Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Molly Ringle's avatar

Agreed!

I think this is also why I’m often uninterested in fight/battle scenes. Too often they’re just action for action’s sake—to be able to say something happened in a book, or to show off special effects and fight choreography in a film. And, in too many cases, it’s already clear who will win, and the outcome doesn’t surprise us. I only care about such scenes when the writers have done the story and character work beforehand, to the degree that we care about these characters and are genuinely concerned they might not achieve their goal, and might in fact suffer a terrible setback (or even get killed). (Shoutout to Lord of the Rings for having battle scenes I actually find riveting and moving!)

Expand full comment
Michael Koehler's avatar

As a friend of mine once said of superhero movies, “When everything’s at stake, nothing is”

Expand full comment
10 more comments...

No posts