In my mind the best action movies are the movies where the action shines the most and bad plot doesn’t get in the way. I haven’t seen John Wick which I’ve heard excels in this, but I gotta say I think
Mad Max: Fury Road deserves high praise for being a great movie nearly all about raw action.
Furthermore, we are not in the “2000s” anymore, we’re in the 2020s. We are well into the third decade of this millennium. The 70s, 80s, and 90s do have commonalities in the action movies of each era and I feel like those probably exist for the 00s, 10s, and 20s as well though I can’t identify them yet.
If Fury Road is my favorite of the 10s, then maybe Prey is my favorite of the 20s, and Transformers is my favorite of the 00s.
I know everything I mentioned is part of an established franchise but I don’t care all that much. Good action movies can still be creative using established stakes and framing if they have good direction. All 3 of those movies definitely have that. I thoroughly enjoy and am excited by the action in those movies each time I watch them. Lackluster stories aside they are all awesome.
The 70s, 80s, and 90s do have commonalities in the action movies of each era and I feel like those probably exist for the 00s, 10s, and 20s as well though I can’t identify them yet.
The Noughties saw Wuxia break into western cinema with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and we saw the start of the resurgence of the superhero movie, Blade 2 into Batman Begins and then the start of the MCU with Iron Man.
Also, The Matrix dropped in 1999, so it’s influence really only started to be felt in the 2000s, most obviously with Equilibrium but note generally with an improvement in action choreography across the board (ultimately leading to the John Wick films that pulled in a lot of the ideas and people inspired by The Matrix - Chad Stahelski being a common factor in a lot of the key action movies of the 21st Century).
In my mind the best action movies are the movies where the action shines the most and bad plot doesn’t get in the way. I haven’t seen John Wick which I’ve heard excels in this, but I gotta say I think Mad Max: Fury Road deserves high praise for being a great movie nearly all about raw action.
Furthermore, we are not in the “2000s” anymore, we’re in the 2020s. We are well into the third decade of this millennium. The 70s, 80s, and 90s do have commonalities in the action movies of each era and I feel like those probably exist for the 00s, 10s, and 20s as well though I can’t identify them yet.
If Fury Road is my favorite of the 10s, then maybe Prey is my favorite of the 20s, and Transformers is my favorite of the 00s.
I know everything I mentioned is part of an established franchise but I don’t care all that much. Good action movies can still be creative using established stakes and framing if they have good direction. All 3 of those movies definitely have that. I thoroughly enjoy and am excited by the action in those movies each time I watch them. Lackluster stories aside they are all awesome.
The Noughties saw Wuxia break into western cinema with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and we saw the start of the resurgence of the superhero movie, Blade 2 into Batman Begins and then the start of the MCU with Iron Man.
Also, The Matrix dropped in 1999, so it’s influence really only started to be felt in the 2000s, most obviously with Equilibrium but note generally with an improvement in action choreography across the board (ultimately leading to the John Wick films that pulled in a lot of the ideas and people inspired by The Matrix - Chad Stahelski being a common factor in a lot of the key action movies of the 21st Century).