I know alot of this will have to do with your age and when you grew up and how much you love the new CG in movies, but what is the best era of fantasy films? I still say late 70's/early 80's and here is the list:

Star Wars - 1977
Superman: The Movie - 1978
Alien - 1979
Superman II - 1980
The Empire Strikes Back - 1980
Raiders of the Lost Ark - 1981
Star Trek II: Wraith of Khan - 1982
E.T. - 1982
Blader Runner - 1982
Return of the Jedi - 1983
The Terminator - 1984
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Back to the Future - 1985
Aliens - 1986
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

For anyone growing up during that time, did I miss anything?

"You've got your peanut butter fantasy on my chocolate science fiction and action/adventure."

But I see where you're coming from. How about the following?

Krull
Excalibur
Legend
Labyrinth
Dragonslayer
The Dark Crystal
Beastmaster
Conan the Barbarian
and the list goes on...

My definition of Fantasy is very broad, so in a sense, anything that just can't be realistic to even the point of E.T., where the whole movie takes place on Earth with real humans, but you have this alien come from outer space.

But those are great movies too, and I guess I was just listing the space fantasy movies I loved.

Only a 10-year span?

Okay, going from 1997 to this year:
Open Your Eyes (1997)
The Fifth Element (1997)
Men in Black (1997)
Gattaca (1997)
Cube (1997)
Dark City (1998)
Pi (1998)
Pleasantville (1998)
The Truman Show (1998)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
The Matrix (1999)
Pitch Black (2000)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
X-Men (2000)
Unbreakable (2000)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Shaolin Soccer (2001)
Avalon (2001)
Battle Royale (2001)
Amelie (2001)
Donnie Darko (2001)
Equilibrium (2002)
S1m0ne (2002)
Spider-Man (2002)
Cypher (2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
X2 (2003)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Nothing (2003)
Big Fish (2003)
Elf (2003)
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
Hellboy (2004)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Primer (2004)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
Serenity (2005)
MirrorMask (2005)
Batman Begins (2005)
King Kong (2005)
V for Vendetta (2005)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The (2005)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
The Science of Sleep (2006)

Yeah.. to be honest I think we're living it right now. While we've wielded fewer actual classics, the overall general quality has been more consistent.

And how can you not include The Fly (1986) in that list :P.

When I think of "Fantasy" I think of Conan, Labyrinth, Willow, etc.

That is a good point, there are definitely more fantasy films out there now because the times are much different then 20 years ago, I still think we are not getting quality like: Star Wars, Empire, Superman I, and Back to the Future, which IMO are utter classics. But then again, that is another debate.

I think you need some time to pass before you can really judge if something holds up as a "classic" or not. But I think even like the most grudging critic of modern movies has to admit that there are some awesome movies in Jay G's list. In 20 years not all of them will have held up, but a fair number of them will. I grew up in the late 70s/early 80s too, but I think I have to give the nod to the last 10 years.

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
Clash of the Titans (1981)

You seem to be thinking of "Sword and Sorcery," which is a subgenre of Fantasy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_and_sorcery

At least they fit within the genre, unlike some of the Science Fiction titles the OP and others have mentioned.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_film

vs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction_film

During the 50's and 60's, when Harryhausen was crankin' 'em out faster, was my favorite era.

"The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" and "20 Million Miles To Earth" come to mind immediately as favorites from that time.

The genres often overlap, and all the films fit in the OP's definition of "anything that just can't be realistic," or in other words containing "fantastic" elements.

The best term describing the specific type of films the OP is categorizing is probably "speculative fiction," although very few people apart from academics really use the term.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction

I typically don't mind science fiction being lumped in with fantasy, as I view the genre as basically "fantasy with a rationale," along with the fact that many "sci-fi" films are basically fantasy stories with sci-fi trappings.

While quality is debatable, I think for the most part there are a number of films in the past decade that match up to those films listed.

For example, at IMDB, LOTR:ROTK ranks as highly as ESB in average user ratings, while FOTR ranks only slightly lower and on par with the original Star Wars.
http://www.imdb.com/chart/fantasy

The Matrix ranks only slightly lower.

Batman Begins ranks a full point higher that Superman, 8.2 vs. 7.2. Spiderman 2 and X2 also have higher scores, both at 7.8.

Donnie Darko, a time travel story, is rated slightly above Back to the Future, 8.2 vs. 8.1

http://www.imdb.com/chart/scifi
http://www.imdb.com/chart/adventure

So in terms of general consensus, there are a number of recent films that are considered as high "quality" as those past films. As for what films are "classics," some of the films on your list have had up to 30 years of time to prove themselves, while the most any of the films on my list have had is a decade. However, I do think that time will place some of the more recent films, especially the original Matrix and the LOTR films, in the same high regard as those older films.

To be clear though, I don't really regard this past decade as being "better" than the 10-year span you listed. I could certainly list some additional titles from that era that I really like, such as Time Bandits, Brazil, and The Princess Bride. I could probably create a good-sized list of titles from the intermediary decade as well. My point was really that your initial timespan was not exceedingly unique in providing quality fantasy, aside from being fortunate enough to spawn some genuine classics.