The Finest Fantasy Films on Amazon Prime Video (August 2021)

Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton play a married couple named Adam and Eve in Solely Lovers Left Alive. They’ve been collectively a really very long time — as in centuries, not years or many years. Nonetheless, this pair of immortal vampires reside aside within the fashionable period. Each Adam and Eve have methods to cover their true natures, however Adam is more and more despondent and suicidal. Even throughout the huge distance between them, Eve realizes that she has good cause to worry for Adam’s well-being. However can she pull him again from the brink of despair earlier than he opts for a drastic answer to his issues?

Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Stars: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Anton Yelchin, Jeffrey Wright
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Ranking: R
Runtime: 123 minutes

Within the late ‘80s, critics weren’t precisely form to Willow. However it’s grow to be a family-favorite movie within the subsequent many years. When the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) orders the demise of a rival kingdom’s toddler princess, Elora Danan, Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) turns into her unlikely protector. Willow is an beginner magician who needs to grow to be a fantastic sorcerer. As Willow tries to reside as much as his ambitions, he’s joined by the mercenary Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) and Bavorda’s rebellious daughter, Sorsha (Joanne Whalley). Regardless, the destiny of the world and Elora Danan stay within the fingers of Willow himself.

Rotten Tomatoes: 51%
Stars: Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Billy Barty, Jean Marsh
Director: Ron Howard
Ranking: PG
Runtime: 123 minutes

Roberto Benigni appears to have an excessive amount of affection for the story of Pinocchio. Practically 20 years in the past, Benigni performed the residing puppet and directed his personal adaptation of Pinocchio. For this more moderen movie, Benigni performs Pinocchio’s father/creator, Geppetto, and Federico Ielapi takes over the position of Pinocchio. This movie stays nearer to Carlo Collodi’s authentic story than the well-known Disney adaptation did. Poor Pinocchio needs to be an actual boy, however he falls to temptation much more usually than he stays on the straight and slim. And when Pinocchio lies, everyone knows what occurs to his nostril.

Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Stars: Roberto Benigni, Federico Ielapi, Rocco Papaleo, Massimo Ceccherini, Marine Vacth
Director: Matteo Garrone
Ranking: PG-13
Runtime: 125 minutes

In hindsight, it’s completely plausible that David Bowie got here from one other world. For his first main position in a characteristic movie, Bowie performed Thomas Jerome Newton, a.okay.a. The Man Who Fell to Earth. Thomas is an alien disguised as a human on an pressing mission to save lots of his homeworld by bringing water from Earth throughout his return journey. Nonetheless, Thomas proves to be extra human on the within than even he suspected. Whereas caught up in an affair with a girl named Mary-Lou (Sweet Clark), Thomas turns into hopelessly hooked on alcohol and TV. And when his secret comes out, Thomas finds that he now not has the means to defend himself or his mission.

Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
Stars: David Bowie, Rip Torn, Sweet Clark, Buck Henry, Bernie Casey
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Ranking: R
Runtime: 138 minutes

Whereas neither critics nor audiences appeared very within the 2019 reboot, 2004’s Hellboy nonetheless stands as a fantastic and singular fusion of superhero motion and fantasy. The irreplaceable Ron Perlman performs the eponymous hell-borne, stone-fisted hero who protects humanity from supernatural threats as a part of the Bureau for Paranormal Analysis and Protection, together with equally uniquely gifted allies just like the flame-slinging Liz (Selma Blair) and the aquatic Abe Sapien (Doug Jones). Directed by one of many fantasy movie masters — Guillermo del Toro — Hellboy is a gritty and witty visible deal with.

Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
Stars: Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Selma Blair
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Ranking: PG-13
Runtime: 122 minutes

As the top attracts nearer for Edward Bloom (Albert Finney), his estranged son Will (Billy Crudup) returns to his father’s orbit and decides it’s time to make use of his expertise as a journalist to separate reality from fiction. Within the 2003 fantasy dramedy Massive Fish, Ewan McGregor performs the youthful Edward as we watch the dying man’s model of his autobiography unfold, revealing an not possible story of battle, werewolves, giants, witches, daring financial institution robberies, and extra. Whereas fantasy isn’t any stranger to director Tim Burton, Massive Fish is a robust departure from his traditional work, possessing a tangible emotional core normally absent from his diversifications and spookily cartoonish tales of poltergeists and Halloween cities.

Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
Stars: Albert Finney, Ewan McGregor, Jessica Lange, Billy Crudup
Director: Tim Burton
Ranking: PG-13
Runtime: 125 minutes

Is there a dragon with a cooler title than Vermithrax Pejorative? It’s extremely unlikely! Sadly, Vermithrax shouldn’t be a form dragon within the early ‘80s fantasy Dragonslayer. To save lots of the dominion from Vermithrax’s rampage, a younger girl, Valerian (Caitlin Clarke), is tasked to hunt out the nice sorcerer, Ulrich of Cragganmore (Ralph Richardson). What she truly will get is Ulrich’s apprentice, Galen Bradwarden (Peter MacNicol). Galen isn’t precisely prepared for the battle of his lifetime. Nonetheless, he’ll need to study on the job if he needs to save lots of Princess Elspeth (Chloe Salaman) from turning into the dragon’s subsequent sufferer.

Rotten Tomatoes: 84%
Stars: Peter MacNicol, Caitlin Clarke, Ralph Richardson, John Hallam, Peter Eyre, Sydney Bromley
Director: Matthew Robbins
Ranking: PG
Runtime: 109 minutes

Legendary animation producers Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass co-directed the variation of Peter S. Beagle’s The Final Unicorn. Mia Farrow offers the voice of the Unicorn, who’s seemingly the final of her form. Determined to find what occurred to the remainder of the unicorns, she joins a would-be sorcerer, Schmendrick (Alan Arkin), and Molly Grue (Tammy Grimes) on a harmful journey. To guard the Unicorn’s id, Schmendrick transforms the Unicorn into a ravishing younger girl named Woman Amalthea. However as a human, Woman Amalthea is tempted by her emotions for Prince Lír (Jeff Bridges) to desert her quest within the title of affection.

Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Stars: Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, Tammy Grimes, Robert Klein, Angela Lansbury
Director: Arthur Rankin Jr., Jules Bass
Ranking: G
Runtime: 84 minutes

Audiences and critics weren’t prepared for director Ralph Bakshi’s Cool World, a wild mixture of animation and live-action. On this movie, the human world and the cartoon-like Cool World exist in separate realities. For many years, Detective Frank Harris (Brad Pitt) has been the lone human residing in Cool World. In the actual world, cartoonist Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne) believes that he created Cool World, and he’s often visited by visions of Holli Would (Kim Basinger), a “doodle” who needs to grow to be a human and escape from her realm. When Holli’s ambitions threaten each worlds, Frank and Jack are pressured to crew as much as cease her.

Rotten Tomatoes: 4%
Stars: Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne, Brad Pitt, Deirdre O’Connell, Charlie Adler
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Ranking: PG-13
Runtime: 102 minutes

Demise is part of life that we’ve by no means conquered. However throughout the realm of fantasy and sci-fi, it may be overcome. Archive stars Theo James as George Almore, a widowed man who could have discovered a method to deliver his late spouse, Jules (Stacy Martin), again to some semblance of life. George makes use of his extremely specialised scientific information to create a robotic, J2, that captures a number of facets of Jules’ character. That results in an improved mannequin, J3, that bodily resembles Jules as nicely. Sadly, George was a bit too profitable with J2, as a result of she shows jealousy over his emotions for J3. And a jealous robotic is all the time unhealthy information.

Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
Stars: Theo James, Stacy Martin, Rhona Mitra, Peter Ferdinando, Richard Glover
Director: Gavin Rothery
Ranking: TV-MA
Runtime: 105 minutes

There might be just one Highlander! And it’s on Amazon Prime. This centuries-spanning epic takes flight after mystical warrior Russell Nash (Christopher Lambert) kills a person in a sword battle in a New York Metropolis parking zone. Within the course of, he leaves a sliver of an historical weapon lodged in a automotive. When forensics specialist Brena Wyatt (Roxanne Hart) recovers proof of the mysterious weapon, she and her accomplice embark on an investigation of Nash — the Highlander — and discover themselves embroiled in a centuries-old feud between immortals.

Rotten Tomatoes: 69%
Stars: Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Roxanne Hart
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Ranking: R
Runtime: 116 minutes

A contemporary fairytale set in a up to date London backyard, a younger girl who goals of turning into a youngsters’s writer (Jessica Brown Findlay) discovers an unlikely friendship with the wealthy curmudgeon subsequent door (Tom Wilkinson). The writer retreats to the more and more dilapidated backyard for inspiration, however its untidiness has her dealing with eviction. Her neighbor simply so occurs to be a rare horticulturalist, and because the two work collectively to rejuvenate the backyard, it turns into one thing really magical.

Rotten Tomatoes: 61%
Stars: Jessica Brown Findlay, Tom Wilkinson, Andrew Scott
Director: Scott Aboud
Ranking: PG
Runtime: 92 minutes

Based mostly on the 2003 Dean Koontz novel of the identical title, Odd Thomas stars the late Anton Yelchin because the titular character, Thomas, a line cook dinner and a gifted psychic (think about being handed that résumé). When Thomas encounters a person named Robert Robertson (Shuler Hensley), a fellow with some type of mold-like substance for hair, Odd’s clairvoyance kicks in full pressure within the type of disturbing goals that time to Robertson as a determine of evil. It’s as much as Thomas, the native sheriff (Willem Dafoe), and Thomas’s girlfriend (Addison Timlin) to thwart Robertson’s wretched plan earlier than it’s too late. A whimsical tour de pressure of thrills and chills, Odd Thomas could not all the time stand on two ft, however Yelchin’s efficiency brings sufficient spunk and power to maneuver mountains.

Rotten Tomatoes: 38%
Stars: Anton Yelchin, Willem Dafoe, Nico Tortorella
Director: Stephen Sommers
Ranking: PG-13
Runtime: 96 minutes

In John Huddle’s After the Darkish (often called The Philosophers exterior the U.S.), a bunch of worldwide college college students is given the ultimate examination of a lifetime by one Mr. Zimit (James D’Arcy), their esteemed philosophy teacher. Alluding to a post-apocalyptic world, Mr. Zimit poses a problem to his class: The scholars should select 10 of their friends to reside life in a nuclear-proof bunker, with every chosen pupil receiving designated end-of-the-world professions, with positions together with printed poet, harpist, and soldier. Combining coming-of-age parts with an enormous blast of sci-fi, After the Darkish is a superb piece of elevated cinema that makes us surprise how we’d fare in Mr. Zimit’s imagined wasteland.

Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
Stars: Daryl Sabara, James D’Arcy, Bonnie Wright
Director: John Huddles
Ranking: R
Runtime: 114 minutes

A religious dissection of Nordic mythology, co-writer-director André Øvredal’s Mortal follows Eric (Nat Wolff), an early twenty-something residing on the fringes of Norwegian society who possesses the miraculous skill to set issues ablaze, actually. After Eric is picked up by native authorities, Christine (Iben Arkelie), a psychologist, is drawn to him. Regulation enforcement needs to query Eric a few sequence of murders that occurred years earlier than. When Christine learns that the victims had been all members of Eric’s household, a symbolic line begins tracing backward from Eric’s fiery skills to historical Nordic mythology. Half superhero movie, half fantasy, Mortal shoots for the celebrities with its larger-than-life narrative however delivers main set items with massive power and powerful performances.

Rotten Tomatoes: 56%
Stars: Nat Wolff, Priyanka Bose, Iben Akerlie
Director: André Øvredal
Ranking: R
Runtime: 104 minutes

Tom (Jesse Eisenberg) and Gemma (Imogen Poots) are seeking actual property. After they go to a improvement of equivalent suburban houses referred to as Yonder, the couple is seemingly deserted by their realtor. They resolve to pack it in and head dwelling, but it surely seems that Yonder retains the twenty-somethings in some type of time loop the place regardless of how far they drive, they all the time return to accommodate #9 — the domicile their agent confirmed them. Tom and Gemma resolve to remain on the home for the evening, however when a new child child arrives with directions stating, “Elevate the kid and be launched,” Tom and Gemma grow to be the unwilling victims of unseen, otherworldly forces. Vivarium combines fantasy, horror, and sci-fi parts in a slightly outstanding approach. Each time the story appears to slide, Eisenberg and Poots wrangle it proper again in.

Rotten Tomatoes: 72%
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Imogen Poots, Jonathan Aris
Director: Lorde Finnegan
Ranking: R
Runtime: 97 minutes

In director Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of the age-old textual content, Ray Winstone stars because the voice of the titular hero. On the courtroom of King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) with a military of troopers, the King needs Beowulf to destroy a horrid troll-like creature often called Grendel (Crispin Glover). Beowulf carries out his mission efficiently, however not earlier than Grendel’s mom (Angelina Jolie) learns of her son’s demise and swears revenge on the warrior and his forces. The place epic reimaginings of this scale can usually fall by the wayside, Zemeckis’ Beowulf manages to really feel simply as epic and vital as the traditional poem we had been pressured to learn in highschool literature programs.

Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
Stars: Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Ranking: R
Runtime: 114 minutes