Why is martial arts movies less popular today?

[Steve]

John Wick isn’t martial arts? Everything, Everywhere, All At Once isnt martial arts? Wakanda Forever isn’t martial arts?

Plenty of martial arts movies.

For the rest, all I can say is I appreciate when folks self identify as idiots. In the old days, people were taught not to advertise their ignorance.

 

[Scotsman]

I think its a few things. I don't think politics is one of them. Because you can have a woman or a person of color as the next martial arts hero, whether or not the movie is "woke" is irrelevant to whether or not it's a martial arts movie.

First, you don't need to be a martial artist to do martial arts in movies anymore. Look at The Matrix movies. Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishbourne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Hugo Weaving are not martial artists. (Keanu Reeves is now, but he really wasn't then). They trained for an extensive amount of time to be able to do those moves.

That's actually a good example, because they did train extensively for the movie. Most movies just have the actors learn a few moves, and then use a combination of shaky cam and quick cuts to make it look good. Lots of movies these days have continuity errors in the fight scenes because of how chopped up, re-shot, and heavily edited they are.

It used to be that in order to put martial arts in a movie, you took martial artists and put them in the movie. But there are more and more tricks to make people look like martial artists when they really don't know what they're doing. Especially in a big-budget movie.

That's the second thing. Budget. There are no mid-budget movies anymore. Movie studios only really produce two types of movies: mega blockbusters, and cheap indy films. They only market the blockbusters. A martial arts movie is going to have to be an indy film, and then it's not going to get the same distribution as a blockbuster.

Captain America does a lot of martial arts in his movies. Chris Evans isn't really thought of as a martial artist. He's an actor. He's in great shape. He's done action movies. But he's thought of as an actor first and foremost. I don't know how much of a martial artist he is. He trained in several to prepare for his role. But did he train beyond what he needed in order to be convincing in the role? I don't know the answer to that.

Compare that to Scott Adkins. Scott Adkins is a martial artist. He's done tons of martial arts since he was a kid. Most people probably don't even know who he is, or have ever seen him in a movie. Unless you're specifically looking for martial arts movies on Netflix, you're not going to see him. Most of his marketing is from his social media, which you would only see if you knew who he was.

In order for martial arts movies to be more mainstream, I think we would need mid-budget movies in general to come back.

Jason Stratham has done quite well.

 

[Scotsman]

he´s one of the few who really can do it...

 

[skribs]

Jason Stratham has done quite well.

Before I start, I've loved his movies. However...

He doesn't make martial arts movies, he makes action movies. He does a lot of martial arts in those movies, but he's typically got a good balance of gunplay, martial arts, and driving. Many of his movies, he doesn't do a whole lot of martial arts. The Meg, The Italian Job, the Bank Job, and Cellular (just of the ones I've seen). In movies like Transporter or The Expendables, he has some great martial arts fight scenes, but also some other fight scenes.

Compare this to Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, or Jet Li. Most of their movies are about martial arts, where martial arts take the forefront. Many of those are about rival martial arts schools. Enter the Dragon purposefully disarmed everyone on the island so that it would focus purely on martial arts. Jackie Chan and Jet Li in many of their movies will disarm a gunman and break down the gun, then beat the crap out of them, instead of participating in a shootout.

Second, most of what Jason Statham has done lately is just his role in the Furious series. I'll be honest, I haven't seen them (I think I've seen three of them), but he's not really starring in martial arts movies anymore. He's in blockbuster ensemble action movies.

 

[Scotsman]

Enter the Dragon

c´mon man ...this is too old to really talk about now. Jason does do fight scenes in most movies but i think the movie as a whole has a story line.
just doing a few karate moves or whatever is not what people want now, there has to be a real story line. Enter the dragon by todays standards is pretty much trash, same with all the Hong Kong Kunf Fu movies.
I am not disagreeing with you as you sort of mean the same thing.

 

[Flying Crane]

OK so no real answer.

So you are trying to gaslight. Good luck to you.

 

[skribs]

c´mon man ...this is too old to really talk about now. Jason does do fight scenes in most movies but i think the movie as a whole has a story line.
just doing a few karate moves or whatever is not what people want now, there has to be a real story line. Enter the dragon by todays standards is pretty much trash, same with all the Hong Kong Kunf Fu movies.
I am not disagreeing with you as you sort of mean the same thing.

You're arguing to argue at this point.

For one, we're comparing old movies to new movies, so old movies are part of the discussion. The thread is on why they don't have martial arts movies like they used to.

For another, Enter the Dragon does have a story. That story may not be Casablanca, but neither is Crank or The Transporter. Or even the recent Godzilla movies. It doesn't need to be. The story in an action movie needs to be enough to drive the plot forward to the next action setpiece. It doesn't need to be written to the level of a spy thriller or murder mystery.

Additionally, I wasn't even talking about story when I said Jason Statham doesn't do martial arts movies, he does action movies. In Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee's action scenes are all martial arts focused. He's fighting in a tournament. He's beating up bad guys. He's using martial arts weapons like a kali stick, nunchaku, or bo staff. He has a final fight with the bad guy, which involves a spear and hand claws, and Bruce just doing unarmed fighting. Same goes for Way of the Dragon and other movies I've seen, all of his action scenes involve him doing martial arts.

In Transporter, Jason Statham has martial arts scenes, driving scenes, and gunplay scenes. In The Expendables, he's using a knife a lot, but there's also a lot of gun play. He does more driving than martial arts in The Italian Job, and plays someone who isn't even a fighter in The Bank Job. He does more diving than martial arts in The Meg.

Compare Jason Statham to someone like Scott Adkins, Tony Jaa, Michael Jai White. In their movies, they're usually focused on being a martial artist. Look at Boyka, Blood and Bone, or Ong Bak: Thai Warrior. Those movies feature martial arts fights in the ring. They feature martial arts training in addition to martial arts. And 95% or more of the action in those movies is martial arts (not gunplay, not driving, not parkour). But none of them have the level of success Jason Statham does.

We don't have martial arts movies anymore, because action movies replaced them. Movies that diversify the action between martial arts, gunplay, and chase scenes involving parkour or stunt driving.

 

[Scotsman]

So you are trying to gaslight. Good luck to you.

not sure what "Gaslight" means ..i asked your opinion.

 

[Scotsman]

You're arguing

no i´m saying my opinion. I am being polite.

 

[Scotsman]

We don't have martial arts movies anymore, because action movies replaced them

no because as i wrote they are generally trash & have no story to them.
That´s the truth.

 

[skribs]

no i´m saying my opinion. I am being polite.

no because as i wrote they are generally trash & have no story to them.
That´s the truth.

Please tell me you're trolling. Because if you really put these two statements one after the other without realizing the irony...

 

[Scotsman]

Please tell me you're trolling. Because if you really put these two statements one after the other without realizing the irony...

not sure why you are being nasty. calm down.

 

[Cornfed]

Against my better judgement I will ask: what is the natural order, what sexual perversions are you referring to., and who is the satanic elite and what exactly do you mean by that?

I am genuinely curious to understand your answer.

If you genuinely have no idea how normal human society functions it might be an idea to have some kind person take you under his wing and mentor you in the ways of the world offline rather than derail an only tangentially related discussion.

 

[skribs]

not sure why you are being nasty. calm down.

To answer a question you posed before: this is gaslighting. You're rude, and when others point it out, you act as if you're innocent and they're the ones being rude. But you probably already knew that, because I'm sure you've been accused of it quite often before.

 

[Flying Crane]

not sure what "Gaslight" means ..i asked your opinion.

I don’t have an opinion and never made claim to having one.

You made a statement and I asked for clarification on your statement. You have refused to give they clarification.

You should look up gaslighting if you don’t know what it means.

 

[Flying Crane]

If you genuinely have no idea how normal human society functions it might be an idea to have some kind person take you under his wing and mentor you in the ways of the world offline rather than derail an only tangentially related discussion.

You made a statement and I am genuinely interested in understanding what you are saying. I am asking for clarification. Are you reluctant to do that? If so, why?

 

[GojuTommy]

Probably because of many social/societal changes.
1. ‘Martial arts cop’ movies largely glorified police violence and violating peoples’ civil rights.
2. Martial arts movies are often cheesy. MJW has made a lot of martial arts movies throughout the 2000s and 2010s, and won’t be surprised if he does at least 1 more.
3. For a martial arts movie to make any sense or be good it needs to be a martial arts movie, not a movie that focuses on things completely unrelated to martial arts, but the main characters and villians are all apparently martial arts super masters, and there have been several tv shows and movies like this in the 2000s up to today. You have movies like never back down, shows like kickin it, and cobra Kai.

 

[GojuTommy]

without getting myself into trouble here....haha
people , mostly young men in days gone by looked for manly heroes. Kung Fu Bruce Lee or the American Hero chuck Norris.
the "Woke" Generation now ...mostly wear their sisters underwear & make up

I feel like there’s some projection in this post

 

[GojuTommy]

I do say it. anything which was thought of as Manly or masculine is not being promoted in schools & Universities.

Which culture’s thoughts of manly or masculine exactly?
What does masculine even mean?

 

[Cornfed]

Which culture’s thoughts of manly or masculine exactly?
What does masculine even mean?

The dictionary is your friend.