As one of the most iconic action movie stars of the century, Matt Damon returned to the big screen this week to play Jason Bourne in Jason Bourne. This is the fourth time he has played the forgetful super spy since the Bourne Identity in 2002. Few action stars are as important to this type of film as Damon and his creation.
When we enter the new millennium, action movies are still in the Bruckheimer era, full of endless fake versions of die hard. Those elderly muscle men continue to make movies, but the returns are getting less and less. In a few years, with the occurrence of 9 / 11, the situation has changed greatly. Although it was accidental (the film was shot before 9 / 11), Jason Bourne appeared at the perfect time, a new action hero of a new era.
With the development of the spy 2 series, action films are also developing – for example, the instinctive and realistic quality of spy 2 has been extended to the James Bond series, and a similar tone has been applied to almost all other series. The big action heroes are no longer Arnie, sley and Bruce Willis, but Charlize Theron, Emily Bronte and Zhang Ziyi.
Now “spy film” is back. We think this is the best time to re-examine the recent history of this type of film, so we expanded the original list and selected the three best action films since 2000. It shows a healthy film genre, although there is still room for improvement – for example, there are still very few movie reviews directed by women, although we hope people like Patty Jenkins and EVA de Jolie can change this situation in the next few years.
Look at our choices and tell us your favorite in the movie review. If you want more recommendations, see our best foreign language, animation and science fiction movie reviews.
Avatar (2009)
James Cameron has many characteristics: a madman, a genius, richer than many countries. I don’t know that people are not as interested in deep-sea diving as he is. But first of all, he is a great action director. His works in the terminator and aliens are still close to the peak of the genre, not to mention his later works. Considering that avatar is the highest box office film in history, its impact on pop culture may be surprisingly slight, but in the implementation of action scenes, it follows Cameron’s usual standards. Earlier scene control, but it is the last third of the film that occupies the most epic battle, like the Nami invaders, which is the most unforgettable moment: in the multi-level struggle, Cameron has always been exciting, creative, and, crucially, geographically clear. This is an unusual future war, unlike what people used to see in blockbusters.
“Direct shipping” (2014)
Among all the gray haired action hero movies we can choose with Liam Neeson as the protagonist (in fact, this is a very popular subtype today), it seems counterintuitive to choose this thriller about the danger story on the plane with Jaume collet Serra as the protagonist. The film is more about the twists and turns of the pleasant weightless suspense plot than depicting the faces of unknown ethnic traffickers, but it does have enough fights, explosions, gunfights and high concept stimuli to deserve the label of “action”. It is also happy to realize its stupidity, which is in sharp contrast to the cold, annoying and right-wing self seriousness of Hurricane take and its similar works. This may be why it attracts such a mass casting (Julian Moore, rush McNairy, coristol, Michelle dakori, Lupita nyong rumor, Nate Parker) it seems that everyone has a good time to reflect Liam Nison’s immovable objects, most of which seem to fill about 90% of the aircraft cabin, and it happens almost completely.
“Black hat” (2015)
The most failed film so far in 2015 is also one of the best action films in a while. Michael Mann’s controversial technology thriller has just eclipsed Miami Vice on the list (collaborative and public enemies also have some amazing scenes, but we won’t classify them as “actions” in the same way), But in fact, the two films are consistent to some extent: both are advancing action, shot almost entirely at a gorgeous night, where romance is as important as bullet flight. In our opinion, the black hat hacker named Hathaway played by Chris Hemsworth (this sentence should be one of Ron Burgundy’s warm-up films) won this honor for working with China to kill a mysterious figure leading to the nuclear leak. Mann has further promoted an action film expressionism than ever before, driven by emotion, atmosphere and sound, and the result is brilliant.
