Cinematic (and TV, What the Hell) Pet Peeves

[transmogrifier]

List the things you dislike (or are just completely sick of) in movies and TV on general principle.

For me:

1. Biopics about artists
2. Affluent adult children mope about selfish parents
3. That stuttery, streaky camera effect that Peter Jackson likes that I most recently saw in Better Call Saul
4. The Chosen One trope
5. Netflix focusing on original content rather than just collecting media
6. Negative reviews of popular movies being dismissed as "backlash"
7. The knee-jerk dismissal of that wonderful word "overrated"
8. Fucking teasers for trailers

[Irish]

- Directors who use the flat plane of the camera to pretend their characters don't have peripheral vision.
- That TV is still as dumb as it ever was. It just looks better because budgets are higher.
- Blockbusters that barely manage to squeeze one woman onto their main cast
- That CGI means never having to acknowledge gravity.
- The use of violence as pure spectacle.
- Everything is shot on steadicam and it leaves most movies looking like nobody bothered to compose or block.
- A culture that has become narrower and dumber in the ways it portrays both women and men.
- That everything is written and shot at a TV level, regardless of audience or intent.
- Four quadrant thinking.
- Weekly box office reports as a form of criticism.
- The lack of variety at the typical multiplex.
- The cynical way studios leverage progressive politics to repackage tired material.
- That Netflix is to movies what Amazon was to books: Pure poison.
- That Ridley Scott doesn't have the good sense to retire. Or die.

[Dead & Messed Up]

- Everything is shot on steadicam and it leaves most movies looking like nobody bothered to compose or block.

THIS A THOUSAND TIMES AND FOREVER.

[Ivan Drago]

1. Quirky-for-the-sake-of-quirk aesthetics (every shot at an oblique angle, vibrant colors, static camera. . .in other words, a Sundance crowdpleaser)
2. Teasers for trailers
3. The twist where the villain gets arrested but planned to be caught
4. Cartoonish portrayal of social media usage in movies
5. Conveyor-belt stalker/thrillers that rip off Fatal Attraction (eg. Obsessed, No Good Deed, When The Bough Breaks)
6. Teen Titans GO! literally being the only show on Cartoon Network during the day
7. Literally every company ever getting their own streaming service
8. Live action Disney remakes
9. Unambitious animation (films that are just made to hold kids' attention with pretty colors and annoying sound effects...eg. Smurfs: The Lost Village, everything from Illumination Entertainment)

- The cynical way studios leverage progressive politics to repackage tired material.

Examples?

[transmogrifier]

9. Unambitious animation (films that are just made to hold kids' attention with pretty colors and annoying sound effects...eg. Smurfs: The Lost Village, everything from Illumination Entertainment)

With these types of things, I'm sooo not the target audience, thus I don't really begrudge them their existence.....

7. Literally every company ever getting their own streaming service

This, on the other hand, will drive me to piracy.

[Skitch]

This, on the other hand, will drive me to piracy.

Table for two, please.

2. Affluent adult children mope about selfish parents

I hate this shit so much.

[Dukefrukem]

7. Literally every company ever getting their own streaming service

Good one. I was about to say none of the things listed really bothers me and then I read this.

[Watashi]

1. 80's nostalgia.

The 80's suck, guys. Move the fuck on.

[Ezee E]

1. 80's nostalgia.

The 80's suck, guys. Move the fuck on.

It's transitioning to 90s nostalgia. We're good.

[transmogrifier]

It's transitioning to 90s nostalgia. We're good.

Not before a Quantum Leap movie. Come on, the one show that would actually make a pretty good movie in the right hands.

[Gizmo]

- Sequels just because the first one made so much money, even if the story was told
- 0.25 second cuts during 3 minutes of action/fight causing me to have no idea what's even going on.
- All these goddamn remakes
- A 200 page book getting turned into a trilogy

[number8]

Flawed protagonists who are meant to be likeable because of their one true passion.

[megladon8]

As someone who works in retail - movie merchandise tie ins that make no sense.

No one wanted Star Wars oranges.

[Irish]

No one wanted Star Wars oranges.

Were they oranges shaped like Porgs? Because I'm pretty sure DaMU would buy them. #porglove

[Spinal]

"You can do anything you set your mind to."
"Don't ever stop chasing your dream."
"You were put on this earth for a purpose."

[Ezee E]

Alcoholic cops that have good intentions.

[Winston*]

Ambiguous endings for the sake of it.

[Spinal]

Ambiguous endings for the sake of it.

Curious about some examples of this.

[Skitch]

Curious about some examples of this.

I would say American Vandal was a good example of this. It was the only thing that kept me from giving it a full on A grade. I wanted a smoking gun/clear conclusion, and instead was left with vagaries and no resolution.

[Irish]

I wanted a smoking gun/clear conclusion, and instead was left with vagaries and no resolution.

That was part of the point they were trying to make. The characters come to realize that their project is exploitative and the film itself maintains that point of view.

If they had offered a clearer, "smoking gun" resolution, "American Vandal" would be an example of the very thing it attempted to criticize. The ending was one of the most artistically honest choices I've seen in a long, long time.

[Skitch]

I knooooooow.....but I have needs inside lol

[Ezee E]

One more cop one:

-Cops that are so obviously racist/evil/one-sided.

I'll get down with the ambiguous ending as well. I'll need to think of a good example, but sometimes I think they're put at a crossroads, or it ends ambiguously, simply because the filmmakers just don't know how to end it.

[Dead & Messed Up]

The Innocents pulled it off, but that's one.

[Irish]

lol you dork

[transmogrifier]

Not cinematic, but loud sneezers on public transport. Burning hatred for 10 seconds at a time.

[/currently on the subway]