Best Movie Epics Since 2000

Peter Jackson pays off three films of character, geography and conflict without losing the smaller emotional stories. The siege of Minas Tirith remains the benchmark for readable large-scale fantasy action.

George Miller builds nearly the entire film around a chase, yet every vehicle and movement has a clear purpose. The practical stunt work and visual geography make continuous action easy to follow.

Nolan's adaptation uses real coastlines, ships and new IMAX cameras to give Homer's journey physical scale. It earns a place here on ambition, even before the argument over the finished film settles.

S. S. Rajamouli treats friendship, betrayal, anticolonial revolt and action as equally large emotions. The film's practical energy and complete sincerity make its excess unusually easy to embrace.

Zhang Yimou organizes martial-arts stories through competing accounts and distinct color palettes. The beauty is not ornamental: it shows how power uses narrative to justify itself.

John Woo turns the Battle of Red Cliffs into an epic of military planning, alliances and mass combat. The long Asian cut gives strategy as much dramatic weight as action.

Paul Thomas Anderson turns the rise of an oilman into a severe American epic about industry, religion and appetite. Daniel Day-Lewis makes economic ambition feel physically dangerous.

Ang Lee combines gravity-defying wuxia fights with a story of discipline, regret and repressed love. The emotional restraint gives the airborne action its force rather than merely decorating it.

Denis Villeneuve stages desert warfare, political manipulation and Paul's messianic turn on an enormous scale. The spectacle is impressive because the film remains skeptical about the hero at its center.

Ridley Scott builds a classical revenge story around arena combat, imperial politics and Maximus's grief. Russell Crowe gives the crowd-pleasing scale a clear human center.