You may not be an action movie fan, but you still watch them sometimes. Some are good and exciting start-to-finish, others lose you somewhere along the way, and you can’t figure out what the hell you’re watching anymore. They’re definitely a “hit-or-miss” for most movie-goers. But there are times when a movie is almost certainly going to flop, judging from the promo materials, but when you see it on the big screen, you just can’t look away. Like, who thought that the Jumanji movie with Dwayne Johnson would be so good?
Here are 7 action movies that surprised us all!
1. “Edge of Tomorrow” (2014)
Remember how cool the movie Groundhog Day was? Woah, time loops! Infinite Possibilities! Imagine all that plus weird aliens and Tom Cruise instead of Bill Murray. To put it bluntly, people thought it was going to be a regular Tom Cruise action movie, nothing special. I guess they should have read up on the source material. Edge of Tomorrow was based on an incredible manga – Live. Die. Repeat. And if there’s one thing a mangaka knows how to do is craft a story. In the end, we got one of the best movies of 2014!
2. “Dredd” (2012)
Judge Dredd is an outstanding piece of comic book fiction, and the old movie 1995 with Sly Stallone instantly became a cult classic. So when the news about a reboot hit the streets, everyone immediately jumped on the hate wagon. Turns out, they were dead wrong, because the 2012 version lives on to be one of the most underrated action movies ever.
3. “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015)
George Miller’s old Mad Max trilogy is still considered a cult classic these days. Still, the franchise has never been as popular, as when the Fury Road movie with Tom Hardy hit the theaters in 2015. They used as few CG effects as possible, which gave the movie its gritty, authentic look. Now we foolishly expect other creators to follow Miller’s example, but so far, CGI-heavy films win 10 to 1.
4. “Alita: Battle Angel” (2019)
Remember the entire internet was littered with hateful comments about Alita’s “giant anime eyes”? This was one of the main reasons why people decided not to see this movie. It’s an adaptation of manga and Alita is purposefully drawn differently from regular humans, since she’s an android. In result, Alita got some of the highest scores across the board, from critics and viewers alike. I’ve personally seen it 5 times!
5. “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” (2018)
No-one in the world had faith in this movie. Who could ever imagine that Kevin Hart, Jack Black, The Rock, and Karen Gillan would make a better movie than the original Jumanji with Robin Williams? Somehow they did it and not once but twice! The new Jumanji: The Next Level is just as fun. Go see it!
6. “The Terminator” (1984)
From the creator of “Piranha 2”, James Cameron, came one of the coolest movies of the past century. Yeah, did you know that before filming Terminator with a little-known bodybuilder as the main attraction, Cameron did all sorts of trashy films? The 80-90s were a Wild West of cinematic ideas: anything went, but not everything stuck with the viewers. Luckily, Arnie and James gave us all a hell of a show. No matter how many crappy sequels this franchise will get, we’ll always have T1 and T2.
7. “John Wick” (2014)
The trailers for John Wick showed us a classic run-off-the-mill revenge movie, where Keanu Reeves goes on a rampage because Theon Greyjoy killed his puppy. And while, yes, this was the breaking point for the retired assassin, the action scenes is where this movie shined and sparkled, like a polished diamond. No jump-cuts during the fights, no 50 bullets if one mag, no shaky cam. John Wick started the renaissance of modern action movies, and we can’t wait to see more from that franchise!
