Godzillarex

I’m sure you’ve heard of “A Hero with a Thousand Faces,” a book where Joseph Campbell breaks down a bunch of different stories and shows how they are all structured in practically the same way.

The funny thing is that in video games, it seems that the modern day video game action hero has one face with slight variations. And that face is a ruggedly handsome chap with short black hair, straight nose, wide square jaw, good amount of stubble, a piercing gaze, and a muscular build.

Those are eight protagonists from eight different action games all released in the last decade. Black Hair? Check. A perfect five-o-clock shadow? Check. A notorious desire to dispatch untold amounts of violence while still being able to crack witty one liners? Hell yeah.

So why has this become the de facto video game action hero look? I think it owes itself a lot to action movies from the eighties, the movies that video game developers watched while they were growing up. If you think about it, the action video game hero is basically a combination of Stallone’s imposing facial structure, Bruce Willis’s intense eyes, and more often than not, Schwarzenegger’s build.

And you know what? I’m cool with this look. You see these video game protagonists running around performing these incredible tasks like destroying a giant robot, climbing up a train as it hangs precariously from a cliff, or even surfing  a 747, and you believe it. The guy looks the part.

                                        Totally possible.

I don’t think this holds true in modern day action films.

The action film genre has taken a 180 pivot from the eighties and has settled into a completely different look. The Bourne Trilogy is a really well written action series, but I could never get behind Matt Damon playing a highly skilled agent. Shia LeBouf keeps getting parts in tent pole action films like Indiana Jones, and he does absolutely nothing to contribute to the films. The most recent heinous crime to this trend is Taylor Lautner in Abduction. I applaud him for buffing up a little, but I don’t think that merits “action star” status.

It nowadays seems that instead of an actor working his way up to become an action star, like Stallone and Schwarzenegger did, the action star status is simply handed out based on an actor’s popularity and bankability.

    “Stop laughing. I’m telling you were booking Zac Efron for Die Hard 5”

I’m sure there are dozens of talented actors that could have played either roles discussed above ten times better than Shia LeBouf or Taylor Lautner, but they weren’t given a shot because they wouldn’t have been bankable. For example, Scott Adkins is one of this generations most talented martial artists:

And although Adkins does have a pretty decent career in straight to DVD films,  he sadly keeps getting shafted to bit parts in big films. He plays a random agent Damon knocks out in Bourne, and most recently played Ryan Reynolds stunt double in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Hopefully his inclusion in the upcoming Expendables 2 will give him some deserved recognition.

But there still is hope.  Actors like Jason Statham and Gerard Butler have earned their action star status, and continue to keep the true badass action hero image alive. Video games are also certainly doing their best to help as well.