Nothing unites the internet more than hate, and today the harvest is coming in from moviegoers sharing their least-favorite movie tropes.
Storytelling is both incredibly diverse, and shockingly narrow and insular. Before you can have subversion of expectations, you need to have the tropes and cliches in the first place. With this at stake, movie buffs are getting sick and tired of some tropes, and haven’t been afraid to vent them on social media.
First up is one of the most universally reviled of all tropes – humans only use 10% of their brain power. Looking at you, Lucy.
The reluctant hero is also in the firing line, which is very bad news for the likes of Die Hard’s John McLane or Australian icon Mad Max.
Romcoms are like the Rosetta stone for cheesy tropes and horrifically written characters. While the running after the plane in the rain is probably the worst thing imaginable, others have pointed the classic “I think you’re seeing other people but it’s actually your cousin” trope.
The infamous “fridging” came up, with the trope around killing the nearest and dearest to give the hero something to fight for and somebody to mope about getting some razor sharp criticism.
George Lucas may want to look away now, with The Chosen One concept getting a tough time. One of the most universally popular tropes for sci-fi and fantasy, it’s perhaps never been topped since Luke Skywalker came to screens in 1977’s Star Wars.
Wanda Maximoff got absolutely obliterated in a subtweet, with her actions in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness doing the old-fashioned false equivalence, as one Twitter user pointed out.
Pro-tip for movie villains — do not listen to classical music. Just don’t. Put on a D&B playlist instead, you don’t wanna scare anyone. The hero will not find your collection of Wagner compelling.
The Dark Knight may boast an absolute all-time performance from Heath Ledger, but it sparked a truly lazy trope of “the villain had it all planned out ahead of time, may or may not get captured on purpose”.
The inherent nature of moviemaking means that clichés and tropes are there for a reason though, it easily and simply conveys ideas to the audience. While we all get sick of them, they have purpose.
Except for that last one. That one sucks.
