Movie Pet Peeves

[Ireth]

What are some things that just bug you about certain movies? I've discovered recently that one issue I have is when characters who are assumed to be speaking another language (which is presented as English via Translation Convention) suddenly use gratuitous phrases in the language they're already supposed to be speaking. I noticed it first in Dreamworks' The Road to El Dorado, when the two MCs, born and raised in Spain, use phrases like "Adios!" and "Buenos dias!" while the rest of their dialogue is English. But that's just me. What about you guys?

 

[Butterfly]

The absolute reluctance to corrupt the good guy/galss at the end... The fight, usually on some precipice, then the bad guy falls, and dangles, and the good guy offers to help only to face being pulled to his-her death... they recover... and splat... bad guy/girl falls to a messy end/or impaled on some object.

Examples...

Cat Woman, No Escape, The hand that Rocks the cradle, He-man... etc

 

[Sparkie]

Overt, gratuitous shots of the female form. (Star Trek - Into Darkness has a flagrant example of this.)

EDIT: On a related note, I hate pretty much every Bond movie intro.

 

[Bruce McKnight]

I hate knowing that there is an obvious, forced "all-hope-is-lost" moment where it looks like the movie is over right before the big surprising heroic action turns the tide. I know that you need to heap on adversity and that it's darkest before dawn and all that, but does it always need to be forced in such a formulaic way?

Look at great movies like Shawshank Redemption, Braveheart, Pulp Fiction, The Godfather, and The Game. Amazing, engaging plots and none of them needed a formula that called for a fake defeat just before a heroic, tide-changing action (although the last one had a bit of twist). I wish I could plot like that; something amazing and compelling, with structure, but without the feeling of a formula.

 

[Aidan of the tavern]

Pre-mortem humour is getting quite tiring, completely unnecessary in An Unexpected Journey (Great Goblin). Also the thing where if someone "dies" by falling and disappearing over an edge there is a 50% chance they aren't dead (but the good guys never suspect that).

 

[CupofJoe]

Fast Editing... My attention span can last as long as 15 or 20 seconds [sometimes even longer] so I don't need cuts every .3 of second to try and keep my attention. Just about every action movie I've seen in the last ten years gets this wrong as far as I'm concerned.
I have no problem with the female [or male] form... but a woman with a gun [sword, crossbow etc], dressed in a cropped top and hot-pants [or less], is not "empowerment"...
And while I'm at it... Why do the male and female leads always seem to have to fall in love in the middle of the zombie/alien/monster invasion?

 

[Guy]

Idiot good guys. You know, the ones who are so good they won't even lie to their mortal foe. Apparently the hero's sense of moral superiority takes precedence over saving people from the bad guy. Failing to make sure the bad guy is dead. Hesitant to pull the trigger when the villain is especially heinous, despicable, horrifying, etc. "Evil will always win, because good is dumb."

Idiot villains. If you want to see what constitutes an idiot villain, google "so you want to to be an evil overlord" and look at the list of things not to do.

Unstoppable villains. Tough, yes, but the ones who keep coming back no matter what you do make conflict resolution impossible and is very shoddy story crafting.

People shot with handguns who go flying backwards. Sorry, ain't gonna happen. Not even close. Go to youtube and watch Barat and Bereta "Overacting Bullets" to see a wonderful parody of this.

I love strong female characters, but they are very, very, veeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyy easy to get wrong and very difficult to get right. You have to strike that balance between strong independent woman and cast iron bitch. One is not synonymous with the other.

Getting historical facts wrong. I can understand slipping up here and there, but when you have characters using guns decades before that particular model existed (or even worse, using arms and armor centuries before they existed) it just bugs me.

 

[Butterfly]

Here's another one...

Shaky camera work... usually occurs during fight scenes.

Other than making the action look cheap, it's supposed to make the scene more exciting, desperate, busy, etc. The only thing it does for me is make it hard to focus on what the actors are doing, which in turn results in the urge to vomit. These shaky moments give me some serious motion sickness.

 

[Guy]

Here's another one...

Shaky camera work... usually occurs during fight scenes.

Other than making the action look cheap, it's supposed to make the scene more exciting, desperate, busy, etc. The only thing it does for me is make it hard to focus on what the actors are doing, which in turn results in the urge to vomit. These shaky moments give me some serious motion sickness.

Add split screens to that. I can only focus on one image at a time. Putting multiple images/perspectives up there at once leaves me scrambling to figure out which one I should watch. By the time I do, the scene is over. I suspect split screens are the results of cinematographers who couldn't make a decision.

 

[Devor]

I hate it when the good guys are wealthy, or super skilled, or have an army, or have some other resource they never seem to use until maybe the end. If you have those kinds of resources, you can do more than one thing at a time while you face the antagonist.

 

[Guy]

I hate it when the good guys are wealthy, or super skilled, or have an army, or have some other resource they never seem to use until maybe the end. If you have those kinds of resources, you can do more than one thing at a time while you face the antagonist.

Kind of an offshoot of that, but how many times in the Star Wars prequels did we see Obi Wan either knocked off a high place or hanging from one by his fingertips? Hel-lo! You can levitate!

Of course, the Star Wars prequels are fodder for numerous threads all by themselves.

 

[SeverinR]

And while I'm at it... Why do the male and female leads always seem to have to fall in love in the middle of the zombie/alien/monster invasion?

um, kinda human nature. When ever there is a chance of death, people cling to hope that there is something to cling too, reality, they have sex, possibly fall in love. Most often in movies just a break from the action to get the stars naked.
birthrate goes up: after disasters, after battles, after wars, but also when people are bored, nothing else to do so they have sex, such as blackouts. (maybe with popular internet sites go down?)

Here's another one...

Shaky camera work... usually occurs during fight scenes.

Other than making the action look cheap, it's supposed to make the scene more exciting, desperate, busy, etc. The only thing it does for me is make it hard to focus on what the actors are doing, which in turn results in the urge to vomit. These shaky moments give me some serious motion sickness.

Lethal weapon. Loved the first one, parts of the others, but when Mel G. is fighting they move the camera so much you can't tell whats going on. I assumed it was because MG couldn't fight.
Simple dance teacher can show him the moves. DAh.

 

[Eagle]

I hate when movies get pointless sequels that harm the original. Independence Day 2?!! Why?!!

 

[Throughthehalls]

When apparently strong independent female characters suddenly fall apart and need to be rescued by the (male) hero.

 

[Scribble]

Possibly thanks to Mike Myers voice acting in Shrek, and perhaps Star Trek, the Scottish accent is now used in children's films as a replacement for humorous dialogue. I'm not sure why the Scottish are suddenly so funny just for being Scottish. Good for them if they are!

Now, I've not a single complaint against the Scottish, they are a fine people. There should be some logic to it's use. You obtain an accent by growing up among people who speak with it, it doesn't come from being struck by a stone.

I do wonder in How To Train Your Dragon, at what age do the children with American accents receive their Scottish accents upon entering adulthood?

How is there one Smurph who speaks with a Scottish accent? Is it because he fixes things?

Snow White and the Huntsman? Half the village has either Brit or Scots accents!?

I'm sure if you scour the bargain bin for children's movies there'll be many more.

 

[glutton]

I love strong female characters, but they are very, very, veeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyy easy to get wrong and very difficult to get right. You have to strike that balance between strong independent woman and cast iron bitch. One is not synonymous with the other.

It's easier to avoid the 'cast iron bitch' if you don't automatically associate 'strong' with 'mean'. Male characters aren't required to be mean to be strong...

 

[Guy]

It's easier to avoid the 'cast iron bitch' if you don't automatically associate 'strong' with 'mean'. Male characters aren't required to be mean to be strong...

Exactly. Just as a strong male character doesn't have to be an arrogant ass.