every time they entered the dream state.