Why is martial arts movies less popular today?

[JowGaWolf]

Missing a lot of iconic martial arts actors.

yep. We'll just have to wait for the next Martial Arts Icon and some new story lines. Please no more IP Man movies lol

 

[drop bear]

yep. We'll just have to wait for the next Martial Arts Icon and some new story lines. Please no more IP Man movies lol

Completely forgot about Donny yen.

 

[Holmejr]

Always appreciated this “ahead of it’s time” fight scene from the 40’s

 

[Gyakuto]

Yep you are in hot water now. I'm tired of the slang WOKE being misused because to me it shows a real lack of understanding.

Here's the meaning of WOKE. It simply means that a person was being taken advantage of but now the are aware and can no longer be taken advantage of.

Examples: Getting out skilled in basketball the person winning say " don't fall asleep on me" the person losing catches on to the offensive press an say "I'm woke"

Your wife is cheating on you and your friends have been telling you this for 3 years. Then you see with your own eyes the truth and you say "I'm woke"

Woke or being woke has nothing to do with any of that noise people are being fed. There is no WOKE GENERATION. It is simply a phrase that is use to admit that you were being taken advantage of, and now you are aware of that.

This is what it means and is why your statement about underwear makes no sense.

Definition of WOKE

aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice) —often used in contexts that suggest someone's expressed beliefs about such matters are not backed with genuine concern or action… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

 

[Gyakuto]

Always appreciated this “ahead of it’s time” fight scene from the 40’s

That is soooooo good! Thanks for sharing!

 

[moonhill99]

View attachment 29555

Yep it seems masculine like big muscle is on its way out.The strong and tough look is on its way out.

And I know some are going say big bodybuilder will not win a fight over a boxer or experience martial artist it still was fantasy in person mind seeing big strong tough cop walk up to old warehouse and fight with three mad guys.

Other factor could be political climate with the issues with police in the US now at all time low mow. And I don’t want to turn into a political talk because camp A says there is problem with police being out control and camp B says it not as bad of a problem as that is really irrelevant. The fact is there is mistrust among people and police now and protest. And people can discus that on the political forum than here but this may be one reason why shows like tough strong cop fighting bad guys and getting into shoot outs is less popular now among younger people mow it seems if not comic base. With removing police office being and crime fighter being Batman or Spider-man and so on.

There still police shows now but less like it was in the past.

 

[moonhill99]

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.

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

Are you saying in past there was lot more mid budget movies but they are all gone now? Now there is only handful of studios now?

Even some thing like star wars and star trek being so popular I’m surprise some studios has not made spin of it calling it some thing else but being space show similar to it.

Is the problem with hollywood studios today?

Is there a monopoly with hollywood today is the problem?

 

[Tony Dismukes]

The spirit of "Xia - help the good to fight against evil" is missing in today's society. Today people all talk about self-defense. Nobody talks about to protect your love one, family members, or even a stranger.

When I was a MA student, my teacher said, "It's wrong that you get into a fight without a good reason. I's also wrong that you have a good reason to fight but you didn't". The 2nd part of what he had said is totally missing in today's society.

We just don't see this kind of spirit in today's movie any more - the courage to stand on your ground and fight for what you believe is right.

Leaving aside your assertion that the ideal of fighting to protect others is missing from today's society in general (which I disagree with), the assertion that it's missing from movies today is just silly.

The most widely watched movies over the last ten years are from the MCU franchise. The Marvel movies are 100% about heroes fighting to protect others from evil.

 

[skribs]

Are you saying in past there was lot more mid budget movies but they are all gone now? Now there is only handful of studios now?

Even some thing like star wars and star trek being so popular I’m surprise some studios has not made spin of it calling it some thing else but being space show similar to it.

Is the problem with hollywood studios today?

Is there a monopoly with hollywood today is the problem?

A lot of the spin-off type stuff is being made into TV shows more than movies. The Mandalorian, Picard, The Orville, things like that.

Those that are getting remade, like the most recent Star Wars movies, are big budget movies.

 

[moonhill99]

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.

But there seems to be other trend with hollywood now like you say martial arts or non martial arts but hollywood turns them into martial artist with special effects for movie they are working on.

Is in 80s and 90d movies seem to be around the actors and actor gets to be known around the world. Now it seems hollywood just brings in some one else.

Look at Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Sylvester Stallone so on . All action movies where base around them and some other action actors,

Today it seem like when they make action movies they just get some random less known actor may be because it is cheaper to have less known actors than built the actor up.

Well in way it not just Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Sylvester Stallone where good is is also that hollywood built them up from nobody actor to well known actor.

And Hollywood does not seem to be doing that now.

I don’t even know the young actors now in hollywood but I know the movies.

Take the new Dredd movie or the new recall movie or the new blade runner movie I don’t even know actor in those movies.

In 80s or 90s they would pick Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Sylvester Stallone so on.

What is happening it seems is hollywood is not building actor replacement for well known actors.

Yes even actors like Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise.

 

[moonhill99]

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.

May be Hollywood is also bringing down the popularity of martial arts movies with exception of comic movies because of the culture shift.

As the view of martial arts are seen more of getting in shape in the US now. And the view of guns or technology is only factor of self defence or some magic crime fighter out of comic

May be people don’t believe some one like Chuck Norris, Steven Seagull or Bruce Lee can fight bad guys but more incline to believe gun or comic action fighter can.

Even though I know comic movies are so sci fi being not true where Chuck Norris, Steven Seagull or Bruce Lee is more real of defending one self. But among young people they just look at Chuck Norris, Steven Seagull or Bruce Lee and say it is so fake it cannot be real and so more incline to believe in some mystic comic action fighter.

 

[skribs]

But there seems to be other trend with hollywood now like you say martial arts or non martial arts but hollywood turns them into martial artist with special effects for movie they are working on.

Is in 80s and 90d movies seem to be around the actors and actor gets to be known around the world. Now it seems hollywood just brings in some one else.

Look at Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Sylvester Stallone so on . All action movies where base around them and some other action actors,

Today it seem like when they make action movies they just get some random less known actor may be because it is cheaper to have less known actors than built the actor up.

Well in way it not just Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Sylvester Stallone where good is is also that hollywood built them up from nobody actor to well known actor.

And Hollywood does not seem to be doing that now.

I don’t even know the young actors now in hollywood but I know the movies.

Take the new Dredd movie or the new recall movie or the new blade runner movie I don’t even know actor in those movies.

In 80s or 90s they would pick Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Sylvester Stallone so on.

What is happening it seems is hollywood is not building actor replacement for well known actors.

Yes even actors like Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise.

Most of the actors you're talking about are getting old. There's a few that we had in the interim that are starting to wane, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Renner. John Cena and Channing Tatum come to mind. Others they tried to push, like Sam Worthington (Avatar) or Jai Courtney (Terminator Genisys). Samuel L Jackson.

We've gotten new actors lately.

• Jason Statham was recently mentioned, he's been in a lot of big-budget action movies, although lately focused on the Fast and Furious franchise.
• Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) is the biggest star in the world right now.
• The Chris's: Pratt, Hemsworth, Pine. Two are in the MCU as Starlord and Thor, the third was Kirk in the Star Trek reboots.
• The Tom H's: Hardy, Holland, Hiddleston. Tom Hardy was Bane and Venom, Holland was Spiderman, and Hiddleston was Loki, and also in King Kong.

This is just off the top of my head. I think there are plenty of action stars today.

 

[Steve]

I get the impression some of the folks in this thread stopped paying attention to new things in about 1995.

Action stars who are making movies today:

Ryan Gosling
Dwayne Johnson
Keanu Reeves
John Cena
Vin Diesel
Tarim Egerton (Kingsmen series etc)
Tom Holland
Scarlet Johansson
Dave Bautista
Jennifer Lawrence
Zoe Saldana

If you don’t recognize these names, I don’t know what to tell you. They are all A list action stars who are making movies very much in the spirit of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Statham.

 

[moonhill99]

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

They don’t have to be.

The plots from spiderman movies are very simple.


Just replace spiderman with martial arts fighting the bad guy.

I removed some of the really sci fi plots and just copyied and edited the pieces that could replace spiderman with martial artist make look more real than too sci-fi

The plots are simple.
—

plot

Peter is bullied at school by the other teenagers.

Peter uses his powers to fight the bully Flash Thompson and beats him up

Yes lame plot.

—
plot 1
The criminal then steals Ben's car and shoots Ben. Peter returns to find Ben shot

Peter angrily sets off to capture the killer.
—
plot 2

Harry's father Norman Osborn is in trouble. Norman is the CEO (or head) of his own company name Oscorp. Oscorp does science studies and is working on..

Norman is ready to test the formula on humans, but his fellow scientists say the formula is still too dangerous.

Yea go after the evil company.

—
plot 3
rescues his friend Harry Osborn

simple plot

—
plot 4
The loss of his wife makes him go crazy. The arms start forcing him to build the machine again to get revenge
—

plot 5

comes across Toomes' associates Jackson Brice / Shocker and Herman Schultz selling weapons to local criminal

Yea go after the bad guys selling weapons on the street.

—
plot 6
try to flee aboard a private jet that is hijacked

—


The plots don’t have much of story but it seems lot of people love these spiderman movies.

 

[Steve]

Also, there are a lot of original movies being made today, and in the 80s there were a lot of sequels and remakes.

And some new music is outstanding.

You guys are acting like sad curmudgeons! 😂

 

[Steve]

They don’t have to be.

The plots from spiderman movies are very simple.


Just replace spiderman with martial arts fighting the bad guy.

I removed some of the really sci fi plots and just copyied and edited the pieces that could replace spiderman with martial artist make look more real than too sci-fi

The plots are simple.
—

plot

Peter is bullied at school by the other teenagers.

Peter uses his powers to fight the bully Flash Thompson and beats him up

Yes lame plot.

—
plot 1
The criminal then steals Ben's car and shoots Ben. Peter returns to find Ben shot

Peter angrily sets off to capture the killer.
—
plot 2

Harry's father Norman Osborn is in trouble. Norman is the CEO (or head) of his own company name Oscorp. Oscorp does science studies and is working on..

Norman is ready to test the formula on humans, but his fellow scientists say the formula is still too dangerous.

Yea go after the evil company.

—
plot 3
rescues his friend Harry Osborn

simple plot

—
plot 4
The loss of his wife makes him go crazy. The arms start forcing him to build the machine again to get revenge
—

plot 5

comes across Toomes' associates Jackson Brice / Shocker and Herman Schultz selling weapons to local criminal

Yea go after the bad guys selling weapons on the street.

—
plot 6
try to flee aboard a private jet that is hijacked

—


The plots don’t have much of story but it seems lot of people love these spiderman movies.

Every movie basically uses the same plot beats. Writing a screenplay is similar to writing a long, closed form poem. You have to try and get some thing unique and remarkable while adhering to the rules of the format.

 

[skribs]

I get the impression some of the folks in this thread stopped paying attention to new things in about 1995.

Action stars who are making movies today:

Ryan Gosling
Dwayne Johnson
Keanu Reeves
John Cena
Vin Diesel
Tarim Egerton (Kingsmen series etc)
Tom Holland
Scarlet Johansson
Dave Bautista
Jennifer Lawrence
Zoe Saldana

If you don’t recognize these names, I don’t know what to tell you. They are all A list action stars who are making movies very much in the spirit of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Statham.

I'm going to disagree on some of them.

Some of the men you mentioned are action stars because they are action men. Either they are known for training hard for movies (Keanu Reeves, Tom Holland), or they are just big, strong men (Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson). Ryan Gosling is more of an actor that got put into an action role, sort of how Bruce Willis was back in the first Die Hard. When Dwayne Johnson started acting, he was already known as The Rock.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

A big leap from chuck Norris to now though.

Missing a lot of iconic martial arts actors.

Frank grillo and Tony Jaa are still churning them out.

Michael jail white has been going for years.

The English guy whose name I can't remember. (Scott Atkins)

Agreed. And if you look at Norris movies, a lot of them fall into that category of being action movies with MA in them, rather than being about MA. Heck, the posted image has Norris with guns, not Norris in a Karate stance.

 

[moonhill99]

Most of the actors you're talking about are getting old. There's a few that we had in the interim that are starting to wane, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Renner. John Cena and Channing Tatum come to mind. Others they tried to push, like Sam Worthington (Avatar) or Jai Courtney (Terminator Genisys). Samuel L Jackson.

We've gotten new actors lately.

• Jason Statham was recently mentioned, he's been in a lot of big-budget action movies, although lately focused on the Fast and Furious franchise.
• Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) is the biggest star in the world right now.
• The Chris's: Pratt, Hemsworth, Pine. Two are in the MCU as Starlord and Thor, the third was Kirk in the Star Trek reboots.
• The Tom H's: Hardy, Holland, Hiddleston. Tom Hardy was Bane and Venom, Holland was Spiderman, and Hiddleston was Loki, and also in King Kong.

This is just off the top of my head. I think there are plenty of action stars today.

I know Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel being in action movies.

But others I don’t know probably because they mostly in comic movies like you say.

Even like you say Jason Statham and Vin Diesel are really into fast and furious like movies.

I know Michelle Rodrigue, Angelina Jolie and Milla Jovovich.

But there still so many action movies where they pick less known actors.

If I don’t know more hollywood actors today than I'm into other genres or hollywood is doing some thing wrong.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Definition of WOKE

aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice) —often used in contexts that suggest someone's expressed beliefs about such matters are not backed with genuine concern or action… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

So, the objection would be to someone being "aware of...important societal...issues"?