10 Action Movies From The 2000s That No Longer Hold Up

Summary

• Some 2000s action movies don’t hold up due to changing tastes and lack of substance.
• Reboots and unnecessary sequels have hurt the longevity and quality of some original movies.
• Iconic 2000s action movies like
  Mr. & Mrs. Smith
  and
  X-Men
  have fallen victim to changing cultural moments.

Certain titles that may have once been counted among the best action movies of the 2000s do not hold up today due to changing tastes in storytelling. The staples of the 2000s action genre feature a lot of classic espionage and fantasy vibes. However, when rewatching them today, it becomes apparent that many of these movies from the 2000s are all aesthetics and no substance, if not problematic in retrospect.

The longevity of some of these movies has been hurt by reboots that are better than the original, or their franchises having too many unnecessary sequels. With many upcoming, unwanted remakes and sequels, the original movies are degraded when they become a part of the blur of endless, meaningless action. On the other hand, certain 2000s action movies have simply fallen victim to time when the cultural moment that enabled their success is long gone.

10 Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

The Original Brad & Angelina Movie Depends Upon Their Relationship

Mr. & Mrs. Smith has a lot of obvious weaknesses that critics have never failed to notice, namely lackluster writing due to a superficial conflict and underdeveloped characters. What made the whole thing work was the undeniable chemistry between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The Hollywood power couple also played a huge role in Mr. & Mrs. Smith becoming a rom-com/action classic despite mediocre reviews, as their ultimate collaboration, playing out a story where professional and personal priorities clash.

Then the TV show reboot came around and achieved much better reviews, highlighting all the problems with the first movie. Fans being forced to reckon with the Mr. & Mrs. Smith show just being better is coupled with the obvious point that Pitt and Jolie are no longer together. A movie that was mostly working because of enjoyability and the meta nature of the plot falls apart when there is a stronger version of it that isn’t dependent upon the lead actors’ marriage.

9 Troy (2004)

Troy Is A Boring Depiction Of The Trojan War

Troy is the most basic version of this story, filled with unlikable characters and forced subplots.

On paper, Troy was a perfect action movie with substance and marketability, which did turn it into a box office hit. The cast, including Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, and Orlando Bloom as Paris drew in fans, while the promise of exploring this legendary conflict seemingly equated to something profound. However, Troy is the most basic version of this story, filled with unlikable characters and forced subplots. It doesn’t do its one job of imparting the tragedy of the Trojan War when pretty much all the main characters except for Achilles and Hector get away safely.

Madeline Miller reinvented the Trojan War in the cultural zeitgeist with The Song of Achilles, a BookTok book that actually deserves its hype. The bestseller delves into the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus and emphasizes the carnage outside and inside the walls of Troy. In comparison, Troy is a generic would-be Gladiator that acts like it is doing something meaningful but makes none of the hard narrative decisions needed to make its point.

8 The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

The Spiderwick Chronicles Movie Doesn’t Do Justice To The Books

The Spiderwick Chronicles is a fantasy book series that was always better suited to TV; with some other books that are being rebooted, there possibly was a way to make a good movie franchise out of it. However, Spiderwick is tricky because the books are very short, making for an odd series of short adventures that aren’t really enough to each be their own movie. However, when the movie adaptation tries to cover everything in one go, some of the best parts are left out.

The result is a movie that is a serviceable fantasy adventure but isn’t as deep or entertaining as some of its contemporaries. Its ratings reflect that it is a standard feature of this genre with great visuals and a strong cast that can’t truly be called bad. However, with fantasy gaining a stronger foothold in pop culture, it’s clear that it could have been much better. Fans are now eager to see The Spiderwick Chronicles season 2 because the new TV show has handled the source material better.

7 V For Vendetta (2006)

V For Vendetta Shows A Very Simplified Dystopia

V for Vendetta could never compare to 1984 or The Handmaid’s Tale, its unofficial ancestors in the dystopia genre. It has the grand moments that will sweep up viewers when watching it for the first time, explaining its success. V is a charismatic revolutionary who can mobilize a population with a few well-planned words and schemes; Evey is an everywoman who is transformed into his greatest ally. However, these are the better parts of a story that doesn’t make a ton of sense when revisited.

V for Vendetta seems to have been intentionally adapted this way, with the specifics of the dystopia being less important than how people are motivated to fight against it. It glosses over the fact that V did imprison and torture Evey when she sides with him quickly in the aftermath. With The Hunger Games completely overturning the dystopia genre in the 2010s and changes in the way such stories engage with real-world discourses, V for Vendetta is a relic of a completely different cultural and political landscape.

6 300 (2007)

300 Has Come To Be Highly Critiqued For Its Inaccuracy

Like Troy, 300 is a war movie set in the ancient world that seems like it is trying to replicate Gladitor‘s success. Gladiator is not historically accurate but includes enough well-researched historical details for the relevance of its theme to come across. On the other hand, 300 was a huge success that launched the careers of Gerard Butler and Lena Headey. However, it is almost universally recognized that 300 is not really a historical epic, taking too many creative liberties and highly romanticizing certain aspects of Spartan culture.

The ratings suggest that while strict historical accuracy has done nothing to hurt 300‘s popularity, it has prevented it from achieving true critical acclaim. However, now that the moment has passed, the question of what significance it holds if it is imparting a fictionalized version of history remains. Some argue that this is a problematic depiction of this history (via CBR), which only serves as a vehicle for nearly two hours of gore.

5 X-Men (2000)

Fox’s First X-Men Movie Isn’t True To The Characters

Fox’s biggest mistake from the beginning was making Wolverine the franchise’s protagonist instead of focusing on the original leaders of the X-Men. 2000’s X-Men did well enough at the time as a decent superhero movie with a roster of A-listers and interesting conflict. However, the subsequent two sequels showed how the story’s foundation was weak. All the semi-reboots and sequels after that tried to correct these problems, giving rise to repetitive stories that are even less faithful to the characters.

The coinciding rise of the MCU was the final straw for Fox’s X-Men universe, as a much better adaptation of Marvel’s superheroes, implicitly posing the question of why they weren’t the ones adapting the X-Men. Indeed, X-Men ’97 has shown that Disney at least understands that the X-Men are a team, not Wolverine and a supporting cast. The weak points in the average first X-Men movie increased in severity with time, when each new movie only compounded those problems.

4 Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith (2005)

The Best Star Wars Prequel Is Still A Bad Movie

The prequel era was lucrative if not critically successful when the fandom’s goodwill and nostalgic fondness arguably did not run out until The Rise of Skywalker.

Revenge of the Sith is decidedly not the best Star Wars movie, but typically regarded as the best of the prequel trilogy. For the most part, the history of Star Wars movie premieres shows that people will turn up in masses for the biggest franchise of all time, regardless of how good the movie actually is upon scrutiny. The prequel era was lucrative if not critically successful when the fandom’s goodwill and nostalgic fondness arguably did not run out until The Rise of Skywalker.

Revenge of the Sith showcases a better characterization of Anakin; there are some great dynamics between him, Obi-Wan, and Palpatine and amazing action for the first third of the movie. However, the prequels’ typical bad writing and hand-waved politics catch up to Revenge of the Sith as the movie progresses. With the Disney era of Star Wars being mostly a downturn in quality, it has only further evidenced that few of the new properties can compare to the original trilogy.

3 Charlie’s Angels (2000)

Charlie’s Angels Isn’t Much Better Than Full Throttle

Most of the hate is directed towards the 2003 sequel Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. However, the first movie was received well but doesn’t hold up. How the Charlie’s Angels franchise depicts its female cast is a contentious subject, as they are always fully capable agents but are heavily sexualized. They answer to an anonymous male employer; the one woman (in the movies) who questions his authority and why they listen to him is the villain, characterized as a “fallen angel.”

While it is a basic, but popular action movie led by deserving stars, Charlie’s Angels’ jokes haven’t aged well and the rest of the story isn’t interesting enough to maintain viewers’ praise. The 2019 remake of Charlie’s Angels also complicates the franchise’s legacy, as this movie failed to attract both longtime fans and a younger demographic. The Charlie’s Angels’ reboot’s failure suggests that pop culture has largely moved on from the story.

2 King Kong (2005)

Peter Jackson’s King Kong Is Way Too Long

Scott Mendelson aptly argues (via Forbes) that King Kong‘s pre-release glowing reviews set it up for failure when people’s expectations were way too high. King Kong benefited a lot from Peter Jackson’s name, the star-studded cast, and the special effects that made for good trailers. Even if the reviews guaranteed some disappointment, with Jackson riding on the success of Lord of the Rings, King Kong was a safe success.

While King Kong is not generally considered a bad movie, and definitely one of the better King Kong movies overall, its problem is very simple: It’s way too long. Jackson pads the runtime with too many unnecessary action sequences featuring one monster after another, before finally getting the main characters off Kong’s island for the final act to actually start. Watching this movie for the first time might have been impactful due to the spectacle and its release at the height of Jackson’s career, but it is not the best rewatch.

1 Transformers (2007)

Michael Bay’s First Transformers Demonstrates The Same Problems As Its Sequels

Transformers One is hopefully setting out to rectify all the mistakes made by more than a decade of Michael Bay Transformers movies. The new animated movie seems to focus more on the Transformers than human characters with a promising blend of serious and funny elements. A franchise that started out as a toy line probably doesn’t need to be completely dark and gritty. However, when Bay’s Transformers first came out, this seemed like a solid premise for a new movie franchise.

The Autobots and Decepticons alike are flashy and intimidating when rendered in live-action and set against real humans. However, with each additional movie, it became more apparent that there wasn’t much more to the series than this. Every storyline is essentially the same, with a new conflict on the rise among the Transformers while the humans’ personal lives are mixed in. In essence, this is all the first Transformers is too, which is why it is another 2000s action movie that doesn’t hold up.

Source: CBR, Forbes