After the release of The Dark Knight Rises many people would probably be discussing the performances of the actors or the potential themes that the movie was going for. This is in contradiction to what many of us are usually excited to see when those trailers come rolling around, the action scenes.
Yes the action scenes, those moments where that pump the adrenaline through our system, make us question if anyone is going to die, and of course show off the general awesomeness of our heroes. So today let's celebrate these incredible moments by counting down my top 10 action scenes in superhero movies.
Before we move on to the list, let me clarify exactly how I arranged this list. First and most importantly these are movies that I've seen and all my choices are my opinion. If you disagree then politely comment on it in the comments section about what you feel should be on the list. Second, I'm only doing one action scene per movie. This way the list won't be filled with all Avengers or what not. I may include multiple scenes in a single series as long as two aren't from the same movie. Lastly this is not a list about fight scenes necessarilly. There are fight scenes in the list but action scenes involve the hero using his/her physical and mental abilities when one or more lives are at risk of dying (even this isn't entirely the case but it's what I'm going by for this list).
With that said let's begin the list with...
10) AIRPLANE CATCH- SUPERMAN RETURNS
Now this is what I was thinking of when I said that action scenes didn't need to involve actual fighting. In this scene we see a plane being dragged by a space shuttle (don't ask just roll with it) and eventually causes it to fall from the sky, with Lois Lane as one of the passengers of course. It's up to Superman to fly in and save the day.
While there's a lot of bad blood when it comes to this movie in the fanboy community, one thing that can't be denied is the awesomeness of this scene. In fact many of those who continue to bad mouth this movie probably thought it was going to be pretty awesome after this moment. The main thing it does right is how it solves the problem of Superman being too powerful, in that now he's in a more realistic world. What this means is he can't grab the wing and fly off since it would break off. So the scene sees Superman using all of his powers as he attempts to find the sweet spot on the plane in order to land it safely, and on a baseball diamond to heighten the awesomeness.
There are some issues here in that Lois is flying around the cabin (really should have ended up as a blood puddle) and it is the first moment where we see the costume they went with if your one of those people who didn't like it, but other than that this is an amazing introduction to one of the greatest superheroes ever.
9) BLADE VS. NOMAD- BLADE 2
Well of course I can't have a list of greatest action scenes without including at least one from the Blade franchise, but to be honest this is the only action scene in the series that actually stands out. The other fights are either those times where he easily takes on a group of henchman vampires while showing off his best Matrix moves or when he's fighting an enemy who's in everyway superior to him and he needs to use a Macguffin (look it up) in order to win the day.
This fight on the otherhand is different both on an emotional level and strategic level. It's emotional in that their essentially the same characters. Think about it, their both vampires with some form of immunity that rebel against the rest of their kind. Also in terms of strategy Blade's up against an opponent who's in every physical sense superior yet Nomad still has a glaring weakness in the form of the sun (though this doesn't factor in the second fight) and that Blade has all the gadgets along with the superior fighting skill. It's a finale fight that they let Blade win because he's genuinely awesome, and not because the writers were lazy at this point.
8) THE LAST STAND- X-MEN THE LAST STAND
Again this is a movie that tends to have a mixed reaction among fans, but you can't deny that the last big action scene is pretty awesome. Here we have our heroes proudly standing tall against Magneto's army of mutants as they fight for what their mentor, Charles, stood for.
Not only does it seem epic just from listening to it but the film crew out did themselves to make it just as awesome as it sounds. They get rather creative with not only how the X-men and Brotherhood operate as their respective teams but they even manage to get inventive with the powers on the lower level mutants running around. Top it off with the most quoted line ever from one Juggernaut (I won't say it as I'm not a tool) and an emotional conclusion to this great trilogy and you have our number 8 for the list.
7) SPIDER-MAN AND NEW GOBLIN VS SANDMAN AND VENOM- SPIDER-MAN 3
Yes I know I'm choosing quite a few scenes from movies everyone seems to hate but at least it's just at the bottom of the list. So the scene works like this, Sandman and Venom creatively decide to capture Mary Jane in order to lure Spider-man into an epic fight in a construction site. While the fight starts out in the favor of the villains, eventually a reformed Harry comes in to give his buddy a hand. What results is another moment of all around awesomeness.
What definitally helps this fight is the fact that Venom is featured the most here and again they do have some fun figuring out how to take on a villain like Sandman. It's not talked about a lot from what I see since this is after many stupid moments but it's still an incredible action sequence.
6) IRON MAN VS IRON MONGER- IRON MAN
Being the first of the movies from Marvel Studios, it shocked everyone with just how all around good it was. One thing this movie brought us was an epic robot suit vs robot suit fight towards the end of the movie.
Think of this as a fight in a Transformers movie but without shaky cam or racist robots. The fight utilizes some cool weaponry for these mech suits of death as they battle all over the city. It even includes a moment where the love interest gets to help out. In other words awesome.
5) WALL STREET BRAWL- THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
The nice thing about waiting this long to do a list like this is that I can include action scenes from three of the biggest superhero movies of the summer. Let me give you the details, it starts off with the Bane's mercenaries gathered outside of a stock exchange building when a group of the remaining Gotham citizens come in in a full on sprint while Bane aims his cannons at them. All of a sudden Batman flies in with the Bat to disable the cannons. From there it's a full on brawl in the streets of a once peaceful city. This is also where we get our second fight between Batman and Bane. Top it off with a nice little twist and a chase through Gotham with all of Fox's vehicles and you've got one exciting scene.
I would mention some issues I had with this scene but those enter spoiler territory and it doesn't really have to do with the awesome of the action at hand. In case you didn't think Nolan could direct a good action sequence, here's exhibit A.
4) TRAIN FIGHT/SCHOOL FIGHT- SPIDER-MAN 2/THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
I know it's kind of cheating to include both of these scenes in the same category but I honestly couldn't pick. Any time I figured there was one scene that excelled then I saw something in the other one that was just as awesome. So let's go over the info.
First in Spider-man 2, Spider-man encounters Doc Ock shortly after regaining his powers. The insuing fight eventually continues onto a passing train chock full of innocent pedestrians for Ock to endanger and Spidey to save. This scene really shows off what Spidey's capable of as it continues to up the ante without feeling like it's trying to rush.
Second in The Amazing Spider-man, Lizard discovers Spidey's true identity and attempts to attack him at his high school. The resulting fight again includes a lovely test of the abilities of our favorite wall-crawler but also manages to give the love interest a smart moment (rare in these movies) and include the most awesome Stan Lee cameo ever.
Whichever one you consider the better action scene, it's guaranteed to be epic.
3) BOAT SCENE- THE DARK KNIGHT
Here's an example of how an action scene can be incredible just from the concept in mind. In this scene Joker holds two ships hostage telling the passengers to blow up the other ship before a certain amount of time or he'll blow them both up. When Batman and the GPD discover where Joker's men are held up, the stage is set for a decent action sequence...or does it? As it turns out the hostages that the Joker has with him are disguised as his own men while his men are disguised as hostages. Batman discovers this and can't tell them so he's forced to fight off both the SWAT team and the Joker's goons as he works his way up to stop the Joker's twisted game (that could end literally any second).
It just leaves you on the edge of your seat as it completely messes with you emotions. While I had issues with the constantly moving camera, it's still intense and deserves it's place on my list.
2) HELICARRIER SCENE- THE AVENGERS
Now I know a lot of you are wondering why the one Avengers scene I picked wasn't the Manhattan scene. Well I just thought that this was the bigger challenge for the group, and I'm actually surprised this isn't talked about as much as it should because it's just incredible.
The sequence involves Loki's mind controlled men highjacking the Hellicarrier. What follows is every HOLY $%#@ moment you could possibly hope for. You see an engine breaking meaning Iron Man literally has to climb in to restart it, Captain America going Rambo on us, the first appearance of the Hulk in this movie as he has to be stopped by Thor (did you hear that Hulk vs Thor!), and a decent fight between Black Widow and Hawkeye. Everything I wanted to see from this movie was presented in this action packed scene and it even made the final scene which is praised by so many seem pale by comparison.
Now as I move on to the last choice on the list I must remind you that this is purely my opinion and some (ok many) of you are going to disagree with me on the number one spot. So here I go...
1) SUPERMAN VS KRYPTONIANS- SUPERMAN 2
When I started this list I knew that it had to be included on the list, being the first big budget fight scene in a superhero movie. However as I looked at it again I realized that it had to be at number one. The event begins as Superman has to face against THREE Kryptonians throughout the streets of Metropolis for the fate of the world. while this seems epic on their own they eventually discover Superman's love for the people of Earth so they begin causing utter destruction in order to distract him.
When I saw the ending scene of The Avengers I thought back to this moment in Superman 2, however there was the added benefit that the scene was made in the 70's and done with all practical events. And sure it hasn't aged well but it's cultural impact can't be ignored as well. It's four Supermen duking it out and it's just as epic as it sounds.
So there's my list. Be sure to like if you liked it and comment below on what you think should have been included (be polite please). Also please make suggestions of other lists you'd like to see. See you next time.