While there have been many films that have pulled me into the action genre, few have left me feeling so intensely satisfied as John Woo's Face/Off or the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix. Both had an absolutely poetic understanding of motion and speed, without sacrificing storyline to the need of action. That last part is crucial, because if you make the most amazing action film ever, but it doesn't have a well orchestrated storyline, your film will fail to have the impact you want it to. There are many articles in MFM on writing compelling stories, so I will not focus on that here. (Although, we published an article on that very topic in this very issue, which I would highly recommend you read from William Akers.)
Instead, I will focus on the science of action films that can be gleaned from big budget films and then boil it down to ways that you can have access to these things on a low budget. I'll also bring up some big budget gaffs to show you that, just because Hollywood has the money to do action movies right, doesn't mean that they choose to do so. (You'll notice that, despite the fact that I reference big budget action films a lot, we use screen captures from low-budget action films in this article. This is for two reasons: first, to let you know you can have an effective action movie with no budget and, second, because we couldn't get permission to use screen caps from big budget Hollywood films.)
Now, we are going to be talking about what I would term the “Straight Action” film. This should be differentiated from the “Comic Action” film, as some of the things you should avoid in a “Straight Action” film can be used in a “Comic Action” film. Examples of “Comic Action” films would be True Lies and The Big Hit, where there's usually a comic sidekick and the addition of humor allows a much slower pace to the overall action.
With that said, let's break it down into bite sized chunks:
By and large, love stories slow down the pace of an action movie and will leave your action film running out of steam for no good reason. (This isn't a hard and fast rule, as some action films have used love interests well. The most notable exception to this rule is Mr. & Mrs. Smith. However, like another Anglina Jolie movie, Wanted, you could make the argument that Mr & Mrs. Smith is more about a competition between a guy and a girl than a really strong love story.) The majority of James Bond films as well as Transporter 3 fell victim to this snafu, leaving the audience suddenly enmeshed in a chick flick, as opposed to the action extravaganza they'd paid money for. A way to have a love interest that doesn't slow down your film is to make this be the person the main character is trying to find or someone he/she can impress if he/she completes the tasks of the film. (Obviously, be careful with these last ideas, as they can definitely feel trite if you're not careful.)
Some folks would say to avoid religion and politics in a movie, but I think that goes too far. The Matrix had very heavy religious themes, and it served the plot line well. Additionally, most action movies tend to have a pro-military political theme, which makes perfect sense to them. However, where people get into trouble is when they use an action films as a propaganda machine to rant against issues in action films. The most egregious example of this came from an otherwise fun action film, Shoot 'Em Up, in which the hero essentially hijacks this gunslinging movie to complain about how guns are bad and we should never use them, before finishing the movie up with a big shoot out. No one wants to watch an action movie in which you make them listen to a 20 minute lecture about how bad one of the main elements of action movies is. Not only is it amazingly hypocritical, it slows down the film and sidetracks the energy of the film.
