The Matt Damon movies Dolph Lundgren thought were too fake
As a trained martial artist who eventually entered the film industry and garnered prominence, Dolph Lundgren obviously has a specific set of criteria when it comes to action movies. The star of classics such as Rocky IV and Universal Soldier, Lundgren’s focus on physical discipline played a major part in shaping his unforgettable on-screen image.
For an actor of his generation, contemporary action movies just don’t have the same magic as the ones where physicality dominates the momentum of the narrative. That’s exactly why he criticised the current state of the genre during a conversation with Den of Geek, pointing to one particular franchise as the primary culprit behind the proliferation of an artificial style.
That franchise is none other than Matt Damon’s popular Bourne series, which featured the celebrated actor as an assassin who struggles to navigate the labyrinth of his own memories while dealing with the conspiracies that surround him. The Bourne movies played a huge role in shaping the visual language of action cinema, creating a distinct identity for post-9/11 realism.
Lundgren began: “It came a little bit with the Bourne series, that took a really good actor who wasn’t really a fighter, but the story was perfect because it said, how can he be such a lethal fighter, you know? How can Matt Damon be so lethal? He doesn’t know who he is. You were wondering who he is and how he can fight like that. And in order to accomplish that it had to use a special editing job. Because you couldn’t really see what was going on. Then everybody copied that style, like what you were saying, where you can’t see what’s going on.”
The industry veteran added: “In order to accomplish that, it had to use a special editing job. Because you couldn’t really see what was going on. Then everybody copied that style, like what you were saying, where you can’t see what’s going on. Whereas in the old days, when me and Stallone were fighting in the ring, everything was real. It was all us. There was nobody else in there. Stallone, with no shirt on, getting hit while he was directing the movie. That doesn’t happen much anymore.”
Although the Bourne franchise definitely had a seminal impact on the editing techniques of action films for more than a decade, the visual grammar of modern action movies has deviated further from the kind that Lundgren passionately champions. One of the best examples of this is the John Wick series, which eschews realism for highly stylised neo-noir frameworks that have not only influenced other contemporaries but also found their way into the world of video games.
Watch the trailer for The Bourne Ultimatum below.
