Movies, Essay Example

Action adventure movies are an excellent source of exciting heart pounding thrills, but modern day comedies also have their fare share of action these days as well; finally thrillers have expanded into film categories that include characteristics of a wide range of genre types.  Audiences today are sophisticated enough to require more complex plot patterns and rarely are entertained by films confined by one single genre type. Motion pictures have adapted to this trend, and in many cases embody numerous genres, while still staying true one specific genre of classification for promotion and marketability purposes. The three main film genres I will examine in this essay are action/adventure, comedies, and thrillers.

When assessing action adventure, comedies and thrillers, there are a wide range of examples that can be used. Examples of Action adventure movies include The Dark Knight, The Terminator, and Indiana Jones. Examples of comedies include Pineapple Express, Hangover, and Dumb & Dumber. Examples of thrillers include Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Shining, and The Ring.  All three films types have their respectful characteristics that distinguish them from one another.

 Film genres are not easily distinguishable today as the film industry has come to realize there is a much greater fan response for films that seamlessly cross into other genres. The Dark Knight is an example of this type of movie. While the Batman brand has traditionally been an action adventure genre and member of the sub-category genre of Super Hero films, Director Christopher Nolan’s version falls as much into the psychological thriller and mystery genre categories as it does action adventure. Examples of basic action adventure films made today that stay true to just its genre classification would be the Mummy. This movie was marketed as an action adventure film and it stayed true to its market. Descriptions of these film genres are very elaborate and telling.

Action adventure films tend to use fantastic themes that place the main character in dangerous life threatening situations, so the audience can live vicariously through the hero without dealing with any of the risks involved. Comedies are very different from this as they tend to be less fantastic and based on more identifiable and relatable storylines. The main goal of a comedy is to make the audience laugh. They tend to be light hearted, uplifting and very fun. Thrillers contrast these as their goal is to scare the audience. Characteristics of thrillers and often life threatening situations that allow the audience to fear for the main character and in many ways put themselves in the place of the character. The differences between these genres are not always easily identifiable.

An action adventure movie is a film that seeks to take the audiences to a far way place threaten they may never have experienced otherwise. The Dark Knight is similar to the Mummy, another film classified as an action adventure flick, in that they both have fight scenes, but they are very different in that The Dark Knight touches on many complex psychological themes  one very popular line from the Dark Knight is “we are what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. The most memorable line from the Terminator is “I’ll be back.” These two simple differences are major on many levels, and very telling about the range of the genre. Also while the Terminator is classifiable as an action adventure film it is equably classifiable as a science fiction film as the main character is killer robot from the future sent to the past to destroy his creator. Comedies also tend to have characteristics of action adventure and thriller movies, an example of this can be seen in how Pineapple Express has a lot of action, or how Scary Movie parodies thriller themes like ghosts, vampires and other tools to make fun of the concept of scaring the audience, but that you still might find in a classic thriller. The key difference between Scary Movie and the traditional Thriller is that is seeks to make the audience laugh while a thriller is still designed to incite fear in the audience. In sum, film genre in contemporary film is growing vague and not easily identifiable by simple characteristics.