Summary
- Hancock subverts superhero expectations with Will Smith as a gruff, cynical hero, but loses steam with plot changes.
- I Am Legend showcases Will Smith’s talent carrying a film but falls short due to blunders in the late storytelling.
- Enemy of the State offers a rare, serious role for Will Smith, focusing on suspense over action in a high-stakes plot.
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You are watching: Will Smith’s 10 Best Action Movies, Ranked
Few actors can boast as many iconic action films as Will Smith, whose filmography spans a wide gulf of quality. One of Hollywood’s premiere leading stars for decades now, Will Smith’s box office dominance is a near guarantee. While the actor is also well-known for his strictly comedic and dramatic roles, many of the best Will Smith movies are action romps ending with a closing credits song performed by Will Smith himself. But not every Will Smith action blockbuster is created equally.
Smith’s movies encompass a range of different types of enjoyment, from low-brow spectacle to thought-provoking profundity. His action movies are almost as varied as his career as a whole, with varying degrees of seriousness, execution, and production value. While Will Smith’s movies often divide critics and audiences, the best of his explosion-slinging, bullet-dodging tentpole box office events balance all three of these elements and more to make everyone happy.
10 Hancock (2008)
Subverted expectations in the superhero genre
With such a recognizable face, undeniable star power, and potent on-screen charisma, it’s a wonder Will Smith wasn’t considered for the superhero worlds of DC or Marvel movies sooner than 2016’s abysmally-received Suicide Squad. But 8 years earlier, Smith starred in an original superhero story that went on to enjoy its own quiet success. Hancock is the story of its titular hero, a gruff everyman amnesiac with incredible strength and durability who unravels that nature of his mysterious past while struggling to gain the public’s acceptance.
The promise of Will Smith as a callous anti-hero is more than lived up to by Hancock, with some satisfyingly hilarious action beats of the cynical character taking on criminals. But beyond the creative action and steadfast performance turned in by Smith, the storyline of Hancock is something of a letdown, morphing into a very different film by the halfway point. When Hancock sticks to the basics, it’s a great tongue-in-cheek dissection of superhero tropes, but gets too lost in its own lore and worldbuilding, dragging down Smith’s efforts.
9 I Am Legend (2007)
A compelling post-apocalyptic tale with some unfortunate changes
Based on a short science fiction tale, Will Smith stars in I Am Legend as Dr. Robert Neville. The sole survivor of an outbreak of a vampiric virus, the film follows Neville’s attempts to seek other survivors and create a cure for the affliction in a bombed-out New York City, all the while dodging the ravenous nocturnal infected humans known as darkseekers. A starkly unique post-apocalyptic standout in Will Smith’s filmography, I Am Legend lives up to its name.
Will Smith proves his ability to carry a film like no one else in I Am Legend, having no other performances to bounce off of for the majority of the film save for his faithful canine companion, Sam. The poignant emotional scenes and harrowing chases through the skeleton of civilization keeps the film exciting, but some key blunders in the late stages of the story, especially the ending, make the adaptation fall a little bit short. Hopefully, the upcoming I Am Legend 2 can do craft a similar atmosphere without fumbling the themes and narrative.
8 I, Robot (2004)
An exciting futuristic thriller that isn’t as smart as it thinks it is
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Few actors have mastered the art of the buddy-cop action movie like Will Smith, who has starred in countless iterations of the premise over the years. One of his most memorable takes on this trope pairs him with an inhuman partner, the humanoid robot, Sonny. Also based on a science fiction book, I, Robot posits Will Smith as a technophobic detective in a futuristic world investigating the mysterious suicide of a robotics industry leader.
The science fiction action thriller is one of the earliest films to prove Smith’s unprecedented success in police roles, helping to establish a clear trend that his career would go on to follow. I, Robot has phenomenal action setpieces, fascinating world-building, and an uncharacteristically jaded character for Smith to explore. Unfortunately, the film bites off more philosophical substance than it can chew, resulting in a fun action movie that seems to think it’s more important than it actually is. The presence of some truly egregious product placement doesn’t help matters.
7 Men In Black 3 (2012)
Resuscitated the stumbling franchise
After the success of Men In Black, Sony mistakenly believed themselves to have a surefire franchise on their hands, only to drop the ball with the poorly-received Men In Black II. After letting theaters cool down for a solid 10 years, Will Smith donned the series’ trademark black suit and shades once more in Men In Black 3, to the sound of much greater success. For the third film, Smith’s Agent J must travel back in time to join forces with a younger version of his partner in order to prevent a disastrous future.
The biggest sin Men In Black 3 commits is separating the intoxicating chemistry of Will Smith’s Agent J with Tommy Lee Jones’ Agent K. That being said, Josh Brolin gives a criminally underrated performance as the younger version of Agent K, astonishingly copying Jones’ mannerisms to an almost supernatural degree. With the same chrome-laced gunfights and bizarre alien creatures as the previous two films, the third entry manages to be one of the best of the Men In Black movies, even if it is missing a few key ingredients.
6 Gemini Man (2019)
Stars Will Smith opposite himself
Taking a more grounded, serious look at Will Smith’s action acting chops, Gemini Man might not be the most ubiquitous film with Smith’s name on it, but it was a quiet success for those that gave it a chance. The film stars Smith as an aging assassin who wants out of the business, only to be targeted by the only person capable of taking him down — Himself. On the run from his own clone, Will Smith’s Henry Brogan has to keep a low profile and enlist some help from a few old friends to survive.
Will Smith turns in a decent, if not ground-breaking dual performance as twin versions of the same character, who have an incredibly fascinating dynamic as both “family” and enemies. The de-aging technology on display is impressive, even if the technology still had a long way to go in 2019. With pulse-pounding chases, shoot outs, and fight scenes reminiscent of Jason Bourne, Gemini Man is a solid action flick gatekept from greatness by its plot holes, predictable deaths, and sub-par performances compared to other Will Smith star vehicles.
5 Enemy Of The State (1998)
A rare example of Will Smith playing it completely straight
Before becoming typecast as the wisecracking funny man of the Hollywood action blockbuster world, Will Smith has tried time and time again to delve into more serious roles. Among his action films, none are more straightforward than Enemy of the State, a Tony Scott film with no fantastical world or science fiction technology. Smith plays Robert Clayton Dean, a simple lawyer who becomes hopelessly entangled in a dangerous scheme revolving around an agent of the NSA.
Enemy of the State relies on the suspenseful intrigue of its plot to keep audiences invested, rather than simple explosions and chases. This effort is well-rewarded with some intense action beats that feel truly earned. Enemy of the State also poses some interesting questions on state surveillance, making for by far the headiest of Smith’s successful action movies. However, it’s undeniable that Smith excels better in less-dramatic roles where he’s free to embellish the action with his signature brand of comedy. Anyone could’ve played Robert Clayton Dean, but the same can’t be said of Smith’s other iconic action characters.
4 Bad Boys (1995)
One of Smith’s breakout action roles for a reason
The first true action film Will Smith ever starred in, Bad Boys is responsible for pioneering an entire subgenre of Will Smith movies. Though straddled with a simple plot, the film would go on to multiple sequels, all owing much of their style to the original. Alongside Martin Lawrence, Will Smith plays a Miami detective investigating the theft of a massive supply of narcotics from under police custody, leading the two of them on a wild goose chase through the city’s criminal underworld.
The polar opposite of Enemy of the State, Bad Boys knows what it is and excels at it, staying in its lane as an effortlessly cool pure action film. Martin Lawrence presents Will Smith with one of his best literal buddy-cop partners yet, the two bouncing off one another wonderfully while weaving their way through some tight spots. One of the best films of director Michael Bay, Bad Boys deserves credit as the progenitor of many Will Smith action movie tropes, if nothing else.
3 Independence Day (1996)
Took Will Smith’s career to new heights
Bad Boys was a fantastic flick to get Will Smith’s foot in the door as an action movie star, but it was the next year’s Independence Day that truly made him a household name. As fighter pilot Captain Steve Hiller, Will Smith leads a strike force against an army of alien invaders from outer space, who wage war on the planet of the 4th of July. Hailed as one of the all-time greatest disaster movies ever made, Independence Day needs little explanation for its success.
Even though the split narrative keeps Will Smith from dominating the film’s runtime, his infectious charisma is at its zenith in Independence Day, as he punches an alien in the face and tells it “Welcome to Earth!” with a career-defining delivery. His idiosyncratic pairing with Jeff Goldblum stands out as the perfect odd-couple to weather the relentless explosions and brilliant practical effects of director Roland Emmerich’s vision. Low-brow though it may be, Independence Day defined Smith’s filmography through sheer rule of cool.
2 Bad Boys For Life (2020)
Proved the success of Bad Boys wasn’t a fluke
Just like in the Men In Black series, Bad Boys II was a dramatic step down for the Smith-led franchise, with Michael Bay’s logic-defying signature being a little bit too visible. Luckily, the legacy of the first film was proven to still have legs by the time of Bad Boys For Life. When Mike is targeted by the vengeful wife and son of a powerful Mexican drug lord, it’s up to him and Marcus to assemble a special team of new recruits to take down the emergent threat.
Despite almost 20 years having passed since the last Bad Boys movie, Bad Boys For Life makes it seem as if no time had passed at all, with Smith and Lawrence slipping back into their old characters with shocking familiarity. Outpacing even the cheesy greatness of the first film, Bad Boys For Life used modern filmmaking to bring the series up to speed with new action heights, finally winning over selective movie critics with its charm and personality. Judging by the box office success of Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, the third film was good enough to win back public opinion.
1 Men In Black (1997)
One of Will Smith’s personal favorites
Men In Black 3 was a clever twist on what made the original work, but the first film in the alien-fighting franchise simply can’t be topped, even by any other Will Smith movie. The 1997 film sets up Will Smith as Agent J, an F.B.I. agent that makes a career pivot to the elusive titular organization in charge of extraterrestrial immigration on Earth. It’s up to Agent J and his new partner and mentor, Agent K, to stop a particularly dangerous alien threat.
Will Smith has gone on record naming Men In Black as one of his own favorites in his personal Mount Rushmore of Will Smith movies, and it’s easy to see why. From Smith’s effortless chemistry with Tommy Lee Jones’ Agent K to the hilarious alien creatures and Vincent D’Onofrio’s incredible villain Edgar the Bug, there’s simply too much to appreciate about the first Men In Black. As an action movie, there’s no question that it ranks supreme among the action movies of Will Smith’s filmography.
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