ACTION-ADVENTURE
This often borrows aspects from other genres such as War or Political Drama to use as motivation for explosive action. Action-adventure encompasses several genres – Westerns, war films, crime and even comedies. The style is associated with non-stop action – dramatic chases, shoot-outs, and explosions – often centred around a hero struggling against terrible odds. The central character, most often male, rather than trying to survive, plays a messianic character whose role is to save either the nation or the world. The central character is thoroughly capable in terms of mastery of the tools and weaponry of salvation. The main character exhibits a playfulness that can be childlike or childish. The challenges to the main character as considerable and numerous – this is a more plot-intensive genre. The antagonist is often imbued with almost superhuman intelligence, strengths, or other powers – whether it be the Joker or the Shark, the more formidable the antagonist, the greater the success of the central character. Humour and self-depreciation are often characteristics of this genre. Relationships are superficial – there is no time for intimate relationships. Ritual and mythology are more important that realism and complexity – the genre readily embraces less realistic actions and modes; farce and technology coexist in this genre. Stereotypes abound in the adventure genre.
Sub genres: High adventure if it incorporates ideas such as destiny, or the spiritual (The Man Who Would Be King) ; Disaster/ survival film if Mother Nature is the source of antagonism (The Day After Tomorrow, Alive, Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, 2012)
What to Watch: The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Seven murai (1954), Top Gun (1986), Lethal Weapon (1987), Mission Impossible (1996/ 2011).