Speaking to
ET about
The Tomb (2013) alongside
Schwarzenegger,
Sylvester Stallone pseudo-lamented the fact that the action movie genre is seemingly being replaced by superheroes. Have the likes of
John McClane,
Rocky Balboa and
The Terminator indeed been replaced by
Batman,
Captain America and
The Hulk? Said
Stallone on the prospect---
"This genre unfortunately is becoming… let's just say it's fading away. "You have the superheroes today which are possessed with all extraordinary powers; they can blink and a fireball comes out of there. It's great. And then you have a bunch of us which is just your basic male-pattern badness. … Kind of like hands-on action."
While
Stallone,
Willis and
Arnold are still making movies today, they aren't making them the same way they did once upon a time. Even when they're continuations of the same film series, it's obvious that
Live Free or Die Hard (2007) is not the same type of movie as the original
Die Hard (1988. Even
Rocky Balboa (2006) tried and failed to capture the same aesthetics and tone of
Rocky (1976) and I'm sure the same will probably occur with
Total Recall (2012). By no means am I saying this shift is evil but the action films of the past had a certain ability to get the testosterone flowing that just isn't matched today. It's part of an industry-wide trend that I feel was summed up quite succinctly by
Meryl Streep recently --- [Source:
CBS viaFilmDrunk]
Oh I don’t see those (comic book movies). That’s called the narrowing of the audience. The movie business has worked assiduously to discourage intelligent, discerning people, FROM the theater. They have worked hard to get rid of you, because you don’t go and then buy toys and games.
Be honest, there's far more
Ghost Riders(2007) and
Fantastic Fours (2005) out there than there are
Avengers (2012) or
Batman Begins (2005). And while all of the past action movies were far from cinematic masterpieces I'd take the worst 80's action flick over the worst superhero movie any day. Obviously I don't have to prove that I'm a major supporter of comic book movies but if you've watched movies for the last 20+ years like me, you'd have to be blind to not notice the shift in who and what the movie industry targets. Often times it appears that the movie is merely a speed-bump on the way to merchandising. There are no
Cobras (1986) or
Predators (1987) being made today. The closest we've come in recent memory was
Drive (2011) from
Nicolas Winding Refn and while that's a fantastic film, even that had the synthesized feel of the 21st century. Unfortunately, it's hard to pinpoint one moment or aspect of film-making which led to the current state of the action genre. All I can say is that it's not the same and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, I sure do miss the old days.