screenrant.com 10 Movie Cliches That Annoy Reddit Users The Most
Anyone who loves movies has felt it: that sense of deja vu, the feeling that what's happening on screen has happened before.Viewers have come to accept that there are certain common tropes that films reuse time and again.Whether they are tried and true plot formulas or genre-specific conventions, movie cliches are easy to spot.
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However, there are limits to how much fans can take, and it may be time for some cliches to be retired. If a particular trope gets used too often, it can cross the line from entertaining to annoying.Film buffs have taken to venting their frustrations on Reddit, and these are some of the recycled ideas they never want to see again.
10 Ammo That Never Runs Out
Many action movies build up to a final climactic shootout between the hero and the villain, and during these epic battles, no one ever needs to reload.That_One_Guy______ points out this aggravating omission, noting that all action stars seem to possess "infinite mags" of ammunition. It's easy to understand why filmmakers resort to this cliche, since showing the characters reloading their weapons at regular intervals would detract from the momentum and excitement of the scene.To keep audiences at the edge of their seats during these scenes, directors sacrifice realism and trust that fans can suspend their disbelief and enjoy the ride.However, some films, such as the John Wick franchise, take a more realistic approach that many viewers consider a refreshing change.
9 Flawless Outfits In Action Scenes
While male action heroes are typically fully equipped with body armor, the same can seldom be said for their female counterparts.This discrepancy is noted by No-Distance425, who is annoyed by "female characters running around the post-apocalypse wearing white if not a revealing tank top and nothing else." A noteworthy example of this is Bryce Dallas Howard's character running in heels and a white skirt in Jurassic World.Howard's character wears much more reasonable clothing in the trailer for Jurassic World: Dominion, so perhaps filmmakers have finally realized that this tired trope should come to an end.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY8 Deaths That Turn Out To Be Fake
It's painful to see a beloved character die in a film, but for some viewers, what is more painful is to believe they're dead, only for them to miraculously reappear later in the film.Redditor Gubble_Buppie calls out this cliche, noting, "If a character is killed and you're not shown it, they're guaranteed to still be alive and likely integral to the plot." A classic example of this is in Star Wars: The Force Awakens when Poe Dameron flies in at the end of the film after presumably dying on Jakku.
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Sometimes, even when a character is shown to be dead they come back by the end of the film, as Nick Fury did in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.When filmmakers overuse these death fakeouts, it tries the patience of even the most devoted fan base.
7 Romanticizing Stalkers
Romantic comedies seldom portray realistic relationships, but in recent years many people are speaking out about the toxic and dangerous relationships that are romanticized in these films.WrestlingWomanis particularly aggravated by films "where the stalker guy gets the woman because it's oh so cute that he doesn't take no for an answer." The wildly popular film The Notebook is one example of this trope, with Ryan Gosling's character Noah threatening to jump off a Ferris wheel if Allie won't agree to date him.Of course, this behavior isn't any more appropriate if the female character is doing the stalking, as is arguably the case in Sleepless in Seattle.As the importance of consent continues to be highlighted, hopefully, this movie cliche will finally be put to rest.
6 Removing Glasses To Become Attractive
Redditor no_spiritanimalsuccinctly sums up one cliche that many fans are sick of: "Glasses off and you're hot." Virtually every film in which the main character gets a makeover uses this trope.Most of the time, this "makeover" involves little more than removing the character's glasses and letting down her hair (or straightening it, as was the case for Mia in The Princess Diaries).The idea that removing someone's glasses makes them suddenly desirable is occasionally applied to male characters as well, such as when Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man is finally noticed by his crush Mary Jane only after his glasses are off.Bespectacled viewers everywhere are fed up with seeing this trend.
5 Raspy Voices
Plenty_Kangaroo4093 points out a strange trend that seems to afflict heroes in action films: "the protagonist always has to have a raspy voice." The example that likely comes to many viewers' minds is the "Batman voice," andRobert Pattinson in the trailer for The Batman seems to be continuing the tradition. Of course, Batman is not the only action hero who needs a throat lozenge: Liam Neeson virtually growls into the phone about his "particular set of skills" in the Taken franchise.Perhaps the raspy voice is meant to convey a sense of menace and intimidation to the characters.Whatever the cause, it looks like this cliche is here to stay.
4 Every Alien Planet Has A Breathable Atmosphere
The Sci-Fi genre has plenty of recurring tropes, but one of the most frustrating is called out by SleepyMage, who notices that not only do most planets have "a breathable atmosphere," but once this is established, "everyone proceeds to get out of the ship on an alien planet with no protection."The Redditor specifically calls out Alien: Covenant as being guilty of this cliche, and many fans agree.
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However, even the most devoted fan would admit that nearly every show set in the Star Trek universe falls into this pattern, with crew members beaming down to hostile planets unprotected. No doubt the expendable crew members of the Enterprise would like to see this trope go away.
3 The Cough Of Death
Oftentimes films will foreshadow the death of a character, and one cliched way of doing this is by having the doomed character start coughing. Redditor5th_Wavepoints out that death is virtually guaranteed when "someone coughs blood".Granted, anyone who is coughing up blood should seek medical attention, but it is not necessarily the harbinger of death that movies make it out to be.This trope can be found in movies from a variety of genres: from Loki in Avengers: Infinity War to Satine in Moulin Rouge!, any character who coughs up blood is unlikely to make it to the end credits alive.
2 It Was All A Dream
While immersed in watching a film, viewers are invested in the story and buy into what is happening on screen, trusting that it is all part of the story.This makes"fakeout dream sequences" particularly annoying to fans like LDKCP.Filmmakers run the risk of leaving the audience feeling duped or cheated when they include a sequence that turns out to have been a dream. On the other hand, this cliche was cleverly subverted inChristopher Nolan's Inception.Of course, while the premise of Inception is that the majority of the action takes place in dreams, the ambiguous ending leaves fans to decide whether the dream is over or not.
1 Reuniting The Team
Reich1e mentions that many films rely on the standard formula of "getting the team back together".Oceans 11 is a prominent example of this trope, as the beginning of the film is dedicated to reuniting the estranged members of a band of thieves.However, from a certain perspective, this cliche forms the entire plot of Avengers: Infinity War, with the heroes gathering their forces for the majority of the film's runtime.Viewers love to see old friends reconcile, so it seems this cliche, however annoying some may find it, is here to stay.
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