Movie Action

There are three types of movies in a general sense.  There are movies that intellectually challenge you causing you to think about the characters and situations.  There are movies that are meant to exist if only for fun and enjoyment.  The final group of movies are the ones that attempt one of the first two categories, but fail.  I would put the 2011 version of Conan the Barbarian into the second category, the one where it exists for enjoyment alone, and it succeeds in that sense.

While watching Conan the Barbarian I noticed one thing that made it more enjoyable, in my opinion, than the latter two Bourne movies.  I understood the action.

I’m not trying to knock the Bourne series in any way.  The story that runs throughout that trilogy is probably better than the story that runs through this version of the Conan mythos.  I’m not going to deny that at all.  The problem I have with the Bourne films stems from Paul Greengrass coming in to direct Supremacy and Ultimatum.  They are not bad films but I understood little to none of each action sequence.  His mixture of quick action cutting and shaky cam cinematography didn’t work for me.

Coming full circle, Conan the Barbarian had action that I could follow and fully understand.  I like to be able to see what’s happening and to know who is hitting who.  In many movies that are being released these years, the action is stunted by quick cutting that, although making me feel the panic and mayhem of what is happening, loses my understanding and separates me from knowing who is winning and who is losing.  The struggle of winning and losing is a struggle I prefer over feeling like I’m in a fight over my head.

Movies like Fast Five and Conan the Barbarian this year have helped to assure me that this style of action film making is far from gone.  The action is shown rather than edited.  You see full sequences rather than small snippets before immediately going into other small snippets.  You get to watch the action unfold rather than being thrown into it.  I find it much more enjoyable.

Please don’t take this completely technically accurate.  It’s been a few years since I watched either Bourne Supremacy, or Bourne Ultimatum so I might be remembering slightly incorrectly on that.  It could be exaggerated.  But the way I described it is the way I remember it and that’s what I used to base this whole thing off of.  A comparison between showing action unfold and showing a panicked mind through onscreen editing.

In the end, I would say that it all comes down to personal preference.  I prefer to be able to understand the action that I am watching.  I like to see who is hitting who, what is happening with the car, who is winning and who is losing.  This is, of course, my opinion.  You don’t have to agree with me. What you prefer is what you prefer and I cannot take that away from you.