Fantasy movies often take time to grow on viewers because they don’t all have interesting or engaging opening scenes and gradually build up the stakes as characters and lore are introduced and developed with time. Some of the best fantasy movies of each year between 2015 and 2024 take their time to become interesting and immerse viewers in their worlds.
However, some great underrated fantasy movies strike you as engaging and deserving of more praise almost from the get-go if their premises are unique enough. Not every good story will make a major impression early on, though, and many films reward you for waiting with major plot twists or lore drops that expand the world and make it more inviting.
Some fantasy movies that were way ahead of their time and have undergone recent reᴀssessment have incredible opening sequences that not only tell you to expect a timeless story, but also explain why they weren’t well-received upon initial release. Some iconic instant classic fantasy films clearly prove that they’re masterpieces within the first 10 minutes, and only improve from there.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Fantasy in any medium would look vastly different without J.R.R. Tolkien’s eponymous novel, which helped shape the genre. Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of his The Lord of the Rings trilogy is aware of this and is made with a reverence for the source material that infects viewers within minutes. The scale of the narrative is felt through the expository opening.
The epic tale of the ring, the main villain, Sauron, and the battle for Middle Earth perfectly sets up the nearly eleven-and-a-half-hour-long trilogy of events. They’re great fantasy movies that changed the genre forever, and watching the exposition that introduces the vast world with varied cultures and incredibly detailed history gets you in the mood for the adventure ahead.
The Princess Bride (1987)
The nested story approach always invites viewers to engage with a narrative on a personal level because they’re put in the shoes of the character(s) reading/being told the story inside the film. The Princess Bride is no exception, and the thrill of the ride is felt through the narration alongside the film’s grandeur, which is bolstered by its timeless romance.
The comfort of The Princess Bride‘s opening scene, where the man comes to tell his ill grandson an epic tale of adventure, immediately tells you it will be one of the best feel-good movies of the 1980s. The opening scene leads to an expository introduction to the characters, and it doesn’t take long to realize how iconic Princess ʙuттercup is.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Fans of the TTRPG had to wait years for a good Dungeons & Dragons, but Honor Among Thieves proves to be worth the wait. Its understanding of what elements would work in a film adaptation, which aspects one must be faithful about, and how to capture the hilariously chaotic flow of events in a typical D&D game is highly commendable.
It also has some of the best action scenes in recent fantasy movie history, and you know right from the opening scene that it will be a classic action-comedy that’s faithful to D&D. The comically bad plea followed by the daring rescue, which feels like someone rolling the dice to check their luck, tells you the filmmakers understand the game.
Legend (1985)
Ridley Scott’s impact on cinema can hardly be exaggerated, and while he’s more ᴀssociated with sci-fi and drama, his impact on fantasy is felt through every dark fantasy movie made after 1985, which inadvertently borrows the aesthetic that Legend polished and finalized for the genre. While it may not be a masterpiece, it’s a hugely influential film by all means.
Legend was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup.
The first 10 minutes already set it apart from the rest and demonstrate Ridley Scott’s understanding of the genre. The conflict between good and evil is a primary theme for most fantasy films, and the first 10 minutes of Legend are almost neatly divided into two equally long segments that show the dark villain’s lair and the vibrant magical forest.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The brainchild of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, this whip-wielding, adventure-hungry archaeologist with a penchant for defying death on the regular, aka Harrison Ford’s second-most famous role of Indiana Jones, has one of the most epic introductions any movie hero could ask for. He runs, jumps, rolls, and narrowly escapes a huge rolling stone that was threatening to crush him.
The first 10 minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark tell us everything we need to know about him. He has a strong moral compᴀss, he loves adventure, he’s in pursuit of knowledge, he’s daring and willing to face off with rivals, and he has great survival skills. The opening scene sets a great pace for the rest of the film and the whole franchise to follow, dropping us right in the middle of one of Indy’s classic, thrilling quests.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean belongs with the best fantasy movie franchises that are already finished, because the shenanigans of Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow never fail to entertain. From mental to literal gymnastics, the man is always on his toes and keeps everyone around him guessing his next move, as he always improvises with a miraculously high success rate.
It’s this dicH๏τomy that’s most fascinating, because his personality is full of contradictions. The first ten minutes of The Curse of the Black Pearl establish this dicH๏τomy, as he comes into view wearing a captain’s hat while glorious music swells, only to reveal he’s on a sinking ship. He’s a captain without a ship who’s heard of but not famous.
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
As a fan of workplace sitcoms like The Office and Parks & Recreation, I am a huge fan of the mockumentary form of storytelling. So, when I finally watched Taika Waiтιтi’s What We Do in the Shadows and saw it open with a mockumentary-style introduction to the characters, who were all revealing backstories, I knew I was watching a masterpiece.
What We Do in the Shadows later grew into a six-season-long show that aired from 2019 to 2024, following the same primary characters as the film.
What We Do in the Shadows is one of the most hilarious horror comedy movies, but its sense of humor is characterized by awkward character interactions, cutaways to terrifying stories, and a parody of vampires as a supernatural species. The opening ten minutes also include a joke about a vampire’s familiar, establishing that that iconic dynamic will also be parodied.
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
The iconic background score that still gives me instant goosebumps isn’t introduced until later, but the fascinating village of Berk gets the perfect introduction in the opening scene of How to Train Your Dragon. Narrated by Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), we meet some of the notable villagers, find out their daily lifestyle, and are shown the main attraction – the dragons!
Jay Baruchels’ performance as Hiccup proves that there should be Oscars for voice acting in movies, and the first scene itself demonstrates how his skills of modulation suit his character’s personality. Since the movie starts with fast-paced action out of the gate, we enter the headspace of the characters and our minds start occupying Berk within the first few minutes.
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Ingmar Bergman has influenced every genre he has worked in, and that roster is impressively vast as well, but few of his movies, barring The Virgin Spring, which many say started the rape-revenge genre, have impacted their respective genres more than The Seventh Seal. The chess match is so famous, even those who haven’t seen the film, know of it.
The first ten minutes of the film introduce us to a bleak world of ruin and death, where a soldier awaits his death. Death comes to take him away, but he challenges Death to a chess match. The premise, Death’s introduction, the knight’s desperation, and the desolation of the world all set the tone for the rest of the masterpiece.
Shrek (2001)
The winner of the first Oscar given for Best Animated Picture, Shrek, is a parody of fairy tales and classic fantasy stories. It is unafraid to mock even the most beloved elements of this genre, including turning iconic characters into caricatures, and turning the most famous premise of such stories on its head to send an important message about self-acceptance.
The tone of the film becomes apparent through its first 10 minutes, which includes one of the best opening scenes in fantasy movie history. A voice-over narration of a typical fairy tale gives way to the most disgusting bathing scene ever, set to Smash Mouth’s All Star, while beloved fantasy characters are rounded up like criminals. Everything here screams masterpiece.
