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.
this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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Literally the first film that came to mind.
I haven't even seen it and this was the movie I thought of when I saw the question.
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.
I barely remember anything about Tron: Legacy besides short Daft Punk cameo that started Derezzed track.
Edit: also that they've used 3d model of CLU and that I have only noticed it was 3d model late in the movie.
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 😛
The Fast and Furious movies literally started as an excuse for Paul Walker to drive his cool car collection, so I nominate those
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
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
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.
Hardcore Henry
But its style is so good, the lack of substance does not even matter.
Michael Bay. Although The Rock is hilarious.
Tim Burton… most recently
Didn't realize that Michael Bay is a movie
Well he did basically make the same film over and over again with no distinguishing characteristics other than "a film by Michael Bay", so I guess it's kinda true.
It's a genre.
Avatar, most marvel and dc films, most nolan films
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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One of the best "all style" movies has to be:
"The Good, The Bad and the Ugly."
The Expendables franchise
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”.
Equilibrium.
More recently, Tron Ares.
The Tree of Life from 2011. I felt like half the movie was just shots of the universe with music. It was pretty nonsensical.
Neon Demon but in a good way, the style becomes the substance. Love that movie
I think you could add most movies by Nicolas Winding Refn here.
His film Only God Forgives has to be the most style over substance film if his, hands down
Saltburn
Drive. I LOVR the movie, and LOVE the soundtrack, but it's a run of the mill movie.
Run of the mill?? The pacing of Drive alone sets it apart. Lots of moments of calm, violence on the extreme side but skillfully kept to very short instances to drive home the impact but not overly linger on any of it to the point of gratuity.
I guess this could all be counted as style, but there feels like substance behind it.
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