The 2020s have been a great decade for the action genre so far, with a few new classics coming out in recent years. Within the last five years, some of the biggest action franchises have created their best movies ever, including Mission: Impossible and John Wick.
There has also been room for some original voices to emerge in the action genre. A lot of eyes will be on Dev Patel and the Daniels after their recent successes, and there have also been international movies making an impact, like Godzilla Minus One and RRR. This all means that the action genre is in good health.
10
Monkey Man (2024)
Dev Patel’s Directorial Debut Highlights His Action Pedigree
Monkey Man is Dev Patel’s directorial debut, and it could also prove to be the first step in a new phase of his career as an action star. Patel’s impressive martial arts skills are accentuated by his punchy style of direction, as his camera becomes an active participant in each of the fight scenes.
Patel’s impressive martial arts skills are accentuated by his punchy style of direction.
Monkey Man has been dismissed by some people as just another John Wick clone. While it does share some aesthetic similarities with John Wick, and it also has a focus on revenge, it’s also filled with interesting political commentary and a more emotional character arc. Its fight scenes also stand out from a sea of bland imitators, as there are plenty of original touches.
9
Top Gun: Maverick (2023)
Tom Cruise Revived An Old Classic With A New Style
Top Gun is one of Tom Cruise’s best movies, and it helped propel him to stardom in the early years of his career. However, it didn’t get a sequel back in the 1980s, and the franchise seemed ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. Not many people expected it to get a legacy sequel almost 40 years later, and it was even harder to predict that Top Gun: Maverick would surpᴀss it in practically every way.
Top Gun: Maverick builds on everything that made the original so popular. The aerial scenes are even more astonishing, the tension is even more exciting and the relationships between the characters are even more relatable. Maverick also has a more interesting story in between its flight scenes, with a cast of young talent adding a different dimension. As always, Cruise remains the star.
8
Mission: Impossible – ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning (2023)
The Mission: Impossible Franchise Keeps Getting Better
It seems as if every time a new Mission: Impossible movie comes out, the cast and crew advertise it as their biggest and best one yet. Invariably, this has proven to be true, as Mission: Impossible goes from strength to strength while other long-running franchises falter and fail. Who’s to say the upcoming Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning won’t also be the best one yet?
Mission: Impossible – ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning raises the stakes once again, as a rogue artifical intelligence threatens the entire world. Ethan Hunt and his team fight against old and new enemies, with bigger stunts and more exciting action scenes than ever before. ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning ends on an excruciating cliffhanger, and it’s been a long two years waiting for the continuation.
7
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (2023)
The Spider-Verse Sequel Is Just As Good As The First Movie
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was like a sH๏τ of adrenaline to the landscape of mainstream animation, proving that there was still an appeтιтe for creative, groundbreaking visuals and new approaches. Across the Spider-Verse continues in the same vein, but with even more inventive flourishes.
Across the Spider-Verse leaves Miles Morales’ origin story behind, but he’s still very much a kid in some regards. He teams up with a group of eccentric variants from across the multiverse once again to face an even greater foe, with some remarkable action scenes that could only ever be achieved through animation. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse has a tough act to follow.
6
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
The Mad Max Franchise Roars On
Although it didn’t set the box office alight, Furiosa proves that the new era of the Mad Max franchise could have legs. It took nine years for tthe exhilarating Fury Road to finally get a follow-up, but Furiosa is a prequel rather than a sequel, and Max Rockatansky barely features at all.
Despite Furiosa‘s differences from the main series of the Mad Max franchise, it still has just as much high-octane action. Anya Taylor-Joy steps into the role of Furiosa, but it’s Chris Hemsworth who often steals the show as the flamboyant villain Dementus. Hopefully, it won’t take another nine years for the franchise to come back to life.
5
Extraction 2 (2023)
Netflix’s Thriller Is A Great Sequel
Netflix’s reputation for original films has taken a few hits recently, but the streaming platform is certainly capable of producing a few gems. Extraction 2 is one obvious example, as the action sequel surpᴀsses the 2020 original handily. Chris Hemsworth plays a mercenary who embarks on a dangerous mission to rescue a kidnapped family.
Extraction 2 has a more compelling story than the first movie, as Tyler Rake’s arc is more pointed and more emotional. However, the story isn’t the main draw of Extraction 2 or its predecessor. Both movies stand out for their immersive, breathtaking style of action, and a winning combination of hard-hitting practical effects and imperceptible VFX that expands the scope of the action.
4
RRR (2022)
The Indian Epic Has A Global Fandom
It’s rare for an Indian film to have the kind of global impact that RRR has had, but the action-adventure movie arrived with much fanfare after becoming the most expensive movie India ever produced. Comparisons to American action blockbusters can only go so far with a movie as independent and uninhibited as RRR.
RRR is a dizzying mashup of different genres and themes, each competing for oxygen within its mammoth three-hour runtime. Somehow, against the odds, RRR succeeds as a historical epic, a politically conscious drama, a spectacular action thriller, a joyous musical and a sympathetic bromance movie all at once. It’s an ᴀssault on the senses; constantly busy but never incomprehensible and, more importantly, never boring.
3
Godzilla Minus One (2023)
Godzilla Returns To Its Roots
The history of the Godzilla franchise has gradually taken the character further and further from its origins as a metaphor for the devastation of nuclear attacks on Japan in the Second World War. This has yielded mixed results as the character has come to mean different things and been involved in many different storylines, but Godzilla Minus One takes things back to basics.
Godzilla Minus One returns to the post-war setting that created the monster. It’s an intelligent, tender story about a nation struggling to rebuild and reclaim itself after the violence of war, tempered with personal stories of how different individuals are stuck searching for meaning in a senseless world. Amidst this gut-wrenching drama, there are some of the most spectacular scenes of Godzilla’s destructive powers ever filmed.
2
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
The Oscar-Winner Blends Different Genres Into A Bizarre Concoction
It’s relatively rare for an action movie to win Best Picture, but it’s also rare for comedies and sci-fi movies to win. Everything Everywhere All at Once is all three and much more, with the Daniels letting their imaginations run wild to create a multiverse epic that’s suitably fast-paced, messy and visually dazzling.
The real meaning of Everything Everywhere All at Once lies in its cosmic absurdity. This is one of the tools it uses to extract the kernels of truth from an untidy and constantly perplexing existence. The fact that it punctuates this philosophical exploration with some original and surprisingly funny fight scenes is a huge bonus.
1
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
Keanu Reeves Continues His Groundbreaking Franchise
The John Wick franchise has changed a lot since it rocked the action genre in 2014, so much so that Chapter 4 is scarcely recognizable when compared to that first pared-back outing. While everyone will have their own personal tastes, Chapter 4 represents the pinnacle of the franchise’s evolution toward eccentric, explosive action.
The Osaka Continental battle, the slugfest up the stairs of Montmartre and the nightclub brawl in Berlin are all exquisite in their own way.
Chapter 4 sees John fighting for his life once more as he tries to topple the High Table. This means that there are plenty more fascinating details about the franchise’s world to explore, but there are also some glorious action set pieces in John’s globe-trotting odyssey. The Osaka Continental battle, the slugfest up the stairs of Montmartre and the nightclub brawl in Berlin are all exquisite in their own way. If Reeves does step away from the franchise after the new John Wick spinoff, Ballerina, he will do so having revolutionized the action genre.
