Do you like chase scenes? Do you like battle/fight scenes?

[Thudlow_Boink]

@Cat_Whisperer

That’s part of what drives me a little crazy about modern movies; they make these overblown budget films with billions of dollars worth of special effects of fighting, blowing shit up, and chasing, without checking in with the audience to see if we actually want endless, expensive scenes of fighting, blowing shit up, and chasing. I don’t know what demographic they’re aiming these movies at (I suspect it’s teenage boys), but they seem to have overlooked that us 30 and 40 somethings have money and time, and more sophisticated tastes in movies.

I think part of it is that they’re looking at the worldwide market, and fights, chases, and stuff blowing up real good cross the language barrier better than sophisticated plots and dialog do.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@RealityChuck

I do. Fight scenes are always boring – you usually know who wins (hint: the hero*) and the rest is just wasting screen time. And CGI only makes them even less interesting.

Chase scenes are usually boring, too. There are some exceptions, but, in general, it’s a good time to go out for popcorn.

*The probability of the hero winning approach 1, the nearer it is to the end of the movie.

Yeah, that’s my problem with many fight or chase scenes: nothing’s really at stake, because the outcome is (pre)determined by the needs of the plot. (And, often, the details are determined by the filmmaker’s need to wow the audience and go further over the top than anything the audience has seen before.)

Even when they’re entertaining in themselves, they can really hurt my suspension of disbelief. An example is Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies, in which at least some of the action sequences were like watching someone playing a video game.

[Disgruntled_Penguin]

@CarnalK

Usually has to do with how the scene is shot and edited. Often they cut with such quick camera changes that you can’t see any of the choreography and are just headache inducing but they can be well done and be exciting. Comedic fight scenes can be a blast, like a Jackie Chan one or the one from “Raising Arizona”.

Speaking of Raising Arizona it also had one of the best chase scenes in the movies. It’s the one that starts with the shootout at the convenience store and ends with him recovering the huggies from the road. That was fast paced, tightly shot comedy mayhem right there wrapped up with the classic exchange

Ed McDonnough: I’m not gonna live this way, Hi! It just ain’t family life!
H.I.: Well… it ain’t “Ozzie and Harriet.”