15 Top-Quality Action Movies like Avatar

It has been almost exactly 13 years since the release of James Cameron’s Avatar, which is still the highest-grossing movie ever made, earning $2,922,917,914 throughout its lifetime. The only film that ever came close to it was Avengers: Endgame, with $2,797,501,328 (lifetime gross).

Now Avatar 2 has been released, you may be searching for something similar. However, these two, assuming that the sequel will be just as amazing and visually stunning are not the only two films out there that are this impressive and enjoyable.

In fact, I can recommend 15 others that I can guarantee are well worth your time. I know I did not regret watching them, and I’m sure that you, if you are looking for something similar will certainly appreciate them as well.

So let’s dive right in.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

As the second highest-grossing movie of all time, Avengers: Endgame is the first on our list.

It comes as the sequel to Avengers: Infinity War, where the “Mad Titan” Thanos collected mysterious Infinity Stones. With them, he received omnipotence, and with a snap of his fingers, he erased half of the universe’s population from existence.

In Endgame, the surviving heroes come up with a plot to reverse the effect of The Snapping.

The movie stars Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, and many more.

Prometheus (2012)

Taking place in the same universe as the Alien movie from 1979 and its sequels, Prometheus actually acts as a prequel for them.

In the film, humans deduce that they and life on Earth were created by another race of beings which they called the Engineers.

Finding ancient star maps among old cave paintings, a group of humans charts their way to a distant moon known as LV-223.

Unfortunately, soon upon arrival, things start to go badly for the crew.

The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, and others.

Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars is a movie franchise that needs no introduction.

The original movie follows Luke Skywalker, a young man from the planet Tatooine, who happens to purchase a droid with a message meant for an old hermit, Ben Kenobi. The message requests urgent assistance.

After showing the message to Kenobi, Luke leaves Tatooine and embarks on an epic adventure that will reveal many secrets about him, his father, and the true identity of Ben Kenobi.

The film stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, and others.

Pitch Black (2000)

Another interesting movie that offers action, but also elements of horror, is Pitch Black.

The movie is about a ship filled with people of different backgrounds, including a dangerous criminal in custody, Riddick. After the ship gets damaged, it is forced to land on a nearby uninhabited planet.

Many of the crew survive the crash, but Riddick escapes. Soon, the survivors discover that they have bigger problems, as the planet which has three suns is about to experience a total eclipse, allowing the monsters that live beneath its surface to come out and feast.

The film stars Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and others.

The Time Machine (2002)

Moving on, we have another cult classic from 2002, called The Time Machine.

The film starts in 1899, where an inventor, Dr. Alexander Hartdegen, loses his fiancee in a mugging. He then invents the time machine to go back in time and save her life.

After failing to do so, he deduces that the answer to changing the past must lie in the future, rather than the past itself. In an accident in the future, he gets knocked unconscious and travels to July 16th, 802701.

The film stars Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba, Orlando Jones, Jeremy Irons, and others.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

The original Planet of the Apes from 1968 has had a massive impact on pop culture, to the point where it got several prequels.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the earliest film in a chronological sense. It takes place in San Francisco, and it tells the story of how the apes got to be as intelligent as they will become in the future.

The drug was tested on the apes and in a series of events, eventually exposed to most great apes, which will become the future rulers of Earth.

The film stars Andy Serkis, James Franco, and Freida Pinto.

Transformers (2007)

Another top-rated franchise, Transformers is an action-packed film featuring space robots that can transform into any vehicle on Earth as a method of disguise.

The plot revolves around an ancient artifact that originally gave life to an entire race of sentient robots. However, they lost it in a long civil war.

Somehow, it found its way to Earth, where the opposing factions from the civil war will continue their clash.

The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, and others.

Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Park is a sci-fi movie released in 1993, created by the legendary director Steven Spielberg.

The plot takes place on the island of Isla Nublar, where a wealthy businessman created a theme park featuring real dinosaurs.

Of course, things quickly go wrong, and ancient predators escape their enclosures and begin praying on the humans.

The Guardian noted that Jurassic Park is a film that has “gone down in history as the film that cracked open the Pandora’s box of CG,” as this was one of the first films to recognize its potential and use it.

The film stars Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Richard Attenborough, and others.

Pacific Rim (2013)

Pacific Rim is a Sci-Fi action adventure movie in which humanity is locked in a war against monstrous sea creatures which threaten our survival as a species.

In order to try to prevent the apocalypse, a former pilot and a trainee decide to take one last attempt against the monsters, by using a seemingly obsolete special weapon against them.

The film is filled with action scenes and massive battles with creatures that dwell in the depths.

According to The Guardian, “Pacific Rim is a war movie set in a near future that resembles in its combination of high technology with cultural and social dilapidation the grim worlds to come in Alien and Blade Runner.”

The film stars Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, and Rinko Kikuchi.

John Carter (2012)

A film that is maybe the most similar to Avatar on this list is John Carter.

The plot revolves around a Civil War vet who gets transported to Barsoom, only to discover a seemingly barren planet inhabited by massive, 12-foot-tall barbarians.

After being captured, he eventually discovers that he possesses superhuman abilities which come in handy when he decides to escape. However, things take another turn after he discovers a princess who desperately needs a savior.

The film stars Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, and Willem Dafoe.

Predators (2010)

If a massive jungle is what you liked about Avatar, then I can definitely recommend watching Predators.

This is not exactly a sequel to 1987’s Predator, but it is in the same universe, which is also confirmed by the fact that the events of the original movie were referenced.

The film features a group of elite warriors from all corners of Earth, who realize that they are no longer on Earth, but a whole other world, and there is something that hunts them in the jungle.

The film stars Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo, Topher Grace, and others.

The Shape of Water (2017)

Some argue that one of Avatar’s best aspects is exploring the relationship between a human and an alien.

If this romantic aspect is what you liked, then you might also want to watch The Shape of Water. In its essence, this is a romantic fantasy film, that revolves around a female janitor who falls in love with a mysterious amphibian creature that is held captive in a US government-owned research lab.

The idea is to explore the dynamic between a human and a strange being that clearly comes from a different world, even if not necessarily from a different planet.

The film stars Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones.

Ready Player One (2018)

In Avatar, humans have found a way to transfer their minds into an artificially created body of a Na’vi, a native being of the planet Pandora.

In Ready Player One, they use a technology known as OASIS to transfer their minds into an entire virtual reality. Meant to allow people to escape the horrors of the real world, the technology is left for grabs after the creator of the software dies.

However, in order to take control of it, players must first complete a set of three incredibly difficult tasks.

The film stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Mark Rylance.

The Matrix (1999)

Another film that everyone has at least heard of is The Matrix.

It features an office worker Thomas Andersson, who is also secretly a hacker named Neo. Neo learned of the concept known as The Matrix, and during his research of it, he attracted the attention of a mysterious group of people, but also government agents.

After choosing to join the mysterious group, Neo gets plugged out of the world, realizing that it is only a simulation in which he lived his entire life. The real world, however, is a post-apocalyptic wasteland ruled by machines and AI.

The film stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Anne Moss.

The Martian (2015)

Last, but certainly not least, we have 2015’s The Martian.

This is a sci-fi survival film that has been praised by many for years now, featuring a botanist Mark Watney, who participates in a mission to Mars.

He remains trapped on the red planet after his fellow astronauts are forced to evacuate due to a major dust storm. Knowing that he will not be able to receive help for a long time, Watney has to use all of his skills to create enough food and water in order to survive.

The movie stars Matt Damon, Sebastian Stan, Donald Glover, and Jessica Chastain.