Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Action Scenes

My wife and I watched Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and it was surprisingly good. I was used to the Michael Bay directed Transformers movie where there was nothing but action, and more action with a hint of plot in there. I liked the first and second one, but the ones after that, save for Bumblebee, contained far too many action set pieces one after another. This one was more spaced out, and the main human character actually had some depth to him. Add in a pleasant surprise in the ending, and this movie definitely brought a little more interest in the franchise for me.

As much as I just criticized Transformers for having too much action, I started out doing the exact same thing, especially with The Mustard Prince. I still struggle with letting the story breathe and have the characters not just fight all the time. Having practiced kicking and Brazilian jiu jitsu, and trying to be a real student of the game, I have an affinity towards writing action scenes. However, I am slowly learning that building towards those scenes is an important aspect of the story.

I am still learning. For me, action scenes were something of a shortcut to hide an inability to write anything else. I have learned from breakdancing and Brazilian jiu jitsu to just slow down and let things breathe, and the same goes for writing.