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.
. Thus, those 70s/80s films are rather unremarkable compared to, say, āEverything, Everywhere, All At Onceā. Also, the martial arts were exotic and mysterious in the 70s with few people having the opportunity to experience them first hand. Today, nearly every child has a blackbelt in āKoroddyā and their taxi-parents have sit through class after class, scrolling through their device because itās āold hatā these days.
