I don’t know about you, but I believe some of the best action movies were released in 2021. Initially, I remember scrolling through streaming services, wondering if anything good was even coming out anymore. The whole industry seemed like it was having an identity crisis; half the movies got pushed back a million times, and the other half just showed up on HBO Max like ‘surprise, we’re here now!’
But what I realized later on was that action movies absolutely crushed it that year. It might be because we all needed some serious escapism after everything that happened, or maybe filmmakers just decided to go all-out since they didn’t know when they would get another shot. Whatever the case may be, I found myself genuinely excited about blockbusters again for the first time in ages.
What 2021 gave us- a perfect storm of long-awaited sequels, director’s cuts that really delivered, and some pretty groundbreaking representation in the superhero world. These weren’t mindless– they had heart, style, and enough personality to make each one feel totally different from the others. From here, let me break down the five action flicks that reminded me why I fell in love with movies in the first place.
Best Action Movies of 2021
1. The Suicide Squad
2. No Time to Die
3. Zack Snyder’s Justice League
4. Shang-Chi And the Legend of the Ten Rings
5. Black Widow
5 Best Action Movies of 2021
Here are the best action movies of 2021:
1. The Suicide Squad
Okay, real talk: I was skeptical as hell about this one. The Suicide Squad in 2016 torched me so badly, I didn’t even consider watching the sequel until James Gunn joined, took a whole truckload of C-list villains, and turned them into characters I found myself wanting to root for.
The setup is relatively straightforward: grab a gang of Belle Reve prison bullies (Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, never a good idea, among them), plant them on some hostile island nation called Corto Maltese, and let them loose on a task that will probably kill them all. Their main target? A ginormous alien starfish that reads like it’s ridiculous on paper but somehow gets just so in implementation.
What was surprising was the way Gunn managed to turn this into a war film, a comedy, and an actual character study all at once. Let’s talk about the funniest things that happened, like Idris Elba’s Bloodsport became this reluctant father figure to the team, John Cena’s Peacemaker was literally off the chain crazy, and even those goofy characters like Polka-Dot Man had some legitimate emotional beats.
The numbers tell an interesting story, too. Sure, $168.7 million worldwide doesn’t sound huge by superhero standards, but remember – this thing dropped on HBO Max the same day it hit theaters. I probably watched it three times that first weekend just because I could. The film snagged some solid awards recognition, winning the Satellite Award for Best Stunt Performance, which, honestly, those stunts were insane.
But the real win? This movie actually made me excited for DC projects again. The Peacemaker show that followed proved this wasn’t just a fluke – Gunn really understood these characters.
2. No Time to Die
I’ll admit it; I got a little emotional watching Daniel Craig’s final Bond movie. Seeing him walk away felt like the end of an era, you know, after fifteen years of watching him redefine what 007 could be. And honestly, they couldn’t have given him a better goodbye.
The plot kicks off with Bond in retirement (because even super spies need time off), but of course, his old CIA buddy, Felix, shows up needing help. What starts as a simple favor turns into something way more personal and dangerous, involving a kidnapped scientist and Rami Malek playing one of the most genuinely creepy Bond villains in years.
I won’t spoil anything, but this movie goes places emotionally that previous Bond films barely touched. Craig carried this incredible gravity into every scene, like he knew it was his last dance and he was going to do everything he could with it. Ana de Armas was also fantastic in her brief time on screen, and I’d watch a whole movie of just her character, for real.
Box office returns speak for themselves; $774.2 million worldwide, ranking it the fourth-biggest movie of 2021. More significantly, it gave Craig the exit that he richly deserved. Billie Eilish’s theme song won the Oscar- everything felt like a decent ending to a story that had started way back with Casino Royale.
3. Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Four hours for a movie? I know it seems too much, but hear me out on this one. We all know this was well anticipated, and although it seemed like pipe dreams at first, Warner Bros actually did it. They gave Snyder $70 million to finish what he started, and the result was completely different from what we got in theaters in 2017.
This isn’t just a longer version of the same movie; it’s basically an entirely different story. Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and the gang are still trying to stop this alien invasion led by Steppenwolf, but everything feels more epic, more personal, more Snyder, if that makes sense.
The biggest difference? Cyborg actually matters in this version. Ray Fisher got to show what he could do with the character, and it turns out Cyborg was supposed to be the emotional core of the whole thing. The Flash’s time travel sequence alone made the whole experience worth it; fans literally voted it their favorite moment in some Oscar poll.
HBO Max reported it became their fourth-most-streamed movie of 2021, which proves there was real demand for this thing. It won the Golden Trailer Award for Best Wildposts, probably because the marketing campaign was unlike anything I’d ever seen, basically acknowledging that the fans made this happen.
4. Shang-Chi And the Legend of the Ten Rings
This right here brought me from having basically no idea about Shang-Chi as a character to walking out and believing that Simu Liu might be my new favorite Marvel hero at this point. Having genuine Asian representation in a big-budget superhero movie felt long overdue.
The movie picks up the life of Shang-Chi, who’s been living a normal life in San Francisco until his past life breaks through literally inside a bus window. His father is Wenwu, the Ten Rings organization leader and owner of these incredibly powerful ancient artifacts. Family drama meets mystical martial arts, and somehow it all works perfectly.
But here’s what really got me: the fight scenes in this movie are art. This team worked with Jackie Chan’s stunt crew, and you can tell. Every punch, every kick, every sword swing tells part of the story; pure choreographed storytelling.
Tony Leung as the villain deserves special mention. This isn’t some mustache-twirling bad guy; he’s a father whose love got twisted into something dangerous. The emotional resonance made every fight scene hit harder because you understood why everyone was fighting.
The box office was excellent too. $432.2 million worldwide, the ninth-biggest movie of 2021. It shattered multiple pandemic records and was the first film to pass more than $200 million in the US during COVID times. The St. Louis Film Critics gave it Best Action Film, and the Hollywood Critics Association recognized the stunt work, which honestly deserved every award it got.
5. Black Widow
After a decade of being the badass support character in other people’s movies, Scarlett Johansson finally got her solo MCU film. And while it came as more of a farewell than a fresh start, Black Widow delivered the kind of personal, intense action that made Natasha such a compelling character in the first place.
Set mostly during the Civil War, the story finds Natasha on the run and dealing with her past as a Russian spy. When she reconnects with her “family” – including Florence Pugh’s absolutely scene-stealing Yelena, David Harbour’s hilariously out-of-shape Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz as their mother figure – the movie becomes this perfect blend of family reunion and high-stakes action thriller.
What I loved most was how grounded everything felt. These were not cosmic dangers or reality-warping villains – this was personal, human-scale conflict, and still had us delivering spectacular fight scenes. Cate Shortland directed the hell out of this movie, executing fight scenes that were cruel and realistic but always toward an emotional purpose.
The pandemic definitely took its toll on the box office, but $379.8 million worldwide was still substantial considering that it dropped on Disney+ on the same day. That opening weekend of $80.4 million was the biggest theatrical opening since the COVID-19 pandemic began, which shows that people were ready to return to theaters for the right movie.
More than the numbers, though, this movie gave Natasha the story she deserved while setting up Yelena for future adventures. It felt like a proper passing of the torch.
Conclusion
Whether you watched these in the cinema or streamed them in your front room in your knickers, each one was something special. Gunn’s anarchic brilliance, Craig’s heart-wrenching goodbye, Snyder’s scope-y goodness, Marvel’s world-altering representation, and Johansson’s long-awaited feature, all of them together, made 2021 a bonkers good year for action movies.
And honestly? In a year when we all needed some hope and excitement, these movies delivered exactly that. Sometimes the best medicine really is a really good explosion.
