Cinema is, quite literally, action, and while some of the snootier critics might look down on the action movie, there are few purer cinematic pleasures than looking at a great set-piece sequence, from “The General” to “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Technology might have made jaw-dropping spectacle easier than ever to pull off, but a summer where CGI behemoths were outshone by more modest, old-fashioned movies reminded us that thrills come from craft more than they come from blowing up a bajillion robots (though, when done right, the latter can be fun too).
READ MORE: READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2018
A highlight of our annual year-end listmania at The Playlist is always getting to put together our favorite action sequences of the year, and below you’ll find the fifteen that floated our boat the most this year. It ranges from the obligatory superhero battles to a metaphorical end of civilisation, and shows the range of talent and skill in action filmmaking today. Take a look, and watch the clips, below, and let us know your own favorites in the comments.
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15. The Washington Monument – “Spider-Man: Homecoming”
Jon Watts’ umpteenth reboot of your favorite neighborhood web-slinger, the first set within the Marvel universe, turned out to be the most pleasant superhero surprise of the year: perhaps not hitting the heights of the best Raimi movie, but arguably coming closer than ever to the comic book version, and doing so with a lot of humor and heart, and the best Marvel villain to date. Among its merits were a selection of really well constructed set pieces that for the most part didn’t feel too CGI-overloaded, the best of which is the earliest, as Peter Parker (Tom Holland) tries to rescue his friends, stranded in an elevator about to crash to the ground inside the Washington Monument. It’s almost a suspense sequence rather than a slam-back action extravaganza, but very much for the better: Watts keeps the tension building throughout, to the point at which Spidey’s mission feels positively hopeless, and the sheer heigh involved made it a rare 2017 blockbuster sequence actually improved by 3D. At the same time, there’s a lot of the wisecracking quality that previous Spidey films haven’t always been good at pulling off too. Given that this was Watts’ first go-round in the blockbuster toolbox and it turned out so confidently, we’re properly psyched to see where he goes from here.
14. Thor Vs. Hulk – “Thor: Ragnarok”
Though in some ways it was a shame that perhaps “Thor: Ragnarok”‘s best joke (“he’s a friend from work!”) was spoiled in the trailer (as well as the reveal of the single best thing about the new incarnation — Chris Hemsworth‘s sexy gladiator haircut), in another way it was the perfect selling point for the Taika Waititi‘s immensely enjoyable take on the Marvel Universe. And the scene that follows it, while it was always going to be a CG-heavy affair with Hulk’s involvement, did not disappoint. A good example of what to do when you have a Big Fight SceneTM that essentially has no real stakes (there’s never any doubt both will survive), Waititi instead plays it out like a WWE smackdown spectacle. So however much we’re there for bone-crunching action, we’re even more so for the comedy, carried in the guileless expressions on Hemsworth’s face (yet again that blessed piece of casting proving its worth) and the reactions of the onlookers, including Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Jeff Goldblum as the flashiest Grandmaster of them all.
13. Gas Mask Attack – “Kong: Skull Island”
It’s not perfect — it’s choppy to the extent that you feel like there’s probably a longer, superior version out there somewhere, and while we welcome Toby Kebbell’s presence in any movie, it’s not entirely clear why he’s in this one — but we really enjoyed “Kong: Skull Island” as a blockbuster that felt a little different to everything else, with director Jordan Vogt-Roberts bringing real style, and an almost Korean New Wave sense of tonal dexterity to his reinvention of the beloved giant ape. The giant monster battles — and there are an absolute ton of them —deliver in a really big way, be it Kong taking down an entire fleet of helicopters in the opening, an “Oldboy”-inspired giant squid sequence, or something involving a giant spider in a bamboo forest. But our favorite of the bunch sees our ragtag group of soldiers and explorers ambushed in the graveyard of Kong’s parents by so-called ‘skullcrawlers’ — malevolent, particularly hungry dinosaur/lizard things. Like all the fights in the movie, it’s got real crunch to it, but also a real sort of sandbox glee that they can get away with so much, and Vogt-Roberts shoots everything with an unusual degree of clarity and beauty. Plus it has John C. Reilly cutting pterodactyls in half with a samurai sword, which is really all you could ever want from a movie.
12. The Forest Battle – “Logan”
For the majority of its runtime, James Mangold‘s “Logan” is elegiac to the point of dour. Barring the odd head-slashing, it’s a meditation on aging and bodily decay, on the inevitable, depressing decline in mental and physical prowess that happens over time. Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine doesn’t heal like he used to, his claws don’t extend and retract with that smooth metallic shicking noise anymore, and his muscles looks like old frayed knots of rope. But just when we think the most ferocious of all the X-Men might be going gentle into the good night, he necks a load of “medicine” and goes on a bloody, gory berserker rampage through a forest full of tooled-up goons, in defense of a gang of mutant kids including his own mini-me. The scene is brutal and exceptionally violent, especially when Dafne Keen‘s Wolverini aka X23 starts gouging and slashing in concert. Sadly, the family that slays together doesn’t always stay together as this is Logan’s final stand, but Mangold’s taut, grisly, gristly r-rated climax means his action chops get the eulogy they deserve: a steroidal blizzard of gushing blood, popping veins and sinewy chaos.
11. The Stand-Off & Shootout – “Wind River”
Perhaps it’s a bit of a cheat to string these two discrete moments together as the one action scene, but actually they work so well as cinematic sleight of hand that it feels right. Taylor Sheridan‘s “Wind River” is one of the low-key Playlist favorites of the year, a tense, characterful modern-day snow western that builds to this clever, downbeat climax. The stand-off moment is a great example of how choreography and simple cutting can create tension: the escalation from Elizabeth Olsen‘s FBI agent realizing there’s something amiss to the ranger realizing he’s being “flanked” to everybody having their guns out and shouting at each other is completely believable. And that it’s defused by Olsen pulling rank is a relief that also works to lull us into a sense of security when she walks up to that trailer. There may not be huge pyrotechnics involved here — this is all about lines of sight of short, sharp bursts of gunfire, and it’s all over relatively quickly, but for realistic, stakes-laden thrills in 2017, there were few better-staged scenes.