C. Examples: Ong-Bak, Mad Max 2 (the plot is extremely forced at times as if made up on the spot), Redline to name an anime, The Night Comes for Us, The Raid 1/ 2, a slew of Jackie Chan movies. You get the picture.

B... I care about plot much more, action scenes are whatever...

An action scene without any 'meaning' behind it is just kind of noise and flashing lights. If you're not worried every time the person you're rooting for dodges an attack by a hair, or exultant when the antagonist finally gets their comeuppance, no amount of choreography will make the scene truly enjoyable.

So I'd say, assuming a good movie is a 'B', then 'C' is about as low as I'd go. If you want an A-tier movie though, I think the plot, the meat of it, should be at least a B though.

Action is for the most part just filler between actual plot elements.

I chose "F".
If the goal of an action movie is to have great action, it could literally have zero plot and still be entertaining.

Of course my interpretation of a "good movie" in question is something that is just above average. Not great, not incredible, but also not bad... just... "good".

Also, when I think of "plot", this differs for me from the movie's writing.
For me, the word "plot" refers to the key story beats and the overall concept of a film... and oftentimes that's not very important for action movies, usually just being used as an excuse to have some action.
For action movies, the more important stuff would be the characters, the writing, the cinematography, and of course, the action.

So, yeah, a perfect example of this is Hardcore Henry. The plot is kind of nonsensical in that movie and is likely its weakest aspect, but the characters are all pretty fun, and the action is great. All in all, it's not a terrible movie, and while it's not "great" I'd still call it "good".

The Riki Oh movie has a D plot and is still fantastic. Now, some might argue that it isn't intentionally fantastic, but I don't think that detracts from it in the slightest.

C

The movie needs an average plot for a good movie rating in general. The action can make me not judge the script writing as much. The plot must be average for a good rating.

D. If I'm watching an action movie, plot is a bonus. Of course, it would be nice to have. Could be both a good action movie AND a good movie period. I wouldn't go lower than a D though because I consider an F to be anything I wouldn't recommend anyone, either because it's not the right kind of entertaining bad to poke fun at or is just straight up malicious to the point I can't just ignore it. A 0-1 on the JelloApocalypse scale.

But, majority of recent "action" films are CGI. There is no action, you might as well be watching a cartoon.

I voted C with the majority. The recent Godzilla vs Kong came to mind, and I thought "how much worse would the writing have to be for me to have actually not liked it". And I feel like a D grade would've done it.

(I put the movie at a B-/C+ in writing)

I don't need a plot. Most action movies have bad/standard plots either way.
What I want is artful, interesting action. Kingsman pulled that off, John Wick pulled it off, tarantino films, too. It's not just artless explosions which put me to sleep.

So honestly, I can't properly answer that poll. Figured I'd answer with B for the traditional flick 😛

F

At least that's how I'd rate the plot of "Shoot 'Em Up", and I really enjoyed the movie.

F
There are times when watching "Attack the Block" or "final destination" are way better than watching a story with plot. Some stories with little plot may be deconstructions of the genre, in others you can feel the intention they had for each scene... There are always other ways in which you can appreciate these films and any other films (though once you've seen enough you'll know what suits you best).

For example I forced myself to watch the LOTR films and disliked most of them. I cannot think of a situation where I'd want to watch something similar (except for some great imagery) even though I can't say the movies themselves are bad. (If you overlook most of it's argument's errors as consequences of using a soft magic system).

I voted B. Imo for any movie to be considered good, that much plot is bare minimum. For they were made to tell a story. Though I don't have high standarts for that matter. I consider John Wick and Kingsmen series pretty good.

Edit: Couldn't stand to watch LoTR because it wasn't an adaptation of books. And I read the books 7 times so don't tell they were so.

B or C, maybe.

Reminded me of F/SN (Ufo's UBW and HF). The action is spectacular, but I fell asleep at least ten times (probably more like 20) during my time with the two "routes". Stellar animation can't save it from being absolute garbage.