Name: The Problem With DC Action Scenes
Uploaded: 2026-02-16T17:04:12.000Z
Duration: 7 min 34 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

One consequence of Hollywood being dominated by superheroes and franchises is that by the time you're my age, you've seen about 6,000 action sets.

And it's pretty easy to distinguish between the two because the.

Has adrenaline been released into your system or not?

After watching all these set pieces, I think we've sort of been forced to develop an intuitive sophistication about them.

There are no shortcuts to thrilling an audience that's absolutely drowning in this stuff.

We recognize and champion good work when we see and feel it.

I think that's the secret to the success of franchises like Mission Impossible, Fast and Furious, and

These are movies that are committed to well choreographed, well edited, real action.

Tom Cruise understands exactly what he's offering.

3 or 4 genuinely creative set pieces with a serviceable plot that doesn't take itself too seriously.

And a few charismatic actors can be a really fun movie going experience.

In fact, this formula I think in many ways defines the strategy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Some of those movies are undoubtedly better than this.

But they've tried their best to hew to this baseline, and

I think it's worked out pretty well for them.

But the Marvel set pieces have been really consistent, by and large, and

they're probably the things that I remember most when I think back on these movies.

Now, I know there's a certain amount of fatigue these days about superhero films.

But you know, if I ever think back to my expectations as a kid for what big screen superhero team up fights would be like, I mean, this definitely exceeds them.

That thing does not obey the laws of physics at all.

Look, kid, there's a lot going on here that you don't understand.

The sad part about this is that as a kid I read DC Comics, not Marvel Comics.

And unfortunately, the DC Extended Universe set pieces leave a lot to be desired.

I think that people have explored before.

Zack Snyder's preference for stylized coloring versus the more muted cinematography of the mcu.

The overuse of super slow motion and ridiculous virtual camera moves like this.

But there are a few other things I want to point out that I think make a bigger difference when it comes to superhero set pieces.

We all know that superheroes do a lot of absurd things.

Half the shots that Iron man takes would be fatal blows.

But people have an intuitive sense for for weight and velocity and impact.

Which is why in camera action usually gets a more visceral response from audiences.

But if you're going to use cg, it's a good idea to pay a lot of attention to the cues that people pick up in the first set.

Piece of Winter Soldier, for example, The Russo brothers do a great job at gauging Captain America's strength level for the audience.

They lace these in with real hand to hand combat to enhance the realism.

Or take Spider Man a heavily CG character.

It's easy to establish his physics because he's swinging on elastic bands.

And it's a different type of physics than Iron Man's or the Hulk's.

Too often in DC movies, the physics just don't matter.

Or the camera is doing something that makes everything feel weightless.

I don't even understand the physics of how my toes hurt.

And there's not enough difference between the heroes for the audience to really feel the power levels.

there's a good number of times in the Marvel movies where powers interact off of one another in ways that you can't Predict power at 400% capacity.

Or they take something routine like someone bailing from a car and just go the extra step.

In the DC films, every character is a blunt instrument only doing the most obvious thing, which in Superman's case is usually punching.

Because Superman has a laundry line list of powers.

There has to be some way for him to combine them in a creative way to solve a problem or defeat a clever villain.

I know a good filmmaker can figure it out.

Finally, the one thing that Marvel is really good at is the ability to slip character moments into the cracks of big set pieces.

Every action scene has its pauses when everything stops and the characters get to say a line or two.

I live for the simple things like how much this is gonna hurt.

Here are the things that Marvel characters say in those pauses.

Oh, you're being more handsome in person.

Taking on a squadron down on six and he didn't invite me.

Who was laying with the Rascabarian one time.

Now, here are the things that DC characters say.

We'll see about that next time they shine your light in the sky.

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The Problem With DC Action Scenes

fatigue

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