What are the codes and conventions of Action Adventure Film?

Narrative

• 12/15 certificate, maximising youth audiences. What certificate is your film?
• Often hybridised with Sci Fi/Adventure/Romance. What other genres are used in your film?
• Major Hollywood studio produced and distributed. Who produced your film?
• High production values including CGI FX. Fast paced editin.g Is CGI used in your film?
• Classic Hollywood 3 act narrative structure.
• Predictable chain of events – cause and effect. Describe the plot of your film.
• Single stranded, linear, closed narrative.
• Dramatic non-diegetic sound (soundtrack music). 
• Clear binary oppositions (good v evil). Explain in relation to your film.
• Star Marketing: Audience identification/expectations .(Cruise/Pitt/Johnson/Thurman/Jolie/Tatum/Craig/Di Caprio/Damon). Does your film feature any stars? Who are they? What types of film are they best known for?
• Generic Typecasting and Secondary Persona apply (stock characters). Are any stock characters Used?
• Romantic sub-plot, humorous dialogue. Does this apply to your film? When/ how?
• Relationships with new technology (youth audiences). Is this evident in your film? Give examples.
• Use of close ups.
• Dominant representation of gender: male/female action hero. Is the hero male or female? Does the hero conform to gender stereotypes?

• Narrative led films contain tightly woven story arcs, where the dialogue drives the plot rather than builds character.
• An action adventure film is essentially one long quest with a succession of different chase sequences, each one more death defying and seemingly impossible than the one before. The trick for the producers is to ramp up the tension as the film progresses to a storming end sequence. Will our intrepid explorers make it, or will the evil antagonist get there first.
• A strong story ark of a quest for treasure, or an incredibly valuable object, or an item which has occult power.
• Love interest that both hinders and supports the main quest.
• A fast moving narrative with constant set backs that are overcome one by one, leading to fairly complex plots.
• In many respects this genre of films derive their energy from being more exciting, more adult and much more dangerous versions of children’s stories of adventure such as Enid Blyton’s Famous Five or Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons.
• Thrilling action where the protagonist saves his fellow travellers through a variety of non realistic but apparently logical escapades.

Characters and locations

• These are not realistic films, although the characters must be believable. They are set in a stereotypical world of the not too distant past e.g the 1930s, or the fictional world of storybook adventures e.g. A high tech, futuristic maze. Where is your film set?
• A main protagonist who is a seen as a 'normal' person and who just happens to have amazing powers of endurance in the face of extreme danger, and is also very clever. James Bond is a Secret Service agent. Captain Jack Sparrow is at first an ordinary good for nothing pirate with incredible agility and luck, although he later takes on supernatural powers.Explain how the main character or characters in your film are 'special'.
• There are always helpers who are a team of innocent characters who happen to get caught up in the action. Who are the helpers in your film? Explain what they do to help the main character.
• Humorous dialogue often diffuses taught and sometimes frightening situations.
• The characters take the twist and turns of the plot very seriously as they are often in mortal danger from an assortment of unusual animals, machines and monsters orchestrated by an evil antagonist. Describe some of the situations the characters find themselves in.
• Exotic locations where the characters have to contend with extremes of climate, as well as evil forces.What locations were used in your film? Describe some of them.
• The aim is to please the audience by keeping them on the edge of their seats through a series of mind-boggling chases, exotic locations and hair-raising adventures in historically inaccurate but somehow elementally possible settings. How was your film exciting?  Describe some of the exciting moments in your film.
• Action Adventure films are designed to create an action-filled, energetic experience for the audience who can live vicariously through the exotic locations, conquests, explorations, struggles and situations that confront the main characters.

Task: Having read through this description of the action adventure genre (characters and locations), apply each area to an action film of your choice. 
The questions are in red in the first and final section. In the middle section you need to apply them on your own.

The film must be from the last 5 years.

Explain your points, using examples from the film as evidence to support your ideas.