Action Movies FEASIBILITY REPORT Prepared for Monica Ng Prepared by Edgar Carranza, Juan Ochoa, Chabrea Owens, Janak Ranchod, Rebecca Roberts

INTRODUCTION The following report was made with the intention of recommending the best action movie for a movie lover. While choosing a movie to watch tends to normally be an issue of personal opinion, the criteria we have chosen and the way in which we conducted our survey makes for an objective recommendation. The intended audience for this report is anyone who enjoys watching action movies. We understand that there could be differences in opinion for the winning movie, but we feel that we have represented the movies in the most objective and numerical way possible. Our five movie options were chosen based on a few minimum criteria. We only chose movies aired in the last 5 years, movies that were “most watched”, and movies nominated for awards.

METHODS FOR EVALUATING THE OPTIONS First, we chose the topic of “Best Action Movies”. When it came to find which movies were going to be in the survey, we had to choose the minimum criteria to narrow options. We gave a time frame of 5 years and picked only movies that had been nominate d for awards. The movies were chosen off “Top Lists” found on Google and then the team narrowed down the selection of 5 movies based on their popularity and year of the film. Once we had the movies, we had to find specific criteria that we could compare for each movie so we could understand which the best movie is. We listed several criteria and then narrowed it down to the 4 that the group agreed was most important. The criteria for our options are: Best plot Best cast Best stunts Best soundtrack

METHODS FOR EVALUATING THE OPTIONS (cont.) Our methods of rating began with making a survey comparing each category with each movie. This was the best method to run our comparison since a survey is able to break down each movie into separate categories to be scored. It also takes the team’s personal movie preferences out of the results of the report. The scale was from one to five with one being the worst and five being the best. We had fifty random people fill out our surveys. Twenty-five were filled out by women and twenty- five were filled out by men on the UNT campus to ensure everyone was represented. UNT was a fit choice to take the survey since the campus is so diverse. That way the survey wouldn’t be limited to a specific ethnicity or social group of some sort. Once all the surveys were completed we added up the amount of points each movie earned in all its categories. The movie with the most points in the end would then be deemed “the best action movie”.

ANALYSIS OF OPTIONS FOR THE SURVEY In deciding what to look for in action movies, there were a larger number of categories so we had to narrow them down. We narrowed down 4 criteria in a movie that we believe that matters the most in action movies. The 5 movies that we chose to analyze were: Fast Five, Marvel’s Avengers, The Dark Knight, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Transformers. The reason we chose these movies was that we believe that they were the most watched movies in the last five years and as a group we voted that these movies all contained significant factors that made these movies top hits in the cinemas and most watched. We chose Fast Five because it had a high popularity rating among more of the teenage population. The reason for this was it was a sequel from four other movies that all related to this movie and all had top ratings in the box office. This movie contained everything from car chases and car races to action and thriller in which it ends in a lead up to a follow on movie. The actors chosen in this movie were famous actors nominated for awards who starred in the earlier sequel to these movies and were famous for acting in other action movies.

ANALYSIS OF OPTIONS FOR THE SURVEY (cont.) Marvel’s Avengers was chosen mainly because all other action movies from Marvel which were about superheroes had their superheroes all continue their plot in this movie. Avengers had 4 previous Marvel movies in which the stories in these movies all led to the Avengers and the same actors were used these movies from the sequel movies, as most other movies that have sequels use different actors in which the essence of the character is lost. One other reason this movie was chosen is that it had the top box office sales this year on its release date as it was a long awaited film. Even though The Dark Knight is also about a superhero, Batman, this movie falls under DC Comics which is a different story writing company from Marvel. This movie was also a sequel to the first Batman movie, and it introduced characters from the old DC comic books such as “The Joker” for example. This movie was also chosen because its ending showed that the story was going to have to be continued in a third movie. This movie was also deemed “most watched movie in 2008” by IMDb.

ANALYSIS OF OPTIONS FOR THE SURVEY (cont.) The Bourne Ultimatum was chosen also because it was a sequel to two other movies in terms of continuing the story of Jason Bourne and in all of these movies, contained elements of realism. Even though it was it contained action, it also portrayed a great amount of thriller which kept its audience intrigued to the end. It also had a high box office rating and appealed to a large range of viewers of different classification. Transformers was chosen because it, like the other superhero movies, appealed to a large range of youth viewers, as it contained actors who were playing the role of young characters. The movie was also contained comedy parts which appealed to all parts of the audience.

ANALYSIS OF CRITERIA FOR THE SURVEY When choosing how to rate these movies, we chose five criteria to rank by as we believe these 4 criteria were the most important factors that affected the movie. The first criterion chosen was “Best Plot”. In choosing this criterion, we believed this summed up the audiences perspective of the movie in terms of the story line, what the movie was about, and how this movie lived up to portraying the story line it was following. We also chose the criteria of “Best Cast”. The reason we chose this criterion was because we believe the cast and actors of the movies mattered in the way the actor played the characters role and how well he played the character. Another reason we chose this was that most of the cast of the movies were the same cast from the movies sequels which made the movie more pleasant to watch since the viewers would already know what role the character is playing based on the sequel movie. A movie that is a sequel from a previous movie would normally contain the same character, although if the character was played using a different actor, it would be hard for the viewers to compare the new actor to the role that he/she is trying to play since they are already used to a common actor playing the role.

ANALYSIS OF CRITERIA FOR THE SURVEY (cont.) The criterion ”Best Stunts” was chosen as we believe it was one of the main factors that determined how well an action movie was portrayed. This also included factors such as realism on terms of stunts, how stunts and action were related to the whole movie and its story line, the ending, and how it satisfied viewers rating. The action of the movie is the most important factor since it has to look real and possible to the audience. An example of this would be characters who are in a gun fight to be ducking and trying to be stealthy in order to win, compared to actors who just walk around in gun fight shooting everyone at the same time and not inflicting any injuries. The difference between this is what makes an action movie versus a great action movie. “Best Soundtrack” was chosen because we believe the type of music used in each movie is what adds to the intensity and thrill level of the movie to make it successful. An example of this can be the fact that in most of these action movies they contained heroic, action music that fits the genre of the movie. The reason this matters is because some movies, an example being a movie that portrayed a queen in the 18 th century, was filmed using current music in today’s culture, which was an unwise cinematic decision since they are trying to portray the 18 th century and should be using 20 th century music.

RESULTS AND COMPARISON OF THE EVALUATION As mentioned in the previous section, we had fifty individuals’ complete fifty identical surveys. Each individual placed a number between one and five, with one being the lowest score and five being the highest, next to each movie in each of the four categories. Using every completed survey, we added the points given to each movie in each of the four categories and came up with the following data: In the Category “Best Plot,” “The Dark Knight” had the highest rating with 202 points. “The Avengers” was next with 165 points, followed by ”Transformers” with 148 points, “The Bourne Ultimatum” with 137 points, and “Fast Five” had the lowest rating with only 128 points.

RESULTS AND COMPARISON OF THE EVALUATION (cont.) In the category “Best Cast,” “The Dark Knight”, with 226 points, was rated highest in this category as well. Behind it was “The Avengers” with 178 points “Fast Five” with 142 points, which was closely followed by “The Bourne Ultimatum” with 141 points, and with 131 points, “Transformers” was given the lowest rating.

RESULTS AND COMPARISON OF THE EVALUATION (cont.) For “Best Stunts,” “The Avengers” was rated highest with 178 points and “The Dark Knight” was next with 165 points. With 156 points, “The Bourne Ultimatum” came in second and was closely followed by “Fast Five” with 154 points. “Transformers” was given the lowest rating in this category with 141 points.

RESULTS AND COMPARISON OF THE EVALUATION (cont.) Back on top is “The Dark Knight” for the “Best Soundtrack” category. “The Avengers” and “Transformers” tied for second with 160 points. “Fast Five” was not far behind them with 153 points and “The Bourne Ultimatum” was once again rated lowest with only 120 points.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Based on the results, we were able to determine that “The Dark Knight” was the best action movie from the past five years since it had the most total points with 761 points. The second best movie overall was “The Avengers” with 675 total points. “Fast Five” and “Transformers” finished within points of one another, but it was “Transformers” that placed third with 580 total points compared to the 577 points “Fast Five” earned. Although the “The Bourne Ultimatum” was only rated lowest in one category, its total points placed it in last of the five best movies from the past five years. In conclusion, we had fifty completed surveys with five different movies rated on a one to five scale in four different categories to determine “The Dark Knight” is the best action movie from the past five years.