During the summer season Hollywood releases more action movies than it does at any other point throughout the year, and each year these movies become less and less memorable than the year before. My favorite action movie this summer wasn’t even an American film (it was Japan’s 13 Assassins), and my favorite American film this summer wasn’t an action movie (it was Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life). Great action films are a dying breed (no, I don’t consider Green Lantern, Thor, or Cowboys & Aliens great, or even competent, action films), and even the genre films I did enjoy this summer (X-Men: First Class and Captain America: The First Avenger aren’t exactly shining examples of action filmmaking.
There’s a blogger on the interwebs that goes by the moniker Film Crit Hulk (follow the green guy on Twitter here), who has just completed a three part examination of cinematic action scenes. He’s going to tell you EXACTLY why the state of action filmmaking is in dire straits. Throughout the piece, he describes what makes an action scene work, what doesn’t, and gives examples of great ones, good ones, bad ones, and terrible ones. The write up is in-depth, detailed, long, and incredibly entertaining. It’s scholarly, without feeling like a lecture. It also features special guest Tom Townend, who has shot many films, including the much praised Attack the Block!, which I need to see very, very soon (if I’m to ever stop salivating over the idea).
Folks, film has a language and you understand it inherently, whether you know it or not. Taking that further, each genre is a specific dialect. Directors should be masters of that language. Some in the profession speak it better than others, and some specialize in a dialect which they, in turn, can speak better than others. There’s a reason Transformers: Dark of the Moon is an awful action movie (no really, it is. It destroys things very well, yes. But it is not, objectively, a good action film): Michael Bay simply shouts out his words as loud as he can, hoping everyone will be impressed by his vocal bravado that they won’t notice that what he’s saying doesn’t make any sense, and there’s a reason Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the greats: Steven Spielberg simply speaks the language fluently.
This essay, which I will link to here and the end of the blog post, is essential reading for any movie goer. At least any movie goer who wants to be an active audience member (and we all are, whether we want to recognize that or not).
Film Crit Hulk’s “HULK EXPLAIN ACTION SCENES”:
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
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Understanding Action
There’s a blogger on the interwebs that goes by the moniker Film Crit Hulk (follow the green guy on Twitter here), who has just completed a three part examination of cinematic action scenes. He’s going to tell you EXACTLY why the state of action filmmaking is in dire straits. Throughout the piece, he describes what makes an action scene work, what doesn’t, and gives examples of great ones, good ones, bad ones, and terrible ones. The write up is in-depth, detailed, long, and incredibly entertaining. It’s scholarly, without feeling like a lecture. It also features special guest Tom Townend, who has shot many films, including the much praised Attack the Block!, which I need to see very, very soon (if I’m to ever stop salivating over the idea).
Folks, film has a language and you understand it inherently, whether you know it or not. Taking that further, each genre is a specific dialect. Directors should be masters of that language. Some in the profession speak it better than others, and some specialize in a dialect which they, in turn, can speak better than others. There’s a reason Transformers: Dark of the Moon is an awful action movie (no really, it is. It destroys things very well, yes. But it is not, objectively, a good action film): Michael Bay simply shouts out his words as loud as he can, hoping everyone will be impressed by his vocal bravado that they won’t notice that what he’s saying doesn’t make any sense, and there’s a reason Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the greats: Steven Spielberg simply speaks the language fluently.
This essay, which I will link to here and the end of the blog post, is essential reading for any movie goer. At least any movie goer who wants to be an active audience member (and we all are, whether we want to recognize that or not).
Film Crit Hulk’s “HULK EXPLAIN ACTION SCENES”:
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
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