People In This Online Group Point Out 38 Of The Most Irritating Clichés From Movies And TV Shows
Just admit it, you were also annoyed that, for example, the powers of characters in the same Marvel film could differ radically throughout... no, not the entire franchise, but simply from scene to scene of the same movie - just to maintain a balance between the dozens of characters, almost each of which is an 'imba-' in themselves.
However, not only comic book movies suffer from such problems. Even many movies and TV series that fully claim to be a realistic reflection of life are, in fact, crammed with all sorts of clichés, both plot and visual. And it’s these clichés that we’ll be talking about in today’s selection from this viral thread on the AskReddit community.
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When the driver of a car keeps their eyes focused on the passenger for an entire conversation without looking at the road
I absolutely HATE this! Like, get your damn eyes on the road!!!
*Kills many of the main villain’s expendable henchmen in order to reach the main villain, then when they reach the main villain…* “No, I’m not going to kill you, because then I’d be as bad as you.” F**k off…
"If you kill a killer, the number of killers stays the same." Okay, I'll just make sure to kill A LOT of them!
Persistence will get the protagonist the person they have a crush on! Even if they are rejected, they just try harder!
Nothing to do with the protagonist being a creep.
In fact, we are not just talking about clichés, many of which appeared at the dawn of cinema. The fact is that almost every famous director has their own visual or story style. For example, Terrence Malick’s emphasis on landscapes and colors, Wes Anderson’s exaggerated frame geometry, or slow-mo scenes in Zack Snyder’s films. Sometimes it looks like a 'corporate style', but when it is overused, movie lovers begin to get genuinely annoyed.
The bad guy will be pointing a gun at the good guy. All he needs to do is pull the trigger. But he talks instead. And that'd buy time for our good guy so that he could outwit the bad guy.
*"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."*
Takes her hair down and her glasses off, and oh look she's been hot this whole time!
And 9 times out of 10, she was much prettier and more interesting before the change.
One guy fighting off 10 guys and instead of them attacking him all at once, they wait their turn to be defeated.
That's not as unrealistic as people make it seem. In melees, aka multiple people fighting against each other, it's pretty common that people don't risk getting hit by their allies. Perfectly choreographed fights were everyone can seamlessly work together are not realistic. People have hugely different fighting skills and styles. They would constantly block each other and the single fighter would have a huge advantage.
In fact, the constant repetition of one, even the most outstanding, stage move can, over time, develop into annoying absurdity. “History repeats itself twice: the first time as a tragedy, the second time as a farce,” the great German philosopher Georg Hegel once said, and it’s hard to disagree with this. Therefore, if some plot twist was successful in the past, then with repetition in different movies, it no longer causes anything but irritation to viewers.
When the protagonist “doesn’t do that anymore” and the movie requires his expertise because “he’s the best” so he ends up “doing that thing he swore never to do again.”
A character intentionally cutting their palm when they need blood, wrapping a basic bandage around around it, and then being fine for the rest of the movie. That s**t would HURT, and your hand would be pretty much unusable for weeks while it heals, hopefully not leaving a nasty scar which limits movement for the rest of your life.
Basically every episode of Supernatural lol (not hate, just pointing it out, I'm also a fan).
The: "It's my last mission. Can't wait to see my wife and baby girl. Then immediately dies in some dramatic way, "thing.
Also applies to "It's 3 days 'til retirement"
“What is one of the main differences between cinema and literature is that the writer is not formally limited by timing and frames, so they can tell the story down to the smallest details and trifles,” says Dmytro Kosygin, a film director and cameraman from Ukraine, to whom Bored Panda reached out for a comment.
“Therefore, the cinematic presentation of information is, in a certain way, a set of conventions. And during its existence, cinema has acquired special techniques that facilitate the story. And it isn't surprising that over the decades the viewer has become bored with many of the techniques...”
“And besides, we should not forget that cinema or television is still art, which implies a certain distorted perception of reality. For example, the main character of many blockbusters in reality would have ended their journey already in the first or maybe second action scene. But then what what would be the point of a two-hour movie?" Dmytro wonders.
Turn the TV on
*turns tv on to the exact channel at the exact time the exact thing they need to hear is being talked about, without missing anything.
Even more hilarious, when there is a news item - character A sees it and calls character B to turn on his tv. Then character B hears the reporter recapping something - which they just said 2 seconds ago?
"We'll make our way through the air ducts..." No, you won't. That's not reality.
The only living descendant of a +1000 years old lineage
For thousands of years, the family never branched? It's always only one kid at a time?
Sorry to be a Star Wars nerd, but Rey is quite a bad example for this. She's not even a direct descendant of Palpatine, she's a daughter of Dathan, a man who was artificially created from Palpatine's DNA.
In recent years, cinema has been experiencing a certain genre crisis - especially in comparison with the colossal box office and successes of the previous decade, but we will still go to cinemas, renew subscriptions to streaming services and buy popcorn. And every time we watch another movie, we'll be sometimes livid over the ridiculous moves made up by screenwriters or directors - that’s how we are built. So please feel free to scroll this list to its very end and maybe add your own ideas on the silly plot twists you've ever seen. Camera, action!
An elaborate breakfast buffet before work/school and someone just grabs a piece of toast or an apple before running out of the door. Who's got time for that
Take your toast and go
You hear a sketchy noise
Character: oh what's that? Let's check it out
Character: dies
What's that? There's only -TEN- seconds until my ultimate life goal is accomplished? Let me explain the entire plan with its flaws exposed so the hero can fix this s**t in 9 seconds.
• Someone gets knocked out and within 5 minutes they're up and okay and kicking the s**t out of someone. You'd be in no shape to do anything that physical.
• The main character is like a waitress or works at a gas station and lives in some bad**s apartment in NYC and nobody mentions how.
• Someone "hacking" something on a computer. They just press a ton of random keys and then go "I'm in". I don't know s**t about hacking but I know it's not that.
A teacher says, “Today we’ll be talking about the Civil War” and the bell rings. As the students file out of the classroom, “And write a 2-page essay about Abraham Lincoln!”, like, lady, read a single article on lesson planning and time management.
Also: what a terrible assignment. Just two pages on a person? What about him? By when?
You know in teen movies when someone does something a little salacious and they walk down the hallway the next day and *everyone is staring at them and pointing and laughing and covering their mouths etc?* Yeah that isn't how teens *actually* act
Any type of dialogue where the bad guy tells the good guy something along the lines of "you may not know this but we are more similar than you think"
“I can explain!” - proceeds to not explain while the other person leaves in a huff.
Another funny thing is when a cheater yells "I can explain!" when caught right in the middle of the deed. How are you gonna "explain" that? A random naked woman got quantum-transported into your bedroom and you slipped and fell on her?
Something is clearly not right. Shady, bad gut feeling, whatsoever. Or the character heard or saw something that seems not good.
Then, they get asked something like "Is everything okay?" and they ALWAYS say "yeah yeah everything's fine"
And then something bad happens and nobody is prepared because they didn't tell ffs
Something along this line is in SO MANY movies and shows and it always pisses me off
Stranger Things is a good example of that, but funny enough, this scene shows a guy repressing his romantic feelings for his (male) best friend.
When a character walks into a bar and orders a “beer” or “whiskey.” You need a state a type of beer, buddy.
It's like walking into a restaurant and saying, "one meal please"
A character arriving to a restaurant or a diner, ordering, and leaving without having a single bite, or even before the food even gets to the table. It's so pointless, why even have that scene in the movie? If they're there to talk to someone, just don't have them order for no reason and that's it.
Feedback whenever someone starts talking into a microphone.
Falling through windows, because apparently toughened glass doesn't exist.
When digging a hole to bury a body, the hole always has perfectly vertical sides. Anyone who's ever dug a hole knows this is impossible.
At the end of any class, as everyone is leaving, the teacher tells them to "read chapter 4". Never happened in real life.
When someone tells a joke but you only hear the punchline.
The Hollywood Hangup: a character hangs up the phone without saying goodbye or ending the conversation in a natural way, it pulls me out of the movie every time.
Realising they're the one before the other person is about to board a plane/train, and rushing to reach them at the gate and running through traffic/airport as final take off announcement is made... and making it in time to stop them, kiss, and have a 10 minute conversation.
P.S I hope writers who are on strike right now have a lot of time to read these comments. We can do with a rebirth of cinema!
Children who either talk like cynical 40 year olds (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) or simply exist to defy their parents and do what they want putting everyone in danger. Usually getting them out of danger means innocents die.
The slasher movie villain who's never really dead.
I’ll go first.
When two characters are about to kiss and it’s so obvious someone is going to walk in an interrupt them from doing it.
...until the very end of the movie when they finally get to kiss in front of everyone.
The premise it takes zero $$$ to travel anywhere either airfares or gas money.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty did it well where his money was running out. Great movie btw, if anyone hasn't seen it.
Person with a soon to be married partner (or just any partner) moves to a new town on their own for a work thing or whatever and falls for the “mysterious” guy and then proceeds to cheat on their partner with them (+rubbing it in the partners face)
If you don't get into an Ivy League school, Stanford, or NYU, your life is ruined.
It's raining, they have just had an argument, they both walking their own way, one looks back but the other is still walking then they swap. Both not knowing that they did indeed look back.
Specific to horror movies, but the "character opens a door and closes it to reveal a monster behind it" jumpscare is overdone.
See also: Stands at bathroom sink looking in the mirror on the medicine cabinet. Opens cabinet, closes it again and BAM! Killer/monster/ghost is RIGHT BEHIND THEM reflected in the mirror.
Villains casually killing one of their henchmen to intimidate everyone
I mean, I don’t hate this one too much, especially if it’s to show how casually cruel the villain is, I think it’s a acceptable, maybe a bit overdone, method of showing character.
Poor exposition, it honestly f*****g sucks and feels like it's on the rise. I read a theory that it's because streaming execs are asking filmmakers to cater for a generation that is on their phones whilst watching movies, so everything needs to be audibly explained to the nth degree, even between characters that ABSOLUTELY would have that info anyway.
"Well, you are my brother after all". "Wait, so this will cause a singularity to emerge that might consume the universe?" Ugh, just f**k all the way off. It's so, so lazy and makes you feel like you've been lobotomized.
And the thing is, it's not big info dumps that are the issue, it's the way you present it. One of the strongest parts of The Matrix is the sequence when Morpheus literally explains everything to Neo. Its totally enthralling and feels earned because we are learning along with the central character.
I liked the way Apollo 13 did the explanations, by making it appear that the news programs were telling the public. I watched the movie at my parents' house. I was too young to remember when it happened, but Mom told me that the newscasters didn't really ever say what was wrong with the ship, or what was being done about it.
Hero is the guy who breaks all the rules, disobeys orders and disrespects legitimate authority but that's ok because he was right all along.
Empty coffee cups. That's it. That's my pet peeve for TV and movies. One character will hand another a take away cup of coffee and it will CLEARLY be empty from the noise it makes when it's put down on a table.
Yes. And the character holding one of those cardboard drink holders with 4 cups in it, waving it around like it's nothing and no coffee spills.
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the hero will take a most ferocious beating and not feel any pain but will wince when someone cleans his cuts
The hero is uninjured except for a small cut on his face to show how tough and bada$$ he is, without marring his looks.
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Hero is the guy who breaks all the rules, disobeys orders and disrespects legitimate authority but that's ok because he was right all along.
Empty coffee cups. That's it. That's my pet peeve for TV and movies. One character will hand another a take away cup of coffee and it will CLEARLY be empty from the noise it makes when it's put down on a table.
Yes. And the character holding one of those cardboard drink holders with 4 cups in it, waving it around like it's nothing and no coffee spills.
Load More Replies... the hero will take a most ferocious beating and not feel any pain but will wince when someone cleans his cuts
The hero is uninjured except for a small cut on his face to show how tough and bada$$ he is, without marring his looks.
Load More Replies...