The Pointlessness of Stock Action Films
The Expendables. The Fast and Furious Franchise. Chances are, you’ve probably seen the garbage that seems to be produced regularly and consistently. Recently, I watched Fast and Furious 7 to ready myself for the next installment, the Fate of the Fast and Furious. Before, I had also seen movies such as Mechanic: Ressurection and Transformers. And I noticed that there were several intriguing similarities between not just those two mvies, but pretty much all of the trash that is pumped out regularly. It seems as if there are some actors, such as Vin Diesel or the Rock, that are just tailor-made for these movies. Yet, they still entertain people and generate a healthy sum of money in the box-office, so why should we hate them? Well, as the title would suggest, they’re absolutely pointless. They should not exist, and it is a serious problem in the film industry for us to allow them to exist.
Let’s look at a stock action film, such as Furious 7. The inherent problem with movies of this caliber are the fact that they are so easily replacable, since all action films have the same underlying problems. Furious 7 was riddled with an intentionally, so-bad-it’s-funny script, characters whom we aren’t invested in, and an overall stupid plot and subplots. Especially the subplots. Slathered all over the movie like too much melted butter. The main problem with the subplots is that it never gives the film any time to actually develop the characters or a coherent plot, for that matter. But that’s not all. The characters in seemingly all of these action movies are just stone-faced, muscle-showing, tattoo-covered men who run, jump, scream, shout, shoot, and fight. Fight, fight, fight, for the span of 2 hours. While watching these movies, you truly do get the sense that these are made for people with the IQ of under 50. They have all the defining characteristics: with all their awful writing and terrible direction, they’re stupid; with the bland cinemetography and CGI, they’re visually repulsive; with all the lousy characters, along with stale acting, they’re heartless; with the poor writing, they provide droll humour. And, since it’s in Hollywood, the studio which, once it finds a profitable movie, will take the idea and run it to the ground, and thus these movies are soulless as well.
So what’s the appeal of these movies? How are these movies able to create franchises that consistently pump out films and receive millions of dollars back? Well, it’s quite simple: stupid, overall harmless fun. It seems as if people will yield millions of dollars just to experience the sound of gunfire, witness the adrenaline and quick pace of these movies, and to be fair, they may be right; the experience is very enjoyable. In fact, this has become a rather common excuse that fans of these movies say whenever one calls them out. But for every Fast and Furious, there is an Expendables. For every Mechanic movie, there is… you get the point. As you watch all these movies, you realize that they’re all the same. Never mind the different plots, when it all boils down, it’s pretty clear that all of these movies monotonous crap, pumped out by Hollywood because, hey, it’s easy money. And it’s not just the films themselves; it’s what they stand for. The fact that these films have been collecting huge box office numbers just shows that you don’t need creativity, you just need women posing as eye candy, decent special effects, some ripped person (notice how I didn’t say actor, because it’s not like your cast needs much talent), and really, really bad one-liners.
These films aren’t just interchangeable amongst themselves, the sad truth is that there are much, much better films out there. If you want magnificent gunplay, don’t watch Mechanic, watch John Wick; if you want adrenaline-charged fistfights, watch Captain America: The Winter Soldier; if you want great car chases, don’t pay attention to the regularly-released Fast and Furious, watch the Bourne trilogy; if you want to see daring stunts, watch Ghost Protocol or Rogue Nation. All of those movies have great direction, a talented cast, a well-written plot, and overall, a soul. In conclusion, these films have absolutely no reason to exist. They are completely replaceable. The fact that Hollywood is still pumping out this crap and people are still flock to the theaters to watch it shows the clear flaws of the film industry.
So, please, stop watching and funding this crap.
