The 25 Best 3D Movies

In the world of 3D moviemaking, it is the best of times and the worst of times. On the positive side, technology-loving auteurs like James Cameron are finding new and boundary-pushing ways to utilize the format in order to maximize the moviegoing experience. On the other hand, money-grubbing studio heads are creating slapdash 3D versions of tentpole releases as well as past hits in order to squeeze a few extra dollars out of willing audience members.

But for every Jaws 3-D and Thor (which looks exactly the same whether you’re sporting your 3D glasses or not), there’s one Avatar that elevates the medium. As we await the slate of 3D movies set to hit theaters this year, including Texas Chainsaw 3D (in theaters Friday), Complex looks back at The 25 Best 3D Movies Hollywood has produced.

Director: Patrick Lussier
Stars: Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith

Throughout the technology's history, 3D has been both best friend and worst enemy to the horror genre. Patrick Lussier's remake of the '80s slasher classic about a mining community being savaged on Valentine's Day belongs, fortunately, to the former category. Because if the use of 3D in the world's best amusement park rides has taught us anything it's that sometimes a little exploitation of the medium—where it's used strictly for its ability to create in-your-face visuals—is a welcome respite.

My Bloody Valentine also holds the distinction of being the first wide-release, R-rated movie to be shown with Real D technology. Let the bloodbath ensue!

Director: James Cameron
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates

James Cameron isn't just King of the World. He's King of 3D, too. The guy just can't seem to leave well enough alone. So following the unprecedented success of his box office behemoth Avatar, the three-time Oscar winner decided to gather up a team of 300 artists and give his previous record-holder, Titanic, a 3D overhaul.

It would be easy to call this a cheap attempt to turn a quick buck, but the word "cheap" isn't in Cameron's vocabulary. While the original film was already a technological breakthrough, the 3D version—released 15 years after the film's initial release—boasts an additional layer of depth that only intensifies the flat version, making the action more pulse-pounding and the character development more visceral.

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Stars: Angelina Jolie, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Crispin Glover

Though overshadowed by bigger box office hits of the year like Spider-Man 3 and Transformers, Robert Zemeckis' cinematic retelling of the epic poem of the titular warrior (Winstone) tasked with slaying the beast Grendel (Glover) was a huge step forward for 3D filmmaking. One of the first films to mount 3D projection on a large scale, Beowulf pops and wows in all the right places, from Grendel's sexy mom (Jolie) to Beowulf's fire-breathing, golden dragon son.

Director: Steve Miner
Stars: Dana Kimmell, Tracie Savage, Richard Brooker, Larry Zerner

We won't pretend that the third entry of the Friday the 13th franchise is the Citizen Kane of slasher films. But we'd be remiss to talk about the best 3D films without making mention of the genre's 1980s resurgence, during which it seemed as if the third entry in every franchise utilized stereoscopic moviemaking (see Amityville 3-D and Jaws 3-D).

While the story didn't offer much new insight into the mind of serial killer Jason Voorhees, the added layer of 3D did make for some genuine jumps on the part of the audience and, even today, a much-needed bit of fun with the technology (with weapons and body parts flying at the audience in equal measure). The film is also notable as the first in which our indestructible killer dons his now-signature hockey mask.

Director: Jeff Tremaine
Stars: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Chris Pontius

Kudos to the studio head who dared to put very expensive 3D cameras in the hands of Johnny Knoxville and his Jackass cohorts. Though the self-inflicted antics of this band of pranksters may be an acquired taste, there's no denying that Jackass 3D utilized the technology in a way that was as groundbreaking as it was organic.

The film employs a lot of slow motion—including an opening scene where the main players are painfully assaulted with various objects—in order to show off the technology's capabilities. In true Jackass fashion, the boys claim to have received the go-ahead to shoot in 3D after showing studio execs their "Heli-cockter" stunt, in which Chris Pontius operates a remote-controlled helicopter that has been attached to his penis.

Director: Alexandre Aja
Stars: Elisabeth Shue, Jerry O'Connell, Adam Scott, Ving Rhames

Contemporary horror master Alexandre Aja (High Tension) shoots for camp and hits the bull's-eye in this update of the Roger Corman-produced classic, in which hundreds of man-eating fish invade a T&A-filled Spring Break town. 3D provides a knowing wink to the film's horror-based gags, like when a "Girls Gone Wild"-type filmmaker (Jerry O'Connell) experiences his own marine-based version of castration...with his severed organ floating right towards audience before it's chomped up. It may lack a compelling story line, but Piranha is modern 3D moviemaking at its giddiest.

Director: Julian Roffman
Stars: Paul Stevens, Claudette Nevins, Bill Walker

3D creates a world of its own—one where an ancient mask has the power to elicit homicidal tendencies in all those who encounter it. A decade after 3D was fashionable, Julian Roffman resurrected the technology to create some truly wild imagery intended to create a distinction between real life and mask-based hallucinations. Though probably the most difficult to find of the films on this list, The Mask is well worth seeking out for its innovative use of 3D as a storytelling device.

Director: Catherine Owens & Mark Pellington
Stars: Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr.

What's the next best thing to front row seats and a backstage pass to a U2 concert? Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington's 85-minute documentary, which documents the Irish lads' "Vertigo" tour. Intended as a way to show off 3ality Digital's groundbreaking digital 3D production technique, which utilized real-time image processing to create smoother shots, the film was shot with as many as 18 cameras at a time in an attempt to do away with the migraine-inducing 3D of the past. The result is a lifelike concert experience, without having to pay for parking.

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Stars: Tom Hanks, Chris Coppola, Michael Jeter, Peter Scolari

In a way, the current tendency toward 3D features could be blamed on Robert Zemeckis' now-classic holiday tale, about a boy who boards a magical North Pole-bound train on Christmas Eve. It was the first non-native IMAX film to be presented in the 70mm format and to the first to be released simultaneously in both 3D and 2D (a technique that is now standard operating procedure). It's also the film that proved that audiences were willing to fork over big bucks for a better moviegoing experience, with the IMAX release outperforming the 2D release 14 to one.

Director: George Sidney
Stars: Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller

If film history has taught us anything it's that 3D works best in an environment that is really meant to be viewed in person, such as a Broadway musical. Which is exactly what director George Sidney was counting on when he employed 3D to adapt Kiss Me Kate for the big screen.

The story of a pair of divorced actors (Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson) who must work together on a musical version of Taming of the Shrew steered away from the 1950s tendency to treat 3D as an effect for horror and instead used it to enhance the song-and-dance numbers, replicating the experience of a night out at the theater.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis

Despite a marketplace crowded with quick 3D retrofits of otherwise undeserving films (think The Three Musketeers and Shark Night 3D), 2011 was a great year for 3D movies, with Hugo, Pina, and Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the famed comic books from Belgian artist Hergé as its highlights. Channeling the same kind of family-friendly adventure that The Polar Express offered seven years earlier, Spielberg's CGI spectacle benefited from advances in technology and the director's penchant for adventure films, with excitement hitting from every angle.

Director: Wim Wenders
Stars: Pina Bausch, Regina Advento, Malou Airaudo

Wim Wenders' unfortunately under-seen documentary about famed German choreographer Pina Bausch is a perfect example of why 3D works best when used as a second-best option to real life itself, as the complexity of Bausch's signature style and movements need to be seen up close to be fully appreciated. Pina offers viewers the chance to do just that, regardless of geography.

Director: Henry Selick
Stars: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Keith David

Henry Selick just may be the stop-motion version of James Cameron. He's a director who knows how to wield technology in new and interesting ways and doesn't hesitate to push the limits of what it can achieve.

In the case of Coraline, the story of a young girl (Dakota Fanning) who discovers a parallel version of her own life with a couple of creepy differences, this means painstakingly creating thousands of 3D models to aid in the film's production, allowing characters and environments alike to develop their own unique personalities. The end result is something more akin to an amusement park ride, with the audience taking part in Coraline's dark journey.

Director: James Cameron
Stars: Bill Paxton, Lori Johnston, Lewis Abernathy

Call it Avatar 101. Or Titanic: The Sequel. Before he was finalizing the techniques that would bring Pandora to life in 2009, James Cameron was tinkering with them when he took his 3D camera two miles below sea level to explore the wreckage of the Titanic in this unscripted exploration of "The Ship of Dreams." Audiences went along for the ride, and got the chance to go where few people had been before, for this documentary feature shot specifically to be seen in IMAX 3D.

Director: Henry Selick
Stars: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey

You can't keep a good movie down! After thrilling audiences of all ages (and scaring the hell out of a few tots) upon its initial 2D release, Henry Selick's dark stop-motion fantasy—from the mind of Tim Burton—has been a guinea pig for advancing technologies.

The story of the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown's (Elfman) attempts to capture the Christmas spirit to the morbid delight of his townspeople was re-released after a 3D conversion in 2006 and has made subsequent annual appearances in theaters, including a 4D presentation in Los Angeles in 2010, where its already-eye-popping visuals have been improved upon with each new edition.

Director: Jack Arnold
Stars: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning

3D at its most timeless, Creature from the Black Lagoon still stands as proof as to the reason why the technology gained popularity in the first place, with 3D upping the production value of this low-budget affair. Though nowhere near as advanced as today's stereoscopic offerings, the film (which is available in 3D Blu-ray) still packs a punch for fans of old-school monster movies that didn't have the benefit of computer-generated effects.

Director: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson
Stars: Ed Asner, Jordan Nagai, Christopher Plummer, Delroy Lindo

Even amidst the wonderful world of Pixar's filmography, Up stands out for its moving, somewhat darker story line and fantastically colorful visuals in this story of an old man (Asner) attempting to fulfill his lifelong dream of exploring the world following the death of his wife. Among its 3D achievements, the most impressive just may be the scenes which depict the man's preferred method of transport, as he traverses the world by tying thousands of colored balloons to his house in order to head upward.

Director: Werner Herzog
Stars: Werner Herzog, Jean Clottes, Julien Monney

A perfect example of technology with a purpose, Werner Herzog's documentary offers viewers a front row view of the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave in Southern France, which boasts the earliest examples of cave paintings. Closed off to the public since its discovery in 1994, Herzog's deeply textured exploration of this significant discovery is about as close as you'll ever get to experiencing it in person.

Director: Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders
Stars: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill

As a vehicle for fantasy, few effects can beat 3D done right. And that's exactly what DreamWorks was counting on with How to Train Your Dragon, the tale of a young Viking (Baruchel) who befriends one of the dragons his townspeople are so hot to exterminate. Though meant for kids, the story's high-flying action is enough to sustain visual wonder for viewers of all ages throughout its 98-minute run time.

Director: André De Toth
Stars: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Charles Bronson

It's ironic that one of the greatest examples of 3D moviemaking released during the medium's Golden Age was shot by a director (André de Toth) who was blind in one eye. But all contradictions aside, House of Wax is a prime example of the ways in which the medium was most often utilized in its earliest days (read: to generate thrills).

The film marked Vincent Price's maiden voyage into horror, as a professor and wax sculptor who values the existence of his figurines over human life itself. It was also the first 3D film released in color by a major studio and remains a prime example of the technology, which still manages to scare and titillate even today. (Yes, even more so than the 2005 remake starring Paris Hilton.)

Director: Lee Unkrich
Stars: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Michael Keaton, John Ratzenberger

Pixar's wildly popular franchise—which explores the lives of the discarded toys we all once loved as kids—has always made for an immersive experience, pulling on viewers' heartstrings at the same time it's tickling their funny bones. But the trilogy's final film, in which the toys deal with abandonment issues as 18-year-old Andy heads off to college, adds an even more realistic layer to the adventures of Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), and the gang, as 3D lends a further air of authenticity to thrilling set pieces and a story that already hits close to home.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings

When Alfred Hitchcock decided to try his hand at 3D moviemaking for this tale of a husband (Ray Milland) intent on murdering his wife (Hitch muse Grace Kelly), audiences resented the director's willingness to so easily embrace what they believed would be a short-lived fad. So Hitchcock caved and released the film in its flat version instead, leaving the 3D edition to flounder for nearly three decades until it premiered in San Francisco in 1980.

Which is too bad. Because the Master of Suspense sure did know how to milk the medium for all it was worth, ratcheting up the tension in ways that he could never achieve in 2D, leading the studio to re-release the film (in all its stereoscopic splendor) in 1982.

Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, Christopher Lee

Martin Scorsese has never met a cinematic challenge he didn't want to take on. When word spread that the master of mob movies had chosen to adapt Brian Selznick's family-friendly book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, many heads were scratched. But when it was revealed that the 10-time Oscar nominee planned to shoot the film in 3D in order to re-create 1930s Paris, where the titular orphan (Butterfield) lives in the walls of a train station, the all-ages venture began to generate some excitement.

In the hands of Scorsese, the medium is (unsurprisingly) elevated, capturing the unique sense of place, time, and fantasy put forth by the novel. At an early DGA screening of the film in Los Angeles, Mr. 3D himself—James Cameron—deemed the film a "masterpiece," calling is the best use of 3D he had seen (yes, even counting his own films).

Director: Ang Lee
Stars: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain

The point of a 3D film—at least when it's done right—should be to make the viewer a part of the story. Ang Lee's Life of Pi may be the best example of doing just that. Based on the bestselling book by Yann Martel, the film tells of the adventures of Pi Patel (Sharma), the shipwrecked son of a zookeeper who finds himself adrift on a lifeboat with an enormous Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, both of them fighting to survive. It's the kind of fantastical tale that would be impossible to film without the otherworldly use of 3D, which seamlessly places the audience in the middle of all the action.

Director: James Cameron
Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

Though the story and characters could benefit from an added dimension of depth, it's impossible to utter the phrase "3D movie" without giving credit to the advances James Cameron made in the medium with Avatar. This epic allegory of the Western world, which has humans mining the precious mineral known as unobtanium on the Pandora moon, revolutionized the medium in 2009 and became (and remains) the highest grossing movie of all time.

Blending live action and CGI, Cameron developed his own brand of motion capture moviemaking, which allowed him to view the live actors and their digitally rendered environments at the same time, and created the organic look and feel to which all other 3D directors continue to aspire.