Movies That Are Only Worth Watching In Theaters

People have always been fascinated with (and potentially scared of) whatever life exists beyond Earth. That's why aliens and the science fiction genre go hand-in-hand. The idea of an extra-terrestrial force invading Earth isn't anything new, and we've seen it happen countless times on the big screen—including Jonathan Liebesman's Battle: Los Angeles, which, interestingly, is loosely inspired by the actual Battle of Los Angeles. Overnight on February 24, 1942, the U.S. military unleashed a barrage of anti-aircraft artillery against what they presumed was the Japanese attacking Los Angeles, but was later thought to be aliens.

A large-scale alien invasion that takes inspiration from a real-life event—how could Battle: Los Angeles not be a hit with audiences? Unfortunately, it fell into the same trap that many war movies suffer: it was more of a military recruitment video than a sci-fi blockbuster. That's not to say the movie isn't worth seeing, because it is—but only on the big screen. The shot of the invasion alone, along with possibly the final battle with the alien forces, is worth the ticket.

Imagine a movie like Black Hawk Down with aliens. According to the movie's lead, Aaron Eckhart, that was the purpose all along. The movie was meant to tell a story of what a real-life alien invasion would look like. "The goal was: this is a war movie, a documentary style war movie—with aliens in it." In that regard, Battle: Los Angeles succeeded, and it was quite the spectacle. But that's all it was.

After the Wachowskis concluded The Matrix trilogy, they set their sights on the Japanese anime Speed Racer. Regrettably, the movie wasn't as successful as they'd hoped. Interjecting political themes and societal issues into a kids' property may not have been what people had in mind, but the special effects were a feast for the eyes—even if they led to the directing duo being criticized for "[overloading] Speed Racer with headache-inducing special effects." The thing is, though, that's exactly what the movie needed to begin with.

But don't take our word for it; listen to what Stephen Colbert had to say about the film when he saw it in theaters, and the tell us if Speed Racer doesn't sound exactly like a movie that needs to be watched on the biggest screen possible. "If you want a feel of what this movie is like, here's all you do: put 80 pounds of fireworks into an industrial dryer, crawl right in there with them, turn it on, and then light the fuse. It'll give you a good idea of the visual onslaught you'll be enduring. ...It's the classic story of boy meets seizure-inducing lights." In all seriousness, that's an apt description of what the movie is like on the big screen, especially in IMAX.

Shortly before the conclusion of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, New Line Cinema started looking at other epics to adapt so they could continue reaping the rewards from a growing trend of high-concept fantasy films. That led them to Philip Pullman's Her Dark Materials trilogy, and its first novel, The Golden Compass. The studio got Chris Weitz to write and direct the production, and he assembled an excellent cast: Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Ian McChane, Sam Elliot, and Dakota Blue Richards.

Despite all the excitement behind the project, The Golden Compass flopped at the domestic box office and relied entirely on overseas markets to recover its estimated $180 million production budget. If the filmmakers didn't cut out significant portions of the film, or alter the secular themes from the source material, then perhaps audiences would have been given a proper adaptation of Pullman's novel, which could have in turn allowed the studio to continue adapting the rest of the series.

Unfortunately, that's not what happened, and all we got was a story lacking the novel's sense of wonder. Instead, The Golden Compass had to rely solely on its impressive visuals to maintain audiences' interest. But that's the beauty of the movie: its visuals, its scope, and its design were its most promising elements. It's worth seeing all of that in theaters, if you ever have the chance. But if you feel the need to leave before the end, don't worry, there really isn't much of one anyway.

Michael Bay's movies may not always be hits with critics, but they're usually successful enough to warrant sequels. Why else would Paramount not only continue to spew out Transformers sequels every few years, but also expand the series into a full-fledged cinematic universe? Whether you like his movies or not, there's one thing that can't be denied: he sure knows how to blow stuff up. Some people have to come to call his directing style "Bayhem."

Bay's career started in the mid-'90s with Bad Boys and The Rock, but he didn't perfect his technique until his world-ending drama Armageddon in 1998. Starring Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and Liv Tyler, among many others, it became the highest-grossing movie of the year, and for good reason: Bay worked with visual effects artists Richard R. Hoover, Patrick McLung, and John Frazier to create a mind-blowing end-of-the-world extravaganza, filled with love, drama, and sacrifice—all set to a decent soundtrack that included a No. 1 hit single from Aerosmith. Armageddon is certainly not the greatest apocalyptic movie, and it may not even be Bay's best work, but it was a fun-filled ride in theaters.

Speed Racer may not have been the hit they wanted it to be, but that didn't stop the Wachowski siblings from pursuing high-concept movies like Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending. The siblings worked as screenwriters on a handful of projects in the time between Speed Racer and Cloud Atlas, but it was the latter that got them back into the director's chair(s), alongside German filmmaker Tom Tykwer.

Based on the novel of the same name by David Mitchell, the film was to be "an epic story of humankind in which the actions and consequences of our lives impact one another throughout the past, present and future as one soul is shaped from a murderer into a savior and a single act of kindness ripples out for centuries to inspire a revolution." In that regard, they succeeded—according to some people. Not unlike other Wachowski films, Cloud Atlas saw polarizing opinions from critics across the board.

Notwithstanding mixed reviews, there's one thing that Cloud Atlas got right: special effects. Seeing the world the Wachowskis created—spanning from the mid-19th century to the 24th century—unfold on an IMAX screen is certainly a treat. By now, it should be painfully obvious that, whatever their flaws, the Wachowskis surely know how to create electrifying visuals. It's their specialty, and it's something they've come to master since their time with The Matrix trilogy.