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[O-N-E]

I hate it when the bad guy who wants the main character dead has them in his clutches, but does every wrong thing in order for the character to escape.

Any scene where someone says "just let me explain!" rather than explaining. Bonus points if it's said repeatedly while a character is doing something horrible because of a misunderstanding.

And this. When a conflict evolves on screen from a stupid misunderstanding that could have been explained in a couple of words rather than standing there dumbfounded or saying "just let me explain", it is the worst.

 

[lock2k]

I'm not sure if this thread will have much interest, but I've been considering posting it for a while now to see what any might have to say. You can post any issues that drive you mad in the world of cinema and/or television. The focus is as broad as your annoyance.

For me, I want to talk about editing. And in particular the editing "technique" that will show the back of a character who is talking. What drives me absolutely insane is watching this character who is talking - delivering lines - but the head and bodily gestures clearly do not correspond to that of a person who is speaking. Sometimes the audio doesn't even match the environment as it has been clumsily cut/pasted into the scene.

Even worse, and just lazy to a degree I cannot comprehend is that sometimes a good portion of the side of the character's face can be viewed. Yet, there is zero jaw movement and somehow magically speech is occurring. When I see this, I feel Kubrick must be rolling in his grave.

I'm actually a video editor (it's the part of my job I actually enjoy doing). Stuff like chromatic aberration and stupid color filters (if a film is in the desert the whole movie looks like a dog-puke yellow, if the movie is horrorish it' has a greenish hue, if it's alien shit it has a blueish hue). It's an artificial way to give it a kind of feeling but to me it feels artificial and it's bad storytelling. Planet of the Apes 68 nails the science fiction setting without any of these stupid techniques.

I also hate anything Michael Bay and the stupid screen going in circles while a bunch of useless shit happens on screen. It's fucking annoying.

Not TV, but I also hate YouTubers who keep switching between black & white and regular color while making stupid faces. I mean, c'mon, did you learn to edit yesterday? Fucking gross.

 

[MastAndo]

Bad expository dialogue - like two siblings or close friends having a conversation about something they would obviously have discussed in depth before, just to fill the audience in on past events or details in their lives. Straight up amateur hour.

 

[Dark Star]

When something bad happens that has a really good explanation but the character who is going to get in trouble makes no effort to explain.

So person A. is going to be late because because a firetruck blocked the road to put out a fire. When person B. confronts person A. all they do is stand there and take the scolding.

100% this.

I feel like almost every movie falls into this nonsense just to save run time and move the plot along faster, especially movies where the main character is supposed to save the world or whatever, like Harry Potter or Mission Impossible. They'll get caught "stealing" something, but when confronted, they just keeps quiet rather than spilling the beans and making their case, which is usually credible enough to set them free. But no, they just scowl and take the beating lol.

 

[DragoonKain]

-Unrealistic law enforcement or military depictions. Anything from unrealistic detective or investigative procedures, to making seasoned detectives or CIA intelligence look like total amateurs and the bad guys being 10 steps ahead. It immediately breaks immersion for me for the rest of the movie or show.

Like watching a movie about a killer leaving messages or symbols at the crime scenes and they spend the entire movie trying to figure out what the messages mean instead of, you know, searching for DNA, fingerprints, other forensic evidence. I know it’s just a movie, but I’m sorry it’s dumb I just can’t do it.

-Large battle scenes where it all comes down to the protagonist vs the antagonist. It’s so stupid. Are you telling me that on the battlefield of hundreds of soldiers, and somehow the only two guys left are the main bad guy vs good guy. Find more creative ways to have them fight each other than this, it’s just so lazy.

 

[MacReady13]

It's the little things that irk me-

How can you start talking about something important to the plot before you get into a car then somehow, the next shot is in the house/place of business and they magically continue that same conversation they started before they got in the car! What were they talking about in the car? They could've been driving for 20 minutes and just sat there lifeless until they stepped in front of the camera THEN continue that important plot point conversation.

Characters get out of cars with closing the door! I guess the same goes with people entering and exiting houses. Do they not know how to lock doors?

Quick edit-
I also really hate when a couple has an argument on screen. The one who is hurt starts walking off and the one in the wrong starts calling for them, yet stops going after them for no fucking reason! Why not continue chasing them? Why stop the conversation? They aren't the Flash to have run away that quickly from you...

 

[dilbag]

Almost always time traveling in movies.... ESP when its a barbarian or warrior that comes to modern time. When they do the Radio Joke "where is that voice coming from?!?" or the Tv "how did these people shrink to fit in this tiny box" UGH time traveling in almost every movie is pure trash.

Another thing is most movies/shows and how they handle phone etiquette
man 1 answers phone "This is Johnson"
man 2 "we found the killer! we got him Johnson"
Johnson *hangs up* speaks to himself "they got him"

I always wonder if the person on the other end is like ummm did we disconnect?

 

[lock2k]

Almost always time traveling in movies.... ESP when its a barbarian or warrior that comes to modern time. When they do the Radio Joke "where is that voice coming from?!?" or the Tv "how did these people shrink to fit in this tiny box" UGH time traveling in almost every movie is pure trash.

Another thing is most movies/shows and how they handle phone etiquette
man 1 answers phone "This is Johnson"
man 2 "we found the killer! we got him Johnson"
Johnson *hangs up* speaks to himself "they got him"

I always wonder if the person on the other end is like ummm did we disconnect?

My wife hates time travelling in movies as well. lol

I do like the concept but having it done correctly is rare. It's almost always some goofy ass shit

 

[dilbag]

My wife hates time travelling in movies as well. lol

I do like the concept but having it done correctly is rare. It's almost always some goofy ass shit

yeah it can be done well but most of the time its terrible and they all really on the same stupid jokes.

 

[It's Jeff]

I remember when I first started noticing this in media. It didn't take long before it was obvious that it was a trend with some push behind it because it became so prevalent. Someone clearly has an interest in shaping the perception of men/women in this way because it's so common.

The push isn't as bad as the unintended consequences. It's tired and predictable now. It's so lazy that people just expect it, the same way tv and movies make people believe some sub 100 pound girl can drop guys with their spin kicks.

I'd like to add how much I hate digital blood. It never looks right. Do the squibs. It always looks better.

 

[Old Retro]

I hate obvious inaccuracies like in Joker. I was shocked to find out it takes place when it does instead of in the late 80s. Also in Watchmen, Silk Spectre goes from wearing spiked heels to flats in a fight scene? Get the fuck out!

 

[Dark Star]

 

[DESTROYA]

Hate when I run out of popcorn less than halfway through a film and the only thing left are the un-popped kernels. I eat those too

Oh you actually mean in movies or shows themselves, really hate when in a scene someone whispers something obviously shocking or upsetting in someones ear and we don’t get to hear what they say and then never explain what was said that was so shocking.

 

[Airola]

A lot of those back of the head shots are cut to specifically because the editor didnt have any usable footage of the character talking while turned to the camera. Usually if they have to add ADR or change a line in post. They're very much last resort shots, but better than the character's lips suddenly fumbling out of sync.

That and they want to show certain facial expressions, eye movements, reactions etc of the person who listens.

Also sometimes they've decided to have a different line that wasn't originally recorded at all, so they get the actor to record a new line without filming it and add that line to the scene.

 

[Arkam]

Two main gripes

1. Shooting firearms inside without hearing protection. They would all be in serious pain, bleeding out the ears and suffering permanent damage.
2. No one ever gets injured in fights. Action movies have such over the top fights that would result in permanent injury (or death) yet no one ever get hurt. Just some bruises. I dare anyone to punch a human skull 10 times with full power and bare knuckles. Bones in your hand will be mush.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Canned laughter

Colour by numbers episodes in a TV series because the writers got lazy/greedy and extended the show beyond its limits.

Predictable dialogue

Every new show being 5 mins of action at the start and end, with 30 minutes of filler. Thanks Netflix for turning TV in to a hardcore drug for idiots.

Quick-shot and quick-change action scenes where it's almost impossible to work out what's going wrong. All the directors that are guilty of this need to watch Tom Cruise films. That's how you do it.

When a universe is created for a film/story and then the writers ignore their own rules in a universe they've created, just for reasons.

Clichés involving forced love-scenes in films that don't need them, just to score more idiot points. Shooter, with Mark Wahlberg, is perfect at avoiding this situation while letting the audience know that Kate mara is getting ploughed.

Car chases where the good guy or bad guy changes gears to make the car go faster, as in, they're going fast but if they change down at top speed they get a sudden speed boost. I don't know if this is for American audiences because they don't know how 'stick' works?

People having sex. I don't need to see it, I don't want to see it. It's always forced and a time filler. I'm not a prude but I'm watching a film, not a porno. Scan or pan to the window and get the next scene going

 

[GV82]

Oh it was a Dream all along - fuck that shit, especially if it’s part of an ongoing series & you can tell they used it because they didn’t know where to go with the plot, so they used “It was a Dream” as a plot escape device.

However if the script intended it to be that from the start for example Inception, I don’t mind.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Post-credit sequel bait scenes

fuck marvel

 

[Master Of Illusion]

Directional flaccidness / cinematography that's clearly shot using h.264 instead of a raw codec (or better yet... F I L M).

 

[triplestation]

over polished look, especially in horror movies

 

[MetalAlien]

Oh it was a Dream all along - fuck that shit, especially if it’s part of an ongoing series & you can tell they used it because they didn’t know where to go with the plot, so they used “It was a Dream” as a plot escape device.

However if the script intended it to be that from the start for example Inception, I don’t mind.

I refuse to rewatch movies if they pull that shit... it's the ending for a person who doesn't have an ending. Same with that we'll leave it up to the viewer shit.

 

[Master Of Illusion]

I refuse to rewatch movies if they pull that shit... it's the ending for a person who doesn't have an ending. Same with that we'll leave it up to the viewer shit.

 

[MetalAlien]

 

[Airola]

1. Shooting firearms inside without hearing protection. They would all be in serious pain, bleeding out the ears and suffering permanent damage.

Those who use safety measures are just pussies.

 

[Rentahamster]

Full frontal male nudity drives me crazy

 

[DKehoe]

Post-credit sequel bait scenes

fuck marvel

It‘s mad how we’ve all just become ok with one movie being an advert for the next one.

 

[Dazrael]

Everybody sitting around the one side of a dinner table just for the benefit of the camera. No one sits around a dinner table like that in real life, their elbows would be getting in everyone’s shit.

 

[Tesseract]

shaky cam and rapid fire editing

not always, usually tho

 

[MetalAlien]

Everybody sitting around the one side of a dinner table just for the benefit of the camera. No one sits around a dinner table like that in real life, their elbows would be getting in everyone’s shit.

 

[Susurrus]

So a few things.

Military uniforms is one, like come on I know people making movies/shows are usually not military, but y'all spend a shit ton of money on a movie and can't pull up Google? I don't expect perfection but damn.

Ridiculous technology. Like telling a camera to enhance the recorded photo and pulls pixels out of its ass. Or hacking over sound waves. One movie that was utterly dumb was Jason Bourne. I saw the first movie a long time ago, wasn't a fan so never watched any after, but went to see this one as a "morale event" so was either that or go to work. That movie was so dumb I just about up and went to work before the movie was over.

Biggest one for me is quite jarring. A lot of times they'll use foreign places as scenes and make it completely dumb. Since I have traveled a lot, a lot of these are like sore thumbs.

A few I distinctly remember...in Wolverine

Spoiler

when they drove from Tokyo to Kyoto, and then AFTER getting to Kyoto she feels the need to catch him up on events, like what the fuck did you talk about on the hours and hours of driving that was more important?

In London has fallen, they're basically teleporting around the city in the car, will be on one road and then bam they're in a whole other part of the city, then back to the first place.

The latest Mission Impossible

Spoiler

they need to sneak into Paris. So they fly into Ramstein in Germany and then sneak a flight in. I was stationed at Ramstein at the time I saw it and have driven to Paris several times, YOU DONT NEED TO SNEAK. They are open borders, not to mention you hop on the highway right outside the base , drive west, and there is almost immediately a sign that says PARIS that direction and it will take your happy ass all the way to Paris straight, with no stopping except if you need to pee or get stuck in traffic.

John Wick 3's actually threw me way off.

Spoiler

They said they were going to Casablanca. When they get to Morocco, they land in Essaouira, which I've been to (I haven't been to Casablanca), so I recognized it as such. I thought it was supposed to be a stop maybe they're going a roundabout way to get to Casablanca so nobody notices, and go with it. Well into the time they're there thinking "when they gonna get to Casablanca", I realize they're suggesting they're IN Casablanca.

Totally destroyed my immersion.

 

[Ememee]

I’m going to echo “shakey cam”. Particularly in action. When it was mainly new, it felt fresh and innovating but I feel it’s worn out it’s welcome. You can see this in new-found appreciation from people when you can actually see an entire action scene in a wide or consistent shot and are able to follow the action.

“Recorded cam footage” I don’t particularly include in that..I like the use of that. Particularly in the last 20 years when it gained traction.

My big pet-peeve besides bad acting and bad pacing is probably “Jump Scares”. Oh, how I fucking hate jump scares. Is it sometimes effective? Yes. But mainly? Nah. Also most horror has a rhythm to it..and in particularly badly directed horror films, the pacing and jumps are insultingly easy to telegraph. I prefer “unsettling” horror and have always seen jump scares as cheap.

 

[Weiji]

I often dislike the opposite as well, especially in mysteries. They're giving our detective the clues, and not giving the audience a chance to try and solve the mystery themselves? Fuckin ass.

Flashbacks to moments I've already seen are uncomfortably hand-holdy. Please, no, I don't need a reminder that I saw Chekhov's gun fifty minutes ago, pLEASE stOP

Oh god. Those character pauses to think and we get flashbacks from earlier in the movie to remind us what happened sequences.

So annoying, so lazy, and so disrespectful of the intelligence of the audience.

 

[Weiji]

This is... disturbing.

This is SNL? I kept waiting for the joke... where’s the joke?

 

[lock2k]

The dreamworks face. Fuck this shit. As a huge fan of animation I always hated this one.

 

[sol_bad]

Flashbacks always piss me off. I know it seems unreasonable because it's adding to the story, but I just can't stand them most of the time. I have a pet peeve about things being chronological, I don't mind characters being nostalgic and recounting memories, I just don't like when they make me see it. It messes with how the story flows IMO

So you hate Deadpool?
:O

 

[TindalosPup]

So you hate Deadpool?
:O

Oh goodness no! Deadpool is literally the only IP that gets an "out of jail free card" with any complaint that could be in this thread IMO because his whole deal is making fun of things and being a silly shit all of the time

I was referring to things like when TWD quality started dipping and the flashbacks only confused people for a whole season, when a show or movie is started in the future (end or middle) and then flashed back, or when flashbacks become time filler for lazy writing

 

[-Arcadia-]

This is... disturbing.

This is SNL? I kept waiting for the joke... where’s the joke?

One of the first times I realized pop culture was idiocy, was trying to find the humor in SNL as a teen.

I’m sure it was funny at some point. How it lasted for decades after, I will never understand.

 

[DeafTourette]

Jump edits in action movies. Especially with actors who have never done a kick or punch or actual martial arts in their lives and who are too out of shape to do even 1% of the stunts you see on film.

The most notorious of these is the Taken movies.

 

[Nymphae]

After watching the ridiculously awesome Twin Peaks explanation posted in this recent thread, funnily enough I might say - the fixation with wanting deep lore and explanations for everything, less of a specific trope you see in things and more of a general fandom fixation. Things are almost always better when the mystery is still there. To paraphrase one of Lynch's quotes from the analysis video in that thread, having answers gives you a reason to stop watching and move on to the next thing, "to forget you watched the damn thing."

I think about how I find Doctor Who was a lot more mysterious and interesting to me when less was known about the machinations of the universal powers, when I was trying to feel everything out and imagine things. I think about how the same was true with The X-Files, which was at it's absolute best in the first few seasons when the mysteries were ripe and the investigation was the thrill. Answers kill mystery, and they can be replaced with new ones, but ultimately answers are the empty calories we are addicted to, while the value in entertainment is not in hearing specifically what happened to Mulder's sister or finding out who killed Laura Palmer, but in the unfolding human responses to these questions.

 

[and 3 others]

2 things that really annoy me.

1. A person seeing a horrific giant monster, then they are reunited with their group, and says not one word!? I be fucking screaming and describing the monstrosity in graphic detail.

2. And I've seen this a thousand times. Everyone has seen a demon (for example) and believes they have seen a demon. Cut to a few minutes later, someone sees a ghost, and other people question if they really seen a ghost, like it would be fantastical in their world, where demons are known. Poor examples on my part, sorry.

 

[DeafTourette]

Piggybacking off my last post... Crap like the Sonya Blade/Kano fight in the first Mortal Kombat movie... That scene was so cringe! It's obvious she isn't skilled at martial arts or even competent at throwing a punch... It really pains me that they didn't use Cynthia Rothrock to play Sonya Blade! The scenes would have been MUCH better!

 

[Hari Seldon]

Not shutting doors.

 

[Breakage]

Just the really unbelievable stuff. For example, Scorpion's plane hacking scene:

 

[synchronicity]

After watching the ridiculously awesome Twin Peaks explanation posted in this recent thread, funnily enough I might say - the fixation with wanting deep lore and explanations for everything, less of a specific trope you see in things and more of a general fandom fixation. Things are almost always better when the mystery is still there. To paraphrase one of Lynch's quotes from the analysis video in that thread, having answers gives you a reason to stop watching and move on to the next thing, "to forget you watched the damn thing."

I think about how I find Doctor Who was a lot more mysterious and interesting to me when less was known about the machinations of the universal powers, when I was trying to feel everything out and imagine things. I think about how the same was true with The X-Files, which was at it's absolute best in the first few seasons when the mysteries were ripe and the investigation was the thrill. Answers kill mystery, and they can be replaced with new ones, but ultimately answers are the empty calories we are addicted to, while the value in entertainment is not in hearing specifically what happened to Mulder's sister or finding out who killed Laura Palmer, but in the unfolding human responses to these questions.

I agree. The "magic" of life is in uncertainty, in possibility. When you remove that, there's nothing engaging about it. I always find it a bit sad when people are convinced of their "reality". First of all, it's incredibly arrogant (and ignorant imho), and it disrespects the beauty of the unknown, and the unknowable.

Side note. and 3 others , your username makes likes notifications a mess!

 

[drganon]

"Mystery boxes". Why bother coming up with something actually interesting when you can pretend you have something interesting, only to disappoint when you eventually have to reveal something.

 

[JayK47]

Documentary style shows, like The Office. These bother me way more than laugh tracks. Maybe because I was raised on laugh track shows and suddenly documentary shows became cool.

Also hate the season finale cliff hanger.

 

[Allforce]

Terrible fake UIs on technology. This isn't as widespread as it used to be as it seems now most shows will at least have someone using an iPhone but man it was terrible for a long time.

I remember a scene early on in Dexter where he gets a text. He mutes the TV for some reason to read it, a giant MUTE comes up on the television taking up the entire screen, and then they cut to the text message on his phone and it's literally a blank screen with 48 point font letters for the message. No status bar, no indication on who sent the message, no text bubble.

 

[nkarafo]

The intimidating "roar" every monster or animal does every time the camera focuses on them. Im so sick of this trope that i stopped watching monster movies altogether just because of that. Same goes with videogames. I cringe every time i see it.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Shaky cams and extremely fast cuts during action scenes.

I had this yesterday. I just bought an OLED TV. I’ve watched some movies to play around with motion settings and find the best settings for me.

I had everything set. Then I started Man of Steel.
5 minutes into the movie I had the terrible suspicion that something was wrong with the TV, ‘cause almost every scene had tremendous amounts of shaking, judder and blur, to the point that even in the most uneventful scenes the actors would literally double, leaving afterimages while just talking and slightly moving their heads.

But no, it’s like the movie itself was shot by an entire crew affected by Parkinson’s disease. You can see it even in YouTube clips. The whole image is just shaking, shaking all the time. I had to turn the movie off because it gave me a headache.

 

[Can't decide]

Too many things in TV shows and movies cause me to sigh and eye roll, which is why I hardly watch anything. Here's some for me:

- Whenever the baddie has a perfect opportunity to kill a main character, but instead let's stand here and have a 5 minute chat until somebody takes them out from behind. And would you look at that, our saviour was the other character who was virtually dead 10 minutes ago.
- Oh hey did you hear that noise of impending death over there in the dark? Better go and check it out unarmed, half naked without turning any lights on.
- When an obviously faster vehicles cannot outrun or out maneuver an obviously slower vehicle during a chase scene.
- Orders hot food and a hot drink, character turns to someone else and is halfway through uttering a sentence, hot food and drink are almost instantly served.
- When main characters are the only people who are not shot even when they run right through the middle of all the gunfire.
- When the good guys act like they have all of the aim assists turned on for every single goon except for the main bad guy, where they suddenly miss every shot by a mile.
- People being fatally or near fatally injured in a 15mph fender bender.
- Knock on the door and nobody answers, how about we just let ourselves in anyway.