Comic movie cliches you can't stand.

[Morgoth]

I think the one I don't like is when they have to make the villian also the one the one who killed the heroes' parents.

Like The Joker killing the Waynes.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

The love interest. It is like so mandatory it sickens me. I mean at least do it in a different way.

 

[Fried Gold]

The heroine falling the supehero, but being rather indifferent towards the secret identity.

 

[Silvermoth]

The Clutching of the dead lover and screaming Noooo!

 

[Morgoth]

The love interest. It is like so mandatory it sickens me. I mean at least do it in a different way.

Oh I know. There's nothing wrong with it, but if done the right way. Like when they had to throw in Doc Ock's wife. Rosie wasn't the only thing making him bad, but that was kinda' there too. I hate when they have to make it about the love interest being killed as the excuse when there's a perfectly good reason there already. It's over kill.

 

[3dman27]

the idea of superheroes in movies fighting the military or police instead of supervillians

 

[GL1]

the idea of superheroes in movies fighting the military or police instead of supervillians

Or corporate tycoons... or nothing.

The thing that really grinds me is the accidental death of the villain. Dude. Kill the villain or try to reform him, but when fate sweeps in and he dies by his own hand or some random thing just when you're trying to figure out what to do with him... that's wack to me.

 

[blud_knight]

the leather costumes. Then jokes about spandex

 

[joke]

1) Villain always connected to the origin of the hero or the hero himself somehow.

It's so ****ing over-done it's absolutely ridiculous. I mean, the hero already starts to fight crime because he feels obligated or has an emotional reason, they don't have to shoe-horn some personal relationship with the villain into the mix. This also entails that the first major villain the hero encounters is also the one connected to him. (One of the things wrong with Batman Begins)

2) The love interest who doesn't exist in the source material.

At least in the comics, they've tried to incorporate the (fe)male love interest into the story and make the character matter, but in the movies, they mostly just make up some blond bimbo with a weird name and then make her disappear after the end, which seems like a cheap way to "appeal" to the female demograph. (Another thing that was wrong with the new Batman movie. They had a perfect chance to bring Talia into the story, but noooo, they had to make up "Rachel")

 

[Dr. Fate]

Damn, you guys already listed most of the best ones. Well, feeding the fire -

1) Love interest cliche: yeah, very hard to pull off.
2) Leather: bleh. Everyone knows leather only looks good on women, and even then...
3) Side-character insists central character has a heart of gold: see 2004 Punisher. One of the drawbacks of this film would be that the film wants us to believe that the Punisher has a heart of gold underneath it all when part of the idea of his character is that he doesn't really have one, or at least not much of a heart left.
4) Too many "make a choice" speeches directed at the superhero by his supporting cast or random side characters.
5) The villain upstages the hero.
6) People who are generally good actors are cast to play heroes/villains whom they physically do not match (diminuitive Michael Keaton as the normally hulking Batman, towering Hugh Jackman as the traditionally short statured Wolverine, stringbean Topher Grace as the normally muscle-bound Venom).
7) Casting young unknown actors to play superheroes and claiming you're doing it for the benefit of the audience when in reality you're just hiring lesser known actors because it's cheaper.
8) Briefly highlighting the villain as a mentor to the hero.
9) Inconsistent tone, wildly going back & forth between dead serious and camply self-mocking humor (the Krypton/Jor-El/Superman at work moments VS the goofy Lex Luthor moments in the 1978-1987 Superman series; Daredevil's crime-fighting contrasted against the fact that his clients are so poor they can't pay him properly).
10) Fight sequences that make no sense (Matt Murdock VS. Elektra on the playground).
11) Pointless costume change from book to film (c'mon guys, if Richard Donner didn't screw with Superman's costume, you guys don't have to screw over the costumes of other characters!). Not sure if that's a cliche or not, so it's open for debate.

 

[Canadian Rider]

When the Villain kills/injures the Hero's 1) parental figure 2) love interest 3) pet.

Cheap. Very cheap.

 

[RskimB]

The love interest. It is like so mandatory it sickens me. I mean at least do it in a different way.

I can barely watch Spiderman 2 anymore

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

I dunno....I can't really think of any really.

Probably the tounge-in-cheek point when a film points out to US, the viewer, that this is a comic book film.....like when X-MEN poked fun at why they weren't wearing yellow spandex,

How bout crappy superhero films? That's a cliche right there. I'm tired of those, IMO.

 

[Dr. Fate]

How about the "woe is me pity me for I am the reluctant hero" speech?

Is anyone tired of using the superhero as a metaphor for alienated outsiders yet?

 

[cujo66]

11) Pointless costume change from book to film (c'mon guys, if Richard Donner didn't screw with Superman's costume, you guys don't have to screw over the costumes of other characters!). Not sure if that's a cliche or not, so it's open for debate.

That's the one I wanted rant about. Donner Superman, dead on balls accurate. Spiderman, made it look even cooler. Wonder Woman TV, perfect (Lynda Carter, perfect, and she was fat in high school, my worked with gal who went to school with her) But Batman's costume is not black rubber. It's reinforced grey kevlar weave, Jeez, everybody knows that.

Oh and Superman's costume doesn't have little "S"s all over it.

On another note, the villain kills the heroes parent/love intrest is a little tired. That's like every Steven Seagal movie.

 

[comicfan4Life]

I agree with all of this but it won't stop. Comic fans are a very big but not big enough to sell more movie tickets. Sure we'll go see it once or twice, maybe even three times. But if it sucks they know we won't see it and it'll flop. So they try movienize every thing for the non comic fans. Like with the new ghost rider. The main character is johnny blaze and we all know in the comics he wears a black jumpsuit. But in the movie he's wearing Kecth's style because it fits into the movie and will sell tickets. With batman the grey only looks good in comics. That's why they change the costumes.

Although the yellow and blue wolverine out fit would've worked had it been the Astonishing X-men leather version. The actors complain about the tight leather so maybe one day we'll get the complete dead on comic treatment as Cujo66 stated was done for Donner's superman above. But until then, they want money pure and simple. They know we're going to see it no matter what since we're comic fans. All they need is a lot of good trailers, a few tv spots to keep us hype all they way up to opening day. And that's where they'll make us proud or break our hearts.

 

[blud_knight]

I can barely watch Spiderman 2 anymore

spider-man 2? I thought that was a sequel to the cider house rules? huh, what do you know.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Oh I know. There's nothing wrong with it, but if done the right way. Like when they had to throw in Doc Ock's wife. Rosie wasn't the only thing making him bad, but that was kinda' there too. I hate when they have to make it about the love interest being killed as the excuse when there's a perfectly good reason there already. It's over kill.

Yeah I mean I hate to say it but in Batman and Robin...yes Batman and Robin...I liked how they handled it that Bruce Wayne had a relationship that had no connection to Batman.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I think the one I don't like is when they have to make the villian also the one the one who killed the heroes' parents.

Like The Joker killing the Waynes.

It's not a cliche if it's only done once.

 

[Mike]

A thread about Comic Cliches.

 

[cujo66]

With batman the grey only looks good in comics.

I don't know about that, Sandy Collora get's the "real look" to work in Batman - Dead End

And it comes off pretty damn cool in Batman - Legends



And before anyone tries to get me on a technicality, I know I said Grey with Blue, but I'll take this look over the all black too.

"Can that Nolan guy, Get Sandy Collora on the phone." WB exec. after finding out Batman doesn't wear a Black rubber suit.

I.C.I.T.​

In Collora I Trust​

 

[Kevin Roegele]

The love interest. It is like so mandatory it sickens me. I mean at least do it in a different way.

It's not a cliche, it's a convention. You'll find a love intrest in 80% of all stories ever written, so it's hardly a direct fault of the supehrero genre.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Or corporate tycoons... or nothing.

The thing that really grinds me is the accidental death of the villain. Dude. Kill the villain or try to reform him, but when fate sweeps in and he dies by his own hand or some random thing just when you're trying to figure out what to do with him... that's wack to me.

That's because the narrative demands the villain die in conflict with the hero, but superheroes do not take lives. Thus the guy who kills Uncle Ben, the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and no doubt Venom as well will all die INDIRECTLY at Spidey's hands.

Also, watch Metropolis. It's my belief that the villain's demise is an act of God.

 

[GL1]

Heh. Well movie God sure is convenient.

Comics have had some really creative non-deaths over the years... I'd like to see those rather than these quirky accidents. I'll take an act of God, or something from early in the movie coming back to bite him in the butt over a quirky accident.

And the Dead End costume wouldn't fly in a movie trying to give the illusion of reality. Spandex Batman couldn't possibly fit in a Nolan-like universe.

 

[Chris Wallace]

My biggest one is the girlfriend/love interest being taken hostage.