The problems with Simon West’s films
There are many great
action filmmakers such as John McTiernan, who has given us many great action
film such as Die Hard and also The Hunt for Red October, also another great
action filmmaker would be someone like John Woo who has also made some great
action films such as Hard Boiled and the original Bullet to the Head. However,
there are some action directors who make action films which are not that great.
Simon West is an action director, and his has been around since 1997 with his
mainstream live-action directional debut with Con Air. West would go on to make
the video game adaptation Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and his later stuff that he
has made would include the Expendables 2 and Wild Card. All these films have
got similar styles in direction with the action. There are some things that he
should acknowledge to improve on his action filmmaking. West is not a bad
filmmaker; he is not like other action directors in Hollywood at the moment,
but like other directors he can make some improvements with his filmmaking.
Editing
The first issue that
Simon West has during his action sequences, the first issue with the films that
West produces is that the editing in his films cause the problems. The editing
makes the action hard to follow in his films, this is something which can be
seen in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the first action sequence that happens in
this film. The scene takes place inside the house of Lara Croft, the action is
filmed in an open space and therefore the action should be easy to follow.
However, the first action sequence that takes place is very difficult to follow
and this is due to the editing in this scene. For some reason, West has decided
to use tight close-ups and medium shots for this scene. This is something which
makes it hard to follow and leaves the audience confused because there is no
shot here to establish what each character is doing in the action scene. In
this sequence, West should have used the same approach as many other action
directors such as Paul Greengrass and the late Tony Scott. These are directors
make entertaining action films but while both use different styles but there
are some similar features. Both Greengrass and Scott use chaos motion in their
action scenes. This is where there is a lot of items happening in the frame but
the directors use a technique which helps the audience understand the action.
Camerawork
Both Greengrass and Scott
use a close up shot of the either the protagonist and there a shot of the
antagonist(s) and then gives the audience another shot of the other characters.
But the most important thing is that in the editing the directors will cut to a
wide shot. This is done throughout the action scenes, this is something which
makes the action nice and easy to follow. However, West doesn’t use this
technique because in his action scenes are either close-up shots or medium
shots. However, this is not the only issue with the editing, West has certain
issues with something else when editing his action scenes, there is something
which he does quite a lot of. Great action directors such as John McTiernan,
McTiernan is someone who is a great action director because he takes time to
establish where each of the characters are onscreen. This is something that the
audience can see in the film Predator. Before the first action scene takes
place, Arnold’s team are established in one location, but the camerawork allows
the audience to understand where the antagonistic forces are in this scene. The
action scene is well set up before the action begins. However, this is
something that Simon West doesn’t do that well when there is more than one
antagonist against the protagonist. This is something which happens in a lot of
his films including Wild Card, the characters are not established and the
audience doesn’t understand where each character is, and this poor action
geography.
The final aspect that is
wrong with Simon West’s films, is not only an issue with his work but also some
another filmmakers and it is not just something that occurs in Simon West
films. Lighting is very important for clarity with the visual aspects, it
allows the audience to see what happens onscreen. Action filmmakers in
particular have decided that poorly lit action sequences, there are many action
directors who do this and an example would be the recent Hitman: Agent 47, the
opening action sequence and the final action sequence are poorly lit and this
is something that happen because the cast and crew don’t know how to
effectively shoot an action scene to cover up the stunt doubles in scene and to
cover the fact that the action is not convincing. With Simon West, this happens
in some of his films an example of this would be The Expendables 2. The
Expendables 2 is probably West’s best work because the action sequences are
somewhat easy to follow, however the final action scene are something which is
the worst. The sequence that happens between Scott Adkins’ character and Jason
Statham’s character, this is something which has been poorly lit and the
audience can’t see what each character is doing. This is a shame because both
of these actors can do their own stunts and both actors have done other films
where they have committed themselves to the action. Statham has done the
Transporter trilogy and Adkins has done films such as Unleashed and Undisputed
2 and he has done his own stunts and committed himself to the action.
Conclusion
However, in The
Expendables 2 the action sequence between both characters is not lit like the
other scenes and this is due to the fact that the actors aren’t the ones that
actually doing the action on set. The lighting is hiding the fact that they are
using stunt doubles, and the only reason they have done this is because each
actor had a busy schedule and the actors couldn’t be on set to film the action
scenes. This is something which is shame because the action scene between these
two action stars should have been done with clarity and good geography. Simon
West is not a bad filmmaker and most of his films are enjoyable to watch, but
his films have poor editing and poor lighting in some of his scenes. The most
critical area is the poor editing with the action scenes because the audience
needs to understand where the protagonist and the antagonist are in relation to
one another in the action sequences. This is something that all the action
filmmakers should learn, this is because there are key aspects that all action
films should understand and copy because an audience should have much better
quality films than the action films that are being released at the moment.
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