The little things that bug you

[Schlosser85]

- overuse of shaky cam

- a whole group of henchmen attacks the hero one at a time

- bad old-age makeup

- sloppy editing. Like in The Dark Knight when Batman crashes the Batpod in the street and there are two clown goons. One gets electrocuted when he tries to take the cowl off, but the second one just disappears. Also in both TDK and TDKR there are moments when goons fall down without Batman punching them, and the fights look too choreographed. Like you can see the guy pausing in place so Batman can punch him, and then he falls down. Also, there is too long a pause in TDK when Rossi's gun jams and Dent slugs him in the courtroom. It makes the scene awkward. A lot of the physical fighting stuff in Nolan's Batman movies is dodgy like that. Also in the sewer fight in TDKR, when Bane jumps in the air and spins and knocks Batman down, Bane doesn't actually hit Batman, they just added a punch sound and Batman falls down. It's too noticeable.

- Comic book and action movies are way overusing two cliches.

1) Bad guy lets himself get caught as part of some master plan.

- The Joker in The Dark Knight
- Loki in The Avengers
- Silva in Skyfall
- Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness
- even Bane on the plane at the beginning of The Dark Knight Rises

This part of the movie always even plays out exactly the same, beat for beat. The bad guy gets caught suspiciously easily. There's a dramatic one-on-one confrontation between hero and villain in a holding cell of some sort where the villain has some kind of mind-****ing dialogue that rattles the hero. Then the "shocking" OH SNAP plot twist of the villain escaping at will with effortless panache that's meant to wow us with what a diabolical evil mastermind he is but really just is starting to feel like a plot device (especially when some of their plots, like The Joker's in TDK, and Silva's in Skyfall, are so convoluted and depend on such ridiculously perfect timing every tiny step of the way, that no real person could actually pull them off).

2) Misdirection about the identity of the real head villain.

- Scarecrow and Ra's in Batman Begins
- Obadiah Stane and random terrorist in Iron Man
- Mandarin and Killian in Iron Man 3
- Bane and Talia in The Dark Knight Rises

 

[Senator Pleasury]

The hero (or superhero) crashes into a room where he is unexpected to appear (an in such a fashion) and he says "Excuse me." That's just too old to keep doing it.

 

[Donnie Darko]

- Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness

I'm not a big fan of when people give away spoilers for movies that have been out less than two weeks outside of a forum/thread dedicated to said movie.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

Also I don't think Star Trek into darkness really deserves to be lumped in with the dark knight/skyfall/the avengers villain cliches:

Spoiler

cumberkahn is taken into custody under very different circumstances. He doesn't allow himself to be captured as part of some over elaborate master plan, he does it because he fears for his crews life. His escape is just him taking advantage of kirks struggle with Marcus and the dreadnought, an agreement Kirk first proposes. The only master plan demonstrated by Kahn in the London assault, everything after is just him improvising.

 

[DyeLorean]

I have a serious issue with shaky and handheld cameras. It gives your eyes a terrible amount of work. I want the scene to be clear, I want my eye to explore the image. I'm not saying it should be steady all the time, but most directors don't know how to properly use the camera to his advantage, or the story's.
The exception would be the Bourne films because the story demands it. The camera constantly moving adds to the character's journey, it is used on purpose. That doesn't mean I like it, but I understand the reasons behind.

 

[flower]

when they show the entire movie in the trailer!!

 

[v.waltzer]

During trailers for movies and video games, the overuse of that high pitched sound that gradually becomes higher as if to signify that things are becoming more intense/serious/chaotic.

 

[Figs]

The hero (or superhero) crashes into a room where he is unexpected to appear (an in such a fashion) and he says "Excuse me." That's just too old to keep doing it.

First film that came to mind after reading this was Darkman, when he goes through the window of that corporate office when he's hanging from the helicopter.

That time it didn't bother me so much because it was probably one of the first times I had seen that "excuse me" line/scene in a film before.

That one that annoyed me quite a bit was in Batman Begins. He didn't crash into the room but bombed his way out but still said "excuse me" or something similar when he was leaving Arkham Asylum. It was pretty dumb too because he basically gave the two inmates an escape route.

 

[Senator Pleasury]

First film that came to mind after reading this was Darkman, when he goes through the window of that corporate office when he's hanging from the helicopter.

That time it didn't bother me so much because it was probably one of the first times I had seen that "excuse me" line/scene in a film before.

That one that annoyed me quite a bit was in Batman Begins. He didn't crash into the room but bombed his way out but still said "excuse me" or something similar when he was leaving Arkham Asylum. It was pretty dumb too because he basically gave the two inmates an escape route.

Just delete all those one-liners from B Begins and you already have a much better movie.

 

[Figs]

Just delete all those one-liners from B Begins and you already have a much better movie.

I agree, but I really do like that film despite a few things. I think it's my second favorite in the trilogy, sometimes first, depending on my mood.

 

[James]

During trailers for movies and video games, the overuse of that high pitched sound that gradually becomes higher as if to signify that things are becoming more intense/serious/chaotic.

That reminds me of the Inception "BRAAAAM BRAAAAAM" noise that has been in every trailer (and in some cases during the actual films) since. This video has a montage of a few trailers that used it, but doesn't even come close to getting all of them. I mean it's a cool sound effect, but come on.