- published: 30 Mar 2013
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Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction films and horror films, although the genres do overlap. Fantasy films often have an element of magic, myth, wonder, escapism, and the extraordinary.
Several sub-categories of fantasy films can be identified, although the delineations between these subgenres, much as in fantasy literature, are somewhat fluid.
The most common fantasy subgenres depicted in movies are High Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery. Both categories typically employ quasi-medieval settings, wizards, magical creatures and other elements commonly associated with fantasy stories.
High Fantasy films tend to feature a more richly developed fantasy world, and may also be more character-oriented or thematically complex. Often, they feature a hero of humble origins and a clear distinction between good and evil set against each other in an epic struggle. Many scholars cite J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings novel as the prototypical modern example of High Fantasy in literature, and the recent Peter Jackson film adaptation of the books is a good example of the High Fantasy subgenre on the silver screen.
Jason Statham (/ˈsteɪθəm/ STAY-thəm; born 26 July 1967) is an English actor. He is known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Snatch (2000), and Revolver (2005). He has also appeared in films such as the action thriller The Transporter trilogy (2002–08), the heist film The Italian Job (2003), the black comedy/action film Crank (2006), the action film War (2007), the science fiction action thriller Death Race (2008), the crime film The Bank Job (2008), and the action series The Expendables (2010–2014). In 2015, Statham starred in the latest entry in the The Fast and the Furious franchise, Furious 7, and played a comedic role in the Melissa McCarthy film, Spy. He usually performs his own stage combat and stunts, and is noted for being typecast as an antihero.
Statham was born in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, the son of Eileen (née Yates), a dancer, and Barry Statham, a street seller and lounge singer. He moved to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where he initially chose not to follow his father's career working the local market stalls, instead practicing martial arts. He grew up with football player Vinnie Jones, alongside whom he would later act. Jones introduced him to football, and Statham went on to play for the local grammar school (1978–1983), which he had attended since the age of 11, a passion that he shared with diving. He practiced daily in perfecting his diving techniques, and was a member of Britain's National Diving Squad for twelve years. Statham competed for England at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.