With the abundance of new movies released every week, there’s bound to be moments where you find yourself groaning at the same plot devices being used over and over again. These movie cliches, otherwise known as cinematic tropes, have become tiresome. It’s almost as if filmmakers have started picking out of a hat to decide what plot devices to recycle. Here are some especially annoying cinematic tropes that don’t need to see the light of day in 2019.
The Retro Revival
When the retro aesthetic became popular again, I was here for it. However, it’s gone on for far too long, and too many movies are trying to skim off the success of others that reintroduced it. Eighties style is no longer cool or unique when every movie is trying to convey it, especially when the eighties aesthetic has nothing to do with the movie’s actual content. It’s time we move on from the eighties because at this point it’s been exhausted, don’t you think?
The Time Twist
For some reason, it has become a popular trend for movies to manipulate time in some way, be it through time travel or alternate realities. At first, this plot device was intriguing and an interesting concept to wrap your mind around, but as it has tirelessly been reused, it’s become contrived. Manipulating time in a movie doesn’t automatically make it deep or complex. So many movies incorporate plot twists that rely on distortions of time that it shouldn’t even be called a plot twist anymore.
Being “Fake Woke”
In this day and age, it’s important to be inclusive and progressive, and movies are a great means to achieve this. However, so many movies incorporate just one or two such elements by including a political jab or vaguely mentioning some social issue to seem “woke” and please the masses, but this comes off as a gimmick rather than a genuine effort.
What’s With All the Grief?
So many movies these days are filled to the brim with grief, and a lot of the time it’s unnecessary. It’s like some movies are made for the sole purpose of making you cry or feel bad for the characters. Don’t get me wrong, most love a good movie that can evoke emotions and provokes tears, but too many movies aim to do that nowadays. We could all use a happy movies from time to time, too. It doesn’t all have to be sad.
The Fake High Stakes
In almost every single superhero movie, the protagonist is put in danger’s way, which is supposed to make us fearful for their fates, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The problem arises when it becomes hard to believe that our beloved superheroes are in actual danger instead of seeing through the pretense of facing high stakes. Not every superhero has to die, but movies should make the stakes they face more believable. It becomes repetitive and boring when a hero’s mortality is in danger, and you know they’ll win in the end or find some way to reverse their fate — I’m looking at you Marvel — because they’re the hero. It’d be great to have heroes face actual repercussions from time to time.
