Why is action so pleasing?
An action movie is a very popular type of movie due to its sequences of high intensity. People love to watch it due to the excitement and adrenaline they get from these high intensity scenes. Due to these high intensity scenes and stunts, action movies usually cost a lot of money to make and are made on a high budget. For example, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides officially holds the record for largest budget with a budget of $378.5 million Action movies usually are targeted towards people ages 15-40 due to the adrenaline boost gained from watching these movies.
Action conventions- content
The content usually seen in action movies are scenes where there is a lot of high intensity action going on, like car chases. These car chases usually involve high speed and many obstacles like trucks and other cars in the way that the drivers have to dodge. Moreover, there is usually a lot of violence whether it be hand to hand combat, swords, guns or sometimes even superpowers. These scenes of combat can involve one person or many and is present at various times throughout the movie. These films tend to showcase extraordinary feats that may seem a little unrealistic, but when watching these films audience members must suspend reality in some form. These scenes tend to have audiences on the edge of their seat and make their adrenaline pump.Typically toward the end, there is at least one scenes where it seems like all hope is lost for the one or multiple protagonists and it seems like they are definitely going to lose. This scene called a showdown scene is where the main character is fighting the antagonist with all the marbles on the table. This scene is usually towards the end of the movie and the protagonist is at some disadvantage and has to overcome tremendous odds to defeat the antagonist sometimes with help of partners and sometimes alone. The action movies can take place virtually anywhere and at anytime. Some action movies take place in the past, some in the present and some in the future. The kind of equipment the characters use is a product of when and where the movie is meant to take place.
Action conventions- Production techniques
There are many types of production techniques used in action movies. Usually there are many high speed camera close ups to document the all the action up close. The lighting varies in action movies, some directors use darker lightning if the setting is meant to be darker, while other directors use a more lighted set to document all the action happening. The setting of most action movies are in major cities like New York. This is mainly due to the fact that big cities have more people, so the stakes for the protagonist is higher. Moreover, many times there are close up of the protagonists face to show the emotions on their face. Quick cuts are also used to show multiple angles of the action going on and to create more of a high paced energy. The soundtrack in action movies also have the purpose of keeping the high energy and the music reflects that by usually being up tempo and exciting, designed to get adrenaline boosting.
Institutional conventions
Action movies are marketed through advertisements which usually document parts of the high intensity action sequences like car chases, sword fights or gun fights. These advertisements are intended to give small boosts of adrenaline. They are meant to introduce characters while not delving too deep into the storyline. The movie posters usually have the main character depicted with some weapon and fire, lightning or other chaos in the background. Action movies have a relatively wide audience so these commercials run between many programs like sports or other TV shows. Moreover, the action movies that have bigger budgets market their ads on websites like Youtube to gain recognition and interest for their movie.
Film Sample #1
The Dark Knight(2008)
The Dark Knight, a film by Christopher Nolan made in 2008 follows the story arc of Bruce Wayne otherwise known as Batman(Christian Bale). Batman is psychologically and mentally challenged by the popular villain known as Joker(Heath Ledger). The Joker goes onto many exploits simply to cause chaos, while Batman tries to chase him. He makes Batman choose between his love interest Rachel(Maggie Gyllenhaal) and the incorruptible lawyer Harvey Dent(Aaron Eckhart). Batman only gets to Harvey in time and Rachel gets killed. Joker then proceeds to warn people that he is going to blow up a hospital, so everyone is evacuated and Joker proceeds to turn Harvey Dent into the villain known as two-face. Joker then plants 2 bombs on two different ships, one with civilians and one with prisoners and says one has to blow the other one up before 12 or both will be blown up. Batman catches Joker before 12 and none of the ships chose to blow up the other meaning Joker underestimated the morality of the people of Gotham. All the while Two face is killing people and Joker says Gotham will be toast when its people learn that the man who was incorruptible became corrupt. Batman catches up to Two face and knocks him off a height and kills him. He tells Commissioner Gordon to blame him for Two face's death and all the people he killed so Gotham still has hope and runs off with cops chasing him. This action movie uses less lighting to portray the Batman as a mysterious figure. There are various action sequences included a chase where Batman is on his Batmobile and cannot go through with running over the Joker because he would be immoral. Other action sequences involve Batman having to fight Joker and his goons multiple times throughout the movie as well as other action sequences where Joker kills some criminals and he blows up a hospital and he blows up Rachel. There are various intense sequences accompanied by fast paced music. The movie poster depicts Batman with his best weapon, his fists, and the chaos going on behind him which was caused by the Joker.
Iron Man 2(2010)
Iron man 2 follows the story of Tony Stark(Robert Downey Jr.) who is a billionaire with a high-tech armor known to make him Iron man. In Russia, after people find out that Tony Stark is Iron Man, Ivan Vanko(Mickey Rourke) starts working on an arc reactor similar to what powers Tony's suit. He does this because years ago Howard Stark and Anton Vanko both worked on an arc reactor and Anton wanted to sell it, so Howard had him deported to Russia, where they sent him to a labor camp. Iron Man is facing pressure from the government to give up his suit for national defense but Tony refuses. Later, Tony is competing at Monaco Grand Prix where midway through the race Vanko deploys his suit that had electrical whips. Stark's assistant Pepper Potts(Gwyneth Paltrow) gets his suit to Tony in time to defeat Vanko and Vanko goes to prison. Tony is suffering from palladium poisoning due to his arc reactor so he gives Stark industries to his assistant Pepper and hires an assistant named Natasha(Scarlett Johansson). Justin Hammer(Sam Rockwell) was the CEO of Hammer Industries and he breaks Ivan Vanko out of prison to help him design his own suit of armors. Tony, thinking its his last birthday due to the palladium poisoning gets very drunk and fights with his best friend Colonel James Rhodes(Don Cheadle) who uses one of Starks prototype suits. Nick Fury, a director of SHIELD, an undercover agency, tells Tony that his new assistant Natasha is an agent for SHIELD. Tony then finds a new element his father had left behind and uses it to create a new arc reactor that does not give him palladium poisoning. At an Expo, Justin Hammer unveils his new armored drones, but Ivan Vanko hacks into them and into Rhodes's armor and they all attack Tony. Meanwhile Natasha defeats all of Ivan's guards and stops the hack. Ivan gets into his own suit to go confront Tony and Rhodes. Initially they struggle, but they come together for a blast that kills Ivan Vanko. There are many action elements in this film. First, the fight between Ivan Vanko and Stark at Monaco depicts cars being sliced in half and electrical overcharge. Later, Tony and Rhodes fighting at his birthday depicts many blasts that leads to them being unconscious. In the last battle, there are three major action sequences. The first is Natasha defeating many guards in hand to hand combat and stopping the hack. Second is Tony having to destroy the drones with Rhodes being hacked to kill him. There is a lot of blasting and a high speed chase in suits Third is the final action sequence between Ivan Vanko in his suit and Rhodes and Tony in their which has a lot of blasts and electricity and is filled with high intensity. This movie has more lighting because Iron Man is not meant to be a very dark character. The movie poster has the villain at the center, with fire and chaos behind him, while the protagonists are on the upper half with their weapons, the armored suits.
Other Action films
