5 Golden Rules Every Action Movie Should Follow

2. Keep the Action Fresh Most times, this rule is even more important than escalating action. At no earlier time in film history can audiences experience such a wide variety or amazing scope of visually thrilling sights as they can now at the multiplex. But those fancy effects don't mean a damn thing if the movie-goers get bored by it. And they will. I hate to tar and feather Michael Bay over this (partly because everyone does it and it's really tired at this point, but mostly because the guy genuinely knows his sh*t when it comes to staging and shooting action sequences), but he's an easy example of this, particularly in his most recent films. Bay's Transformers movies feature epic clashes of literally larger-than-life warriors laying waste to cities and landmarks of civilization, but every movie by the end of the third act it's in real danger of just being so much noise. The more of something you show an audience, the less they want to see of it. Die Hard creates widely varied sequences and settings even though it all takes place in a single building. Joss Whedon's Serenity (made for less than half of what even a "cheap" tentpole costs these days) never delivers the same sort of action scene twice. Neither does The Adventures of Robin Hood: there's a castle brawl, a chase, a staff fight on a log, a sword duel in a river, a forest ambush, a harrowing escape, the taking of a fortress, and a final hero/villain showdown. Every action scene offers something genuinely new, in terms setting, in terms of execution, and most importantly in terms of narrative and character. Which leads to easily the most important rule of action film-making: