1. Avatar (2009)
James Cameron returned to the director's chair 12 years after making the biggest movie of all time to.... make the biggest movie of all time. Whatever your opinion on the 'Dances With Wolves meets Ferngully' shortcomings on the narrative side of things, the visual results were nothing short of spectacular, not to mention hugely influential on the entire industry. An idea the director had since 1994, it took almost 15 years for technology to catch up to Cameron's imagination. But when you're James Cameron and the technology to realize your vision simply doesn't exist, you create it yourself. In addition to shooting the movie on a 3D camera he had helped develop, Cameron also utilized cutting-edge motion capture techniques that he had himself devised during pre-production. A motion-capture stage six times larger than any other was used during filming, which also allowed the director to view the finished animations directly transmitted to a monitor. At one stage, the $238m-budgeted movie had a crew that numbered almost 900. When Avatar was finally released, it went on to obliterate box-office records on its way to $2.78bn worldwide, making Cameron the director of the two biggest movies in history. This almost single-handedly caused a massive resurgence in 3D, with many studios post-converting their big releases into the third dimension with wildly varying degrees of quality (and success). Cameron's use of the technology also led to high-profile directors such as Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese using the format for the first time.
Any movies missing that you think should be included? Sound off in the comments below.