logo Sign In

Worst Cliches in Films — Page 3

Author
Time
Originally posted by: skyman8081
This is another cliche that there is not way around for a filmmaker, unfortunately.

A plan that is not explained on screen ahead of time will go perfectly, a plan that is explained onscreen ahead of time will fail.


The Death Star destruction plan did not fail in ANH, nor did the second one in Return of the Jedi (though it would have if not for Chewie and the Ewoks)

4

Author
Time
Well, not necessarily fail completely but just have something go horribly wrong, so that the audience will know exactly what needs to be fixed in order for it to work. Like Doc's plan in BTTF.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

Author
Time

Oh can I just add the secret marriage plot.  This happens more often on Tv then it does on film but it does happen alot and every time it does I roll my eyes.

It goes like this when a main character is about to get married they then find out that oops they are already married to a character we have never seen before and they didn't even know it.  it's never that shocking because it has been done so many times and it just makes the character look stupid.  You would think at the very least they would have figured it out when the IRS got on them for filing their taxes wrong.

I think this may be the dumbest cliche I can think of it.  if there is one out there that is more stupid I do not want to know what it is.

Author
Time

The scary singing children thing in horror movies is getting really old. The latest offender is the ads for The Lazarus Effect, which itself is the latest variation on "don't raise the dead!"

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

I am pretty tired of superheroes and chosen ones that save the world or universe. Demigods and superheroes. 

I know it is a proven formula, but i would like to see something different done with science fiction films.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

Author
Time

Yeah me too.  One of the things that I don't like about the relaunch of Doctor Who is that they have added this element to the show by making him the last of the Timelords and a living legend that everyone seems to know about.  Don't get me wrong I love all Doctor Who but one of the things that really grabbed me about the old series was that The Doctor was always just an average member of his own race.  Some of the things he could do may seem amazing to us but whenever he interacted with his own people or other aliens it was clear that he was seen as average and he used that to his advantage but not seeming to be a threat. It also made him relateable. In most Sci-fi the heroes are either chosen ones or a hand picked team of the best of the best, in Doctor Who the heroes were just average people mostly thrown together by chance, The Doctor only finished Timelord high school on his second try and even then he only got by with a 51% average, he didn't even know his people's greatest enemy when he first met them. This was a complete inversion of what we normally see and it makes me sad that they undid it.

One of the big reasons I think the last two Spiderman movies failed is that unlike the first three they tried to add this chosen one stuck to Peter Parker's background by having the whole back story with Oscorp and Peter's parents instead of just making him an average guy who is only special because of what he chooses to do with his powers.  I think it came off as cliched and people couldn't relate to this Peter Parker as well as the last one.

I really hope this cliche dies in a ditch soon and we can get some movies about average people standing up.  It shouldn't be the hero's birth that makes him a hero or fate, it should be the choices he or she makes that makes them a hero.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Superhero films would be improved a thousandfold if only they'd stop having each and every plot revolve around some large-scale, city-or-world spanning crisis. Smaller, low-key storylines have worked well for the comics, so why can't they work just as well for the movies? 

Why can't Batman just go after a gimmickless serial killer who stalks high school cheerleaders instead of some world-spanning terrorist organization trying to blow up Gotham? Why can't Spider-Man just try to help a poor woman escape prostitution and her abusive pimp instead of trading punches with Doctor Octopus or the Green Goblin? Why can't Superman just travel to some out-of-the-way town and put some corrupt oil tycoon and his thugs in their place instead of stopping rogue Kryptonians from conquering the planet? And the list goes on ...

Author
Time

Coz every stuper hero movies gotta be bigger and betterer than all the others.

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

<span> </span>

Author
Time

DuracellEnergizer said:

Superhero films would be improved a thousandfold if only they'd stop having each and every plot revolve around some large-scale, city-or-world spanning crisis. Smaller, low-key storylines have worked well for the comics, so why can't they work just as well for the movies? 

Why can't Batman just go after a gimmickless serial killer who stalks high school cheerleaders instead of some world-spanning terrorist organization trying to blow up Gotham? Why can't Spider-Man just try to help a poor woman escape prostitution and her abusive pimp instead of trading punches with Doctor Octopus or the Green Goblin? Why can't Superman just travel to some out-of-the-way town and put some corrupt oil tycoon and his thugs in their place instead of stopping rogue Kryptonians from conquering the planet? And the list goes on ...

 Yeah I would love seeing all of that done, that is one reason I liked the first season of Agents of Shield better then this season, I was getting tired of all of the episode stuff in the MCU.  The thing that made everyone hate Agents of Shield was what I liked about it, I liked the fact that it was small stories that just happened to take place in the MCU and that all of the people on the team were normal people without Super powers.  Now that the show has gone all epic and Sky is a "choosen one" with super powers the show has lost a lot of it's appeal for me and it is just another epic action show where the whole world is at stake every week.

I know I am alone in this but that is how I feel.  For the past decade or so every TV show and movie has been doing epic end of the world type stuff with chosen ones and I am burnt out on it.

Author
Time

DrCrowTStarwars said:

Oh can I just add the secret marriage plot.  This happens more often on Tv then it does on film but it does happen alot and every time it does I roll my eyes.

It goes like this when a main character is about to get married they then find out that oops they are already married to a character we have never seen before and they didn't even know it.  it's never that shocking because it has been done so many times and it just makes the character look stupid.  You would think at the very least they would have figured it out when the IRS got on them for filing their taxes wrong.

I think this may be the dumbest cliche I can think of it.  if there is one out there that is more stupid I do not want to know what it is.

 Stop watching Lifetime movies.

Author
Time

This is the cliche thread, not the genre thread. ;)

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

SilverWook said:

This is the cliche thread, not the genre thread. ;)

I apologise. I am out.

真実

Author
Time

TV's Frink said:

DrCrowTStarwars said:

Oh can I just add the secret marriage plot.  This happens more often on Tv then it does on film but it does happen alot and every time it does I roll my eyes.

It goes like this when a main character is about to get married they then find out that oops they are already married to a character we have never seen before and they didn't even know it.  it's never that shocking because it has been done so many times and it just makes the character look stupid.  You would think at the very least they would have figured it out when the IRS got on them for filing their taxes wrong.

I think this may be the dumbest cliche I can think of it.  if there is one out there that is more stupid I do not want to know what it is.

 Stop watching Lifetime movies.

 See that's the trouble with being stuck living at home, every time my mom watches something I either have to hear about what happened or see it myself.  I just wish they would drop this kind of garbage once and for all.

Author
Time

Hollywood, Lifetime, and porn: the three persons of film's Unholy Trinity.

Author
Time

Can I add any time a film that is part of a series tries to trick us into believe the star is dead or going to die and blows screen time on this when the studio has been very public about the fact that they signed the star to a multi picture deal?

No one is ever fooled by it these days so it just adds to the movie's run time for no reason.

KNOCK IT OFF!

Author
Time

I haven't watched a zombie film or tv show in a long time, so I don't know if they do this these days or not.  I was never really into zombies so now that they are everywhere I really don't have time for them and just find them boring.