7

I was surprised by a couple of things. Firstly, the plot and dialogue were both a lot worse than I remembered. There are some parts that are pure cheese, and there is just something a bit off about the pacing.

I did notice that it got something right though. The action scenes are filmed very well. I found a couple of clips that maybe show why action films over the past few years have been quite poor

Here is a clip from the A Team movie. The series of extremely fast cuts make it kind of difficult to tell what's going on. All of the shots you see are filmed from a different place and angle, so you can't really visualise where all of these people/objects actually are.

Now compare it to this scene from Tomb Raider. There are still some fast cuts, but also a few slightly longer shots that establish where everything is in the room in each part of the scene. They also don't switch the shots completely, if you look closely you will see that the angles get reused when she is swinging around. When she jumps into the balcony and is being shot at by the guy hanging down on the rope, both of the times you see him shooting are from the exact same angle. This makes it far easier to visualise everything and means you aren't constantly trying to play catch up with what's being thrown at you.

There are scenes in the A Team where you'll see two people talking in a helicopter, for example, and it will use different shots every time it cuts between the actors. Why? Is there some kind of contest going on with action directors where they're trying to make the film as unwatchable as possible?

I was surprised by a couple of things. Firstly, the plot and dialogue were both a lot worse than I remembered. There are some parts that are pure cheese, and there is just something a bit *off* about the pacing. I did notice that it got something right though. The action scenes are filmed very well. I found a couple of clips that maybe show why action films over the past few years have been quite poor [Here is a clip from the A Team movie](https://youtube.com/watch?v=_ia3xfBh5Pc). The series of extremely fast cuts make it kind of difficult to tell what's going on. All of the shots you see are filmed from a different place and angle, so you can't really visualise where all of these people/objects actually are. Now compare it to [this scene from Tomb Raider.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=QhDRkf_XGVw) There are still some fast cuts, but also a few slightly longer shots that establish where everything is in the room in each part of the scene. They also don't switch the shots completely, if you look closely you will see that the angles get reused when she is swinging around. When she jumps into the balcony and is being shot at by the guy hanging down on the rope, both of the times you see him shooting are from the exact same angle. This makes it far easier to visualise everything and means you aren't constantly trying to play catch up with what's being thrown at you. There are scenes in the A Team where you'll see two people talking in a helicopter, for example, and it will use different shots every time it cuts between the actors. Why? Is there some kind of contest going on with action directors where they're trying to make the film as unwatchable as possible?

2 comments

[–] KillBill 1 points (+1|-0)

I'm a bit of a film snob so I don't see many of the latest Hollywood movies but I know what you mean and think they are trying to manufacture action through the lens rather than set up a good scene through choreography, camera placement and set planning. A lot of one on one fight scenes in particular do this rapid camera switching technique and its highly annoying. It reminds me of comic book pages trannslated to film. All they need to do is add the zap, pow and bang captions to each frame.

[–] PMYA [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

The only action films I've really enjoyed over the past few years have been the John Wick films. They don't really have much going for them plot wise but the action scenes are done very well, particularly in the first one.

But yeah I agree, it's like they're trying to tell you it's exciting rather than actually making something exciting.