Probably many domestic audiences are known to Scott Atkins because of Wu Jing's "Wolf Warrior" series, in fact, this British action star was known to action movie fans in the early years because of the tough villain in the "Ultimate Fighter" series.
I thought that playing "Wolf Warrior" would allow him to run from time to time, and successive appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "Doctor Strange" and "Avengers 4" could at least brush him some popularity, plus "Accidental Killer" and "Ip Man 4: The End", one positive and one negative character modeling, it seems that there should be a bit of transfer meaning.
Facts have proved that the old friends of domestic audiences and the old rivals of wolves still have a fondness for small and medium-cost action movies.
Today's action movies have long been separated from the simple fist to flesh, realistic fighting category, multi-element fusion of large-scale production and play to the extreme of stylization, is its only way out.
"Mission Impossible" and "Fast and Furious", which come to harvest the box office every few years, not only maintain the high popularity of Brother Atang and the "Quick Thrill Family", but also lead the new fashion of a new generation of action blockbusters.
As for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which integrates action elements more thoroughly, it has become the most powerful printing machine in Hollywood and the most honorable guest of the Oscars.
Or, like Keanu Reeves, take the dazzling gun fights and gymnastics to the extreme, and use the scene design and camera language to the extreme, creating a more exciting visual presence than action games.
Action movies that are simply brave and fierce and do not obey have long been unflusive, but as Scott Arkins said, red action stars still have to live.
Therefore, from "Debt Collector" to "Gunfire Is Coming", from "Decisive Battle in Another World" to "Triple Threat Transnational Rescue", from "Spy Sea Danger" to today's "Countdown To Chase The Soul", Akins tried various elements and various styles of action movies, and finally could not get out of the curse of bad films.
It's not that Akins doesn't work hard, it's that he's always repeating, repeating, repeating, The old routine of the 1980s and 1990s left the entire film with nothing new to say, and the sandwich cookie-style plot and the fragile character motivations became the only driving force for low-budget action movies.
I admit that today's audience is really quite picky, purely rushing to the small and medium-cost action films, has long been difficult to enter the eyes of most audiences, not only Hollywood and other European and American film circles have encountered this problem, the same is true in China.
After the release of "Ip Man 4", since the media circle a burst of "after Ip Man, there is no ip man" lament, talking about the kung fu-based domestic action film, it seems to have come to an end.
Even if this year's National Day file, Jackie Chan Tang Jili once again joined hands, relying on the commercial combination of old action superstar + new transformation traffic of "Vanguard", and finally did not copy the box office miracle of "Kung Fu Yoga".
The new film "Countdown" helmed by "Ultimate Fighter 4" director Isaac Florentin, tried to repack the concept of "black eating black", and linked the escalation of the single-line plot with father-son affection and violence, trying to bring some freshness to the audience.
However, "Countdown" still can't go out of the "three axes" of old-school action movies, adding several layers of personal heroism of the protagonist's aura, as well as particularly dense battle scenes, which have long been unable to arouse enough excitement from the audience: with that spare time, it is better to come to two rounds of "Call of Duty" and "PUBG".
Today, when freshness and excitement are the only measures of action movies, unless you can arouse the excitement of the audience (such as "Wolf Warrior 2") through exquisite combat design and specific empathy, there is a good chance that the audience will be eliminated without mercy.
This point, Akins should be very clear, perhaps he continues to star in low-cost action bad movies, there are always some reasons for involuntary, but the times have changed, let those old routines, follow the wind of the times.