Can a great action movie have both a good story and lots of action?
Because if you have a great story, it requires more focus and sacrifices action.
But if you have lots of action, it sacrifices story.
The Raid 2 has gotten an arsenal of excellent reviews (Well-deserved by the way), but at the same time got its criticisms for the story bloating the running time. Now I can respect other people’s opinions, but then there were the negative reviews against the original for not having enough of a story. So what do we want, really? The Raid 2 has a lower rating in Rotten Tomatoes than the original, even though it supposedly fixed what was lacking in the original installment!
So is there any way for the true perfect action film to have an excellent story as well? Can a movie that spends half the time displaying carnage craft a good story? Can a middle ground even exist in crafting the perfect action film? After all, if a movie is 50/50 with action/story, then it leaves no chance for the action to potentially occupy 75% maybe 80% of the film---much like what happened in The Raid.
The Raid 2 realized that in order to achieve the decent story and still provide the same amount of mayhem the movie needs to be much longer. So surely enough, The Raid 2 was 150 minutes, with the action being scattered around between scenes that move the plot. Of course, the final half an hour was pure adrenaline but leading up to it we had an actual script, with actual dialogue, and actual conversations…and believe it or not, character development! However, it still got some slack for being too long. Huh?
Let’s compare The Raid 2 to what is the greatest action movie of all-time: Die Hard. What makes Die Hard the ultimate action film? Well, it has incredible odds, excellent characters, an engaging story, a great hero, plenty of tension, plenty of the essential action, and of course a delightful villain that is just as entertaining to watch. But here’s the thing: it is 131 minutes and has about a quarter of the action of The Raid 2. As a matter of fact none of the violence happens until about 20-30 minutes in. Nonetheless, I’d be a fool to say The Raid 2 is better than Die Hard even though the latter film has more action and does a better job with it.
So what is it?
Well, after observing through what I consider to be the best action films around (Die Hard, Saving Private Ryan, The Matrix), the best way to create the perfect action movie is to make the story much more prevalent and more dominant, but make the action heavy and make it count at the same time. No weak scenes whatsoever, since you have less time to work with. It is much harder for a movie with a weak story and heavy action to make an impact than a movie with a great story and less action.
The Raid 2 and Legend of Drunken Master are arguably now the two greatest action movies in history that contains a story that isn’t as memorable. Honestly, what is the name of the main character in Drunken Master? Anyone remember? And when the action is the strongest quality, film pundits and critics won’t be as receptive, no matter how incredibly awesome it might be. It is indeed unfair, but that’s the cinema life. Just one of those things---like a science fiction movie never, ever, ever going to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
A good story enhances the action of the product like a good pizza topping. The Matrix had its very complex steampunk-inspired universe of the world not being real. Saving Private Ryan is the ultimate against-all-odds war movie whose intense action is supplemented by the ragtag group of soldiers risking their life for someone they don’t even know. Raiders of the Lost Ark can be considered an adventure movie, but nonetheless has a classic hero fighting a classic movie villain known as Nazis. All three have their classic action moments, but with a great tale and great stakes plastered up against it they become legendary. Odds are The Raid 2’s final 30 minutes despite being an overwhelming amount of adrenaline, will not have the same impact as the infamous opening sequence in Saving Private Ryan. It just won’t.
The Raid 2 is probably the most complete action movie of all-time in terms of quality and content. It has the storyline. It has the character to root for. And most importantly, it has the plethora of action that will convince you to revisit over and over again. Can I please remind you all how the final 30 minutes MUST be watched by everyone? But it’s just inches away from being perfect because the story doesn’t have the same impact as your greatest works of action. It attempted perfection by going through the tougher route---through the quality of the fights, chases, and shootouts. There’s no such thing as a perfect mindless action movie, simply because the mindless part will prevent it from being something more, prevents it from going to the next level. And critics, no matter how blown away they are by the action, won't admit any of it if the script isn't to their liking. Its just one of those things.
But if the story matched the mayhem in terms of quality, then we would be having a very different conversation today.
Someone give a Tarantino script to Gareth Evans.
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