The Fast and Furious movies literally started as an excuse for Paul Walker to drive his cool car collection, so I nominate those
this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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and for some reason part of the plot of many of them is that a hot woman is the prize for winning the final race
I’d argue visuals are a pretty major part of a what makes a movie a movie, so you could argue this is a case where style is substance. You’re not watching Tron for the story.
That said, post-300 Snyder went up his own arse and the slow-mo action, music choices, composition from renaissance paintings - none of it informs characterisation, story beats, themes, or anything beyond “look how cool this is bruh”.
Speedracer
Avatar, all of them.
The first one existed purely to show off 3d film technology and push the limits of CGI.
The sequels false started under the premise that the first one had anything past colourful lights and sounds.
Also, Tron: Legacy, which I am very fond of because it's essentially a Daft Punk music video.
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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Absolutely stunning visually with writing that, even if it had been good would never have succeeded because its stars had exactly zero chemistry.
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It's been a while since I've seen it, but Crank. All I can remember from the movie is just fast-paced action and stressful panic of doing everything to stay alive (Speed also comes to mind here), but not much in the way of drama or character development.
I felt that Sucker Punch fits this. They had some cool dreamy sequences, which looked good in the trailer, but then you watched the movie and those were kinda it. I think they tried to get a little bit of depth in there by making a sad story to tie the dreams together, but to me at least it felt shallowly deep 😛
Speed Racer. It was a blast. Sometimes Style is all you need.
Speed racer has tons of substance and heart. Watched it for the first time last year in a theater. Awesome movie
One of the best "all style" movies has to be:
"The Good, The Bad and the Ugly."
I call it Cinematography: The Movie
And yet I didn't remember the plot at all until reading that page. I just remembered the two main characters and the main setting.
The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (7-9). There's lots of cool-looking shit going on, but taken as a whole, it's completely incoherent.
All of Star Wars imho, they have little to no story, especially the first three made, they added space decision to an average western, dulled down the story & characters/ships to make the merch available at the same time as the movie (which was like the main goal with the first movie).
They are a cool space opera, but they all have short/"small" stories bcs that is probably what focus groups predicted will be the most successful for the business.
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Hardcore Henry
But its style is so good, the lack of substance does not even matter.
The Tree of Life from 2011. I felt like half the movie was just shots of the universe with music. It was pretty nonsensical.
Avatar, most marvel and dc films, most nolan films
Equilibrium.
More recently, Tron Ares.
Michael Bay. Although The Rock is hilarious.
Tim Burton… most recently
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The Expendables franchise
Neon Demon but in a good way, the style becomes the substance. Love that movie
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