–or do too many popcorn movies turn your brain into popcorn (which in some nutritionally challenged Americans’ case, is the most wholesome “meal” they put in their heads all day.)?
The year 2012 could go down in Hollywood History as the “Year of the Action Movie.” The list can make your head explode; in addition to the zillion of explosions in: “The Avengers,” “GI Joe Retaliation,” “Bullet to the Head,” “Sgt. Rock”, “Dredd,” and “Expendables 2.”
Obviously, action flicks keep being made because they bring in the bucks at the box office. There are exceptions, like Disney’s dog of a movie “John Carter;” where the most action occurred not in this movie but after the movie: the “resignation” of Disney Chairman Rich Ross due to the movie’s non-performance.
- Action packed (L-R): The Avengers, The Expendables 2, John Carter, and G.I. Joe Retaliation
But when is all this action too much? When is“fast,” as in fast edits, fast bullets, fast cars and fast girls, too fast? When all these movies do is hit the “sweet spot” of “shock and awe,” does all this sweetness cause a new disease called “brain diabetes?” And, like real diabetes, do parts of the brain atrophy and die because they are no longer in use anymore—especially when they digest a constant diet of these movies! How can action filmmakers make their “BOOMS!!” louder and their fires bigger when they’re already LOUD and BIG? Because these films reuse the same “action template” (girl and/or planet in trouble, save the girl and/or planet) and forgettable dialogue (anyone quote “Transformers” around the water cooler lately?), will the sensory overloaded audience dry up?
Of course, when stories fail, gimmicks (i.e. 3-D glasses) are developed.
Maybe the movie industry will introduce a candy called, “Action Pop Rocks.” And, whenever explosions on-screen occur, the movie-goer downs a mouthful of “Action Pop Rocks.” Voila! The candy makes the viewer feel the same explosions in their body as the character on screen is feeling.
Then again, when the male hetero audience sees sexified Scarlett Johanssen in a body suit (as in “Avengers”), true “explosions” later occur in, ahem, the privacy of their home.