Guy Ritchie’sThe Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a2024 movie flop that could become a cult hitin future, is an unexpectedly fun movie despite garnering low expectations as a sillyactionfilm. The genre is often characterized by over-the-top explosions and unchecked violence, which can almost become gimmicky. Moreover, formulaic storytelling has led to the overuse of cliché tropes and, especially because of the popularity of reboots, sequels, and remakes today, it can at times feel like action movies are no longer innovative.
However, many recent films have greatly exceeded our expectations, delivering on promises they never even made. Many new action movies, when initially announced, fail to generate buzz or excitement. Audiences expect them to tell the same story, use the same cinematography techniques, be overly reliant on CGI, and not create memorable moments. However, some of theanimated movies that were better than expectedwere action movies. Consider theunderrated 2024 action movies that flew under everyone’s radar, and it’s clear that innovative people are still working in the genre today.
Monkey Man
Cast
Monkey Man is a 2024 action-thriller film directed by and starring Dev Patel. Following his release from prison, a man known as “Kid” makes a living by engaging in anonymous underground fights in a mask where he is beaten down each night. However, after witnessing greed and corruption consuming his city, Kid breaks into the upper echelon of society to find those who destroyed his life and take them down.
Monkey Man’s trailer reveals little about the plot details and instead teases the movie’s vibe. For those who have been envisioning Dev Petal as the new James Bond ever since Daniel Craig announced he was done playing the character, it was further proof of how great he could look in an action movie.Monkey Manpromised aJohn Wick-style revenge thriller, but not much more than that. While there was an allusion to Indian mythology, the biggest takeaway was the moody color palette, the grimy aesthetic, and Dev Patel’s bleeding and brooding silhouette.
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So, despite the stylish appearance of the film, the expectations weren’t high. People were more intrigued by the knowledge that this was Patel’s passion project that he’dco-written, produced, and directed alongside starring in it as the protagonist.Monkey Man, however, exceeds all expectations by providing an emotionally charged backstory, and a gritty narrative that is as drenched in Indian cultural references as Patel and his rivals in combat are in blood. The well-choreographed action is relentless, and the shaky cam feels refreshing because of the adrenaline-fueled style of storytelling. It is one of 2024’s best action thrillers.
Mad Max: Fury Road
Mad Max: Fury Road is a post-apocalyptic film set in a desolate desert landscape where society has collapsed. Released in 2015, the story follows two rebels, Max Rockatansky and Imperator Furiosa, as they attempt to survive and bring balance to a world torn by chaos and strife.
George Miller came up with the idea for the follow-up to his thirdMad Maxfilm back in the late ’80s, but had to wait till ‘98 to begin working on production. Even then, due to various events and the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson, whose role as the protagonist needed to be recast, actual filming couldn’t begin for another decade. It wasn’t until 2015,30 years after the release ofMad Max Beyond Thunderdome, that the fourth installment in the franchise finally came out.
Nearly another decade later, a prequel toMad Max: Fury Roadcame out,Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga(2024), and despite being a great film, it unfortunately wasn’t a box office success.
Naturally, the return of such an iconic franchise managed to create expectations in many fans and film buffs all around the world. Tom Hardy had just delivered an impressive performance as Bane inThe Dark Knight Risesin 2012, and there couldn’t possibly be more hype forMad Max: Fury Road, one of the bestmovies likeThe Running Man. However, no one was prepared for the masterpiece that the film turned out to be. It was nominated for as many as 10 Academy Awards and is considered to be one of the greatest sci-fi action movies of all time!
Nimona
Nimona is a film adaptation of ND Stevenson’s graphic novel of the same name. Chloë Grace Moretz voices the main character Nimona, a shapeshifter who is being hunted by a former knight named Ballister Blackheart (Riz Ahmed). But things become complicated when Blackheart realizes Nimona may actually be able to help him after he’s unjustly accused of a crime.
Fans of ND Stevenson’s webcomic were obviously very excited about the animated feature film adaptation ofNimona.While the source material is somewhat popular among the LGBTQIA+ audience,Nimonahas been flying under people’s radars for years. However, with Annapurna Pictures, famous for producingHer,The Master, andBombshell, attached to the project after it got scrapped when the original studio Blue Sky was closed, the film began generating buzz.
Nimonawas nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award.
Chloë Grace Moretz and Riz Ahmed voice the titular character and the second protagonist, respectively. Even with such names leading the cast, the expectations weren’t necessarily high forNimona. So, when it finally came out, we were all blown away by the quality. The trailer had already revealedthe beautiful art style, but the thematic blending of medievalism and futurism in both the visuals and the narrativemakes it that much more meaningful.Nimonawas nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award.
Nobody
Bob Odenkirk stars as Hutch Mansell, an underestimated and overlooked dad, and husband, taking life’s indignities on the chin and never pushing back. However, when two thieves break into his suburban home, Hutch declines to defend himself or his family, hoping to prevent serious violence. His teenage son is disappointed in him, and his wife seems to pull only further away - but the incident triggers the underlying rage in Hutch, leading him down a path to become a dangerous man with brutal skills and the attitude to match.
We have seen him play the shady lawyer Saul Goodman, aka Jimmy McGill, inBreaking BadandBetter Call Saul, bothloved TV shows that should never be rebooted. While the character is shrewd and highly intelligent, he certainly isn’t a physical combatant by any means. So, the idea of Bob Odenkirk leading aJohn Wick-like action film where his character goes on a violent rampage after some provocation didn’t seem appealing, especially because it risked being formulaic.
However, we were all surprised to discover what is definitely one of the best action movies in recent years. Bob Odenkirk brings abeautifully exhausted sense of rage to his character as he trudges through violent set pieces, delivering more damage than he takes on. The energy in the film is infectious, especially because the slick editing adds to the adrenaline rush. With a killer soundtrack to boot, it features extensive, well-choreographed fight scenes, like the bus scene that lives rent-free in my head.
Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick is the sequel to the 1986 original film starring Tom Cruise as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a top-tier pilot in the Navy. Thirty years after the original film’s events, Maverick is asked to head up a section of the TOP GUN program to embark on a dangerous mission. Things become personal when the program includes the son of Maverick’s late friend, forcing him to confront his past.
WhileVal Kilmer’s movies from the 1990sprove that it was the best decade of his career, his breakout role in 1986 as Iceman inTop Gunwill always be one of his most memorable characters. With one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time, it is an unforgettably iconic action movie featuring Tom Cruise as Maverick, his second most famous role after Ethan Hunt in theMission: Impossiblefranchise. So, there was naturally a ton of anticipation forTop Gun: Maverick, where Cruise was to reprise his iconic role over 35 years later.
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However, there was simultaneously a lot of skepticism about the film as well. The slew of formulaic and passionless sequels and reboots since the 2010s suggested there was a possibility it could be a cash grab. However, right from the opening credits set to the immediately recognizableTop Gunanthem, the dose of nostalgia takes you over. The new cast fits perfectly into the vibe, which is both reminiscent of the first film, and modernized to suit the 2020s. The thrilling flight sequences andCruise’s charisma as a mentor who becomes an action heromake it the perfect sequel.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
In Everything Everywhere All at Once, a middle-aged laundromat owner (Michelle Yeoh) is distracted from her financial and family issues by a multiversal crisis. With just her husband (Ke Huy Quan) to support her through the confusion, she must contend with her overbearing traditional father (James Hong), a pencil-pushing auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis), and her emotionally-distant daughter (Stephanie Hsu).
One of thebest martial arts adventure moviesof all time, the Daniels’Everything Everywhere All At Oncewas perhaps the biggest surprise hit of 2022. The Daniels, known for their quirky and offbeat humorous films, didn’t fill audiences with confidence even though it was a rare A24 movie starring Michelle Yeoh. Not only did the concept, as revealed in the trailer, seem quite outlandish, but the multiverse was being used by so much of superhero media that it had become exhausting.
So, a tender exploration of womanhood and motherhood in an era where social expectations and norms are changing faster than ever before, isn’t what was expected ofEverything Everywhere All At Once. A beautiful cocktail of emotions, buddy humor, and quirky action, the film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 7 of them, including Best Picture and Best Direction.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, follows Steve Rogers as he adapts to contemporary life while confronting a new adversary, the mysterious Winter Soldier, amidst internal threats to S.H.I.E.L.D. The film explores themes of trust and loyalty as Rogers teams up with allies to uncover hidden conspiracies.
If the first phase of the MCU had been focused on introducing and building up the heroes, the second phase was about breaking them down and introducing radical changes to their personalities. Unfortunately, that change, while a happy conclusion for Tony Stark’s story, led to Stark giving up on being Iron Man inIron Man 3, which led to speculation about how the MCU would look without him and interest began dwindling. It didn’t help that it was followed by the forgettable and mediocreThor: The Dark World, thedisappointing second film the franchise would have to bounce backfrom.
While the Russos’ films outside the MCU have continued to disappoint audiences, they directedCaptain America: Civil War, the biggest ensemble MCU film at the point of its release,Avengers: Endgame, the second-highest and the sixteenth-highest-grossing movie ever without and with adjusting for inflation respectively, andAvengers: Infinity War, arguably the best MCU movie.
So, the stakes were at an all-time high for the MCU –would it retain audience interest, or was it just a one-hit wonder?So, the studio took a risk and employed directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who, though world-famous today, hadn’t made anything remarkable up until then.Captain America: The Winter Soldierdidn’t just reassure viewers that the MCU still knew what to do with their heroes and had a lot more lore to cover, it is one of the best MCU movies of all time. It exceeded all expectations by exploring Steve Rogers' crisis of faith.
John Wick
John Wick is a 2014 action thriller featuring Keanu Reeves as a retired hitman. The film follows John Wick as he emerges from retirement to avenge the loss inflicted by a group of gangsters, setting the stage for a relentless pursuit and exploration of a shadowy underworld.
Keanu Reeves was already a bona fide action star with films likeSpeed,The Matrix, andConstantine. However, the action genre was flooded with the similar kinds of fast-paced action movies with loose choreography and shaky cam. The revenge subgenre of action cinema began feeling exhausting after the highly refreshing filmTakengot a disappointing sequel in 2012,betraying a lack of originality in action blockbuster filmmaking. So,John Wickdidn’t seem like an exciting prospect. Yes, a brooding Keanu Reeves as an action hero sounds intriguing, but it could have become the same movie.
Instead, John Wick became one of the most iconicmovie characters who helped reshape their genre’s expectations. The film is drenched in a neon color palette that suits the titular character’s darkness, and it uses elements of film noir, particularly the mythos, the loneliness and the lack of morality in the protagonist. The violent action sequences have a gritty realism in the choreography, and the film has a commendable amount of technical accuracy regarding guns and other machinery. It’s safe to say thatJohn Wickrevolutionized the action genre.
Atomic Blonde
Based on a graphic novel, Atomic Blonde stars Charlize Theron as Lorraine Broughton, an MI6 agent who is attempting to locate a sensitive list of double agent spies before it is smuggled from East to West Germany, just before the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Theron is joined by a cast that includes James McAvoy, Sofia Boutella, and John Goodman.
David Leitch used to be a stunt performer and coordinator and has done stunt work for an impressive number of films, includingFight Club, which features one of the mostabsolutely unhinged movie protagonists,Ocean’s Eleven,Mr. and Mrs. Smith,V for Vendetta, andThe Bourne Ultimatum. However, apart from uncredited directing work onJohn Wick, and a four-minute short featuring Ryan Reynolds asDeadpool, the director hadn’t done much directing by 2017.
The style-over-substance approach, however, didn’t just pay off, it convinced people of Leitch’s grasp on the genre as he geared up to directDeadpool 2.
Moreover, despite the momentum of #MeToo prompting conversations about better representation of women in movies, action films had earned a reputation for overtly sexualizing female heroes. So, even with an action star like Charlize Theron attached, an out-and-out action thriller set in the Cold War focused on her stunts and stylish costumes didn’t seem promising. The style-over-substance approach, however, didn’t just pay off, it convinced people of Leitch’s grasp on the genre as he geared up to directDeadpool 2. The color palette and the easilyhateable villain played by James McAvoymake it that much more enjoyable.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a standalone film set in the Star Wars universe, where a group of resistance fighters, led by Jyn Erso, embarks on a mission to steal the Death Star plans. This pivotal event sets the stage for the iconic saga to follow.
Apart fromStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which was a follow-up to the extremely disappointingStar Wars: The Last Jedi, there’s possibly never been aStar Warsfilm that failed to hype up audiences in the months leading to its release.Star Wars: The Force Awakens,which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2025, left viewers wanting more, but not just in a bad way. So, a prequel set between the original and prequel trilogies promised to be very exciting, even though it wouldn’t feature any known characters.
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However, irrespective of how good or bad people were expectingRogue One: A Star Wars Storyto be, it exceeded all expectationsas one of the bestStar Warsmovies ever made. It provides a much-needed glimpse at the rebel alliance outside before Luke and Leia rose to prominence. With tons of references to previous movies, it captures the sense of dread that the Empire made every dissenting individual feel, and also the sense of courage that kept them driven. Donnie Yen’s Chirrut Îmwe is an incredible Jedi, and the scene where Darth Vader appears still gives me goosebumps.
