Action Movie Conventions and Cliches

Action Movie Conventions and Cliches

Cliches:

Every single action films will have explosions in - it's like a tradition, but what else does your typical action film consist of? Well you'll usually see fight sequences every 10 minutes of the film or the protagonist climbing a building in the big city or rocks in the deserts of Utah, like in mission impossible. Films like "The Expendables" and "Mission Impossible" seem to of crammed in almost every action movie cliche and convention possible. In your typical action movie, the protagonists are usually ex-military/mercenaries who assemble to pull of what seems to be a suicidal mission to hunt down and kill some crazed Russian or an eastern European in which they end up in an intense car chase in the big city and end up causing massive destruction, the police get involved, but are run down by the antagonists army, both sides have high tech gear but even each other out and it's normally down to who has the biggest guns will win the battle.

Other times in action movies it is in fact only one main protagonist and antagonist who normally has a sidekick who has no mercy and their duty is to basically kill the protagonist so they can rule whatever it is their trying to rule, and because their to lazy to do it themselves, it's usually a country or something they are trying to rule and in these films the police somehow have no power whatsoever. There always seems to be a motive as to killing the good guy or the bad guy in these films, whether it's because their a danger to society, which it usually is, or because ones crazed with power and need to take out anyone who stands in their way.

The background music is always fast and upbeat just to keep the feel of excitement, although, action films have become so repetitive that we can almost always tell what is going to happen next - when there is a quiet scene, a load of guys with sub machine guns blasts through the windows and another battle commences.

Conventions:

The action genre is a very popular genre which primarily appeals to the young male audience. In these action films we'd expect to see certain things - guns, violence, dangerous missions and of course, a lot of explosions. Like a lot of genres we will also expect the films to have a main protagonist(s) and Antagonist, whether it is a war or someone trying to take over the world we will always expect there to be a battle between good and evil. 

Fans of the genre often become very loyal to franchises like Iron Man and (Sci-Fi Action) Star Wars and the reason for this is because they will almost always leave a cliffhanger at the end or introduce us to a new threat which will leave viewers hooked and hyped for the next film to come out. These films also manage to keep the audience entertained throughout the films by making sure there are no 'dull' moments in the films and as the audience we will expect (especially from an action film) for there to be a lot of action, and never a dull moment, something always has to be happening, there is always a build up to something and that is what keeps us all entertained for hours.

Another way in which Action films are able to keep a strong following, is by using unique selling points like huge action films stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Liam Neeson, these actors are very popular in the Action/Thriller genres and would be a huge selling point for any hardcore action film fan.

In the opening two minutes of an action film you would expect to see the main protagonist and sometimes even the antagonist but that rarely happens, but you would expect to see the protagonist either on a solo mission or with other people, however this is depending on the time setting of the film, if it is set in past ages like Gladiator, you may expect to see warriors preparing for battle or being seen in the aftermath of a battle.