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Pet peeves in movies

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Yeah, this is pretty terrible, though I much prefer the variant in which a Heroic White Woman looks past racial barriers and successfully saves the poor, pathetic minorities from themselves/racism/poverty...surely this trope has its own name? Couldn't find it.

I'm sure it does. Dangeous Minds, Freedom Writers, The Blindside...I'd just lump it in with Mighty Whitey, personally. It's the same principle. "You people aren't inherently awful...you just need a white person to show you the way!"
 
When shit is going to fall on top of somebody. They always run away from the object, despite it being really tall, instead of just running to the side where they'd be free and safe in a split second.

Silenced guns being silent or near-silent.

Repeatedly firing guns and not getting hearing damage.

Dual wielding guns.

A lot of shit about guns.

Martial arts movies where the unarmed hero goes up against people with weapons like swords yet still wins. I can suspend my disbelief for one guy taking down an entire gang, but not against bladed weapons. Ong Bak 2 and 3 had terrible fight scenes for this reason.

Any scene where the gang leader will just execute his own high-ranking gang members and they don't all rebel on the spot.

"Mighty Whitey".

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MightyWhitey

Good example of this is in Avatar. The Na'vi have been trying to tame that wild flying monster for centuries, prophesying that he who tames it shall be the "chosen one". Jake Sully stumbles along, a crappy Earthling, and somehow succeeds where generations of devoted Na'vi have failed.

Essentially, natives have a problem that only Mighty Whitey is smart, handsome, and Western enough to fix. Stupid as hell.
Eh? Sully wasn't the only Na'Vi to ever tame it. He was just the first that generation.

I mean I get your general point, but the whole thing with Sully was that he was average or even in some cases terrible at the stuff the Na'Vi do, except for flying he had a really intuitive sense for it. While it's still a bit "mighty whitey", it wasn't just "oh and this random mook did it where the dumb natives failed".
 
This one's ancient, but:

People being buried by trees, walls, rocks etc. despite seeing it coming for at least 15 sec.. MOVE
 
I'm sure it does. Dangeous Minds, Freedom Writers, The Blindside...I'd just lump it in with Mighty Whitey, personally. It's the same principle. "You people aren't inherently awful...you just need a white person to show you the way!"

That's what I thought, too, but I couldn't find any of those movies (or The Help) listed under film examples, so it's surely its own beast...there are definitely some unique features to the trope that aren't necessarily features of Mighty Whitey.

edit: looking at the entries for The Help and The Blind Side, I guess it's just a combination of Magical Negro, White Man's Burden and Mighty Whitey I'm thinking of here
 
And

Every time a line of text is displayed on screen it makes noise
Every time a window opens or closes it makes noise
Every time the user presses enter or any other key, makes noise
Image gets displayed on screen, it fuzzes in very slowly or rasterizes in at faxmodem rates. With lots and lots of noise.

Operating Systems in films are bloody noisy. Because otherwise the audience won't know it's a computer. Or something. Even though anybody who's owned a computer turned off event noises when they put them into windows 95.

OMG yes. I couldn't watch Pelham 123 with Denzel Washington, the fucking random noises the computer would make UGH.
 
The twist ending needs to die by fire. Stop concentrating so much on the ending that the rest of the movie sucks.
 
Essentially, natives have a problem that only Mighty Whitey is smart, handsome, and Western enough to fix. Stupid as hell.
You should watch some East German Westerns.

Lots of Indians kicking the shit out of cowboys without any sympathetic white characters for the audience to "identify with".
 
When shit is going to fall on top of somebody. They always run away from the object, despite it being really tall, instead of just running to the side where they'd be free and safe in a split second.

Eh? Sully wasn't the only Na'Vi to ever tame it. He was just the first that generation.

I mean I get your general point, but the whole thing with Sully was that he was average or even in some cases terrible at the stuff the Na'Vi do, except for flying he had a really intuitive sense for it. While it's still a bit "mighty whitey", it wasn't just "oh and this random mook did it where the dumb natives failed".

Why would Sully be better at flying winged suarians than a race of people who have a timeless tradition of doing so, something engrained deeply in their culture? It's Mighty Whitey, though and through. He may not have been the best flyer in Na'vi history, but the fact that we was the best in that generation is silly and unbelievable.
 
Why would Sully be better at flying winged suarians than a race of people who have a timeless tradition of doing so, something engrained deeply in their culture? It's Mighty Whitey, though and through. He may not have been the best flyer in Na'vi history, but the fact that we was the best in that generation is silly and unbelievable.
Not particularly. You're communicating with another animal who is then doing the flying for you. He is an ex-military guy who had combat and flight experience. Flying is intuitive to him for that reason. He just 'gets' the mechanics.

It's also not like he just showed up one day and did it - he was with the Na'vi for months.

Of all the mighty whitey things in that movie - and there are a lot - him riding that beast is the least troublesome.
 
-Almost all child actors/dialogue
-Low framerate slow-motion
-Cocking handguns
-Cliches (like cocking handguns)
-Happy endings
-Replacing practical effects with CGI (CGI blood - can't wait for the inevitable Zodiac post)
-PG13 horror movies
-Horror movies with CGI
-Soundbank soundeffects. I cringe when I hear shit like the Wilhelm scream.

Can't think of a few more right now.
 
Not particularly. You're communicating with another animal who is then doing the flying for you. He is an ex-military guy who had combat and flight experience. Flying is intuitive to him for that reason. He just 'gets' the mechanics.

Of all the mighty whitey things in that movie - and there are a lot - him riding that beast is the least troublesome.

It's just the whole "chosen one" schtick, in general, that his ability to master the creature is just a symptom of. The only one capable of uniting the various tribes against a single enemy is a member of that enemy's race.

And I refuse to believe that flying a jet fighter or whatever it was he did is anything like flying a flesh an blood animal. But it's just a movie, and open to interpretation, so I'll drop the argument.

...

Another one I hate, but don't know the "trope namer" for. When studios feel obligated to insert a random white kid into the middle of an otherwise interesting movie so the audience has someone to "sympathize" with. Examples include The Forbidden Kingdom and Transformers.
 
It's just the whole "chosen one" schtick, in general, that his ability to master the creature is just a symptom of. The only one capable of uniting the various tribes against a single enemy is a member of that enemy's race.

And I refuse to believe that flying a jet fighter or whatever it was he did is anything like flying a flesh an blood animal. But it's just a movie, and open to interpretation, so I'll drop the argument.
To be honest, I saw it less as a "oh he's the chosen one so the tribes united" thing and more cynically he worked out he could trick these natives into thinking he was a religious figure as a means to an end. On a very simple level, that's Mr. White exploiting the savages, but I think on another level that's a deconstruction of the "chosen one"/"white savior" trope.
 
I like when the characters run away from something.

The woman in Terminator outruns a truck going downhill. There's a scene in The Day After Tomorrow where, I swear I am not making this up, a guy outruns the cold. Oh, and then in Independence Day a woman carrying a child manages to outrun an explosion and still has time to hold the door to some side room open so her dog can fly in at the very last second.
 
Freakin' people splitting up when going to investigate something/escaping.

what? theres a serial killer out there picking out people one by one? Right, I will look for him in the woods, you go look for him in that abandoned home.
^^ It never is that bad but it might as well be cause it really does annoy me and probably everyone else.
 
iThe worse cliche of all and example of bad movie cliches in games.
(MASS EFFECT 3 SPOILER)

When Lang is beat, bleeds a little then slumps to the ground and all the good guys turn their back and look at computer screens.

Such a lazy way of getting to a 'suspense' scene.

Also when people never ask for the price of something, I swear they must be getting ripped off all the time, they never keep recites either.


I don't want to watch people coughing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iab6XgRRNQY
 
When people are holding onto a Coffee Cup while walking or talking and it's clear that the cup has no liquid inside if it. Drives me nuts.
 
-people steering wildly while driving straight.
-picking up the phone on the first ring.
-2 people making out right when they wake up (before they brush teeth and all).
 
I always hated when characters are being shot at and the bullets are shown hitting the floor around them. What, are the bullets curving downward? Are they aiming for their legs? Bah.
 
"Mighty Whitey".

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MightyWhitey

Good example of this is in Avatar. The Na'vi have been trying to tame that wild flying monster for centuries, prophesying that he who tames it shall be the "chosen one". Jake Sully stumbles along, a crappy Earthling, and somehow succeeds where generations of devoted Na'vi have failed.

Essentially, natives have a problem that only Mighty Whitey is smart, handsome, and Western enough to fix. Stupid as hell.

Too bad he wasn't the first to do it! You should go back and watch the movie without looking for racism. There is also a reason he was successful too.
 
Floaty and unrealistic physics in action films, like when a guy jump and kick a person, someone attack him and he somehow glided in the air away to avoid an attack...
 
I know it's trivial, but whenever I see 555 numbers, I cringe. It completely takes me out of a movie.

Oh yeah I hate that too, like...I never even see the exact reasoning to even show the number. Its never necessary to actually show or say a number in these movies.
 
I'm sure it does. Dangeous Minds, Freedom Writers, The Blindside...I'd just lump it in with Mighty Whitey, personally. It's the same principle. "You people aren't inherently awful...you just need a white person to show you the way!"

The Blindside was based entirely on a true story though, so that one gets the wave I think. But I do agree, this 'genre' of film is odd to me.
 
When they show regular TV's and the picture is 100% perfect and looks like it's coming from a direct uncompressed source because it's usually just layed on with a green screen.
 
"Mighty Whitey".

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MightyWhitey

Good example of this is in Avatar. The Na'vi have been trying to tame that wild flying monster for centuries, prophesying that he who tames it shall be the "chosen one". Jake Sully stumbles along, a crappy Earthling, and somehow succeeds where generations of devoted Na'vi have failed.

Essentially, natives have a problem that only Mighty Whitey is smart, handsome, and Western enough to fix. Stupid as hell.

Except that if you actually pay attention, they note that Jake wasn't the first to do it. Neyitiri's own ancestor had done it.

Perhaps the Na'vi had tried to approach the Toruk like the rest of their banshees - by approaching them beforehand and giving them the opportunity to try and defend themselves in a fair struggle, before being raped. Jake has no such qualms and will pop out from right above you with no warning and force his queue right into you.
 
When they show regular TV's and the picture is 100% perfect and looks like it's coming from a direct uncompressed source because it's usually just layed on with a green screen.

Or even worse, when they look over footage (letting them see something the audience already has) and it's the exact same scene we watched, cuts an all.
(Star Trek 3 being the first perpetrator to mind.)
 
"Mighty Whitey".

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MightyWhitey

Good example of this is in Avatar. The Na'vi have been trying to tame that wild flying monster for centuries, prophesying that he who tames it shall be the "chosen one". Jake Sully stumbles along, a crappy Earthling, and somehow succeeds where generations of devoted Na'vi have failed.

Essentially, natives have a problem that only Mighty Whitey is smart, handsome, and Western enough to fix. Stupid as hell.

I know others have already jumped on you for this.

Forever did you even watch the movie, he explicitly states how he did it. He assumed the largest bird in the sky wouldn't expect an attack from above.
 
Or even worse, when they look over footage (letting them see something the audience already has) and it's the exact same scene we watched, cuts an all.
(Star Trek 3 being the first perpetrator to mind.)

ha ha, wow I've never noticed this.
Now I will.
...Christ I might need to bail on this thread.
 
Except that if you actually pay attention, they note that Jake wasn't the first to do it. Neyitiri's own ancestor had done it.

Perhaps the Na'vi had tried to approach the Toruk like the rest of their banshees - by approaching them beforehand and giving them the opportunity to try and defend themselves in a fair struggle, before being raped. Jake has no such qualms and will pop out from right above you with no warning and force his queue right into you.

Oh in that case its totally acceptable :/
 
Except that if you actually pay attention, they note that Jake wasn't the first to do it. Neyitiri's own ancestor had done it.

Perhaps the Na'vi had tried to approach the Toruk like the rest of their banshees - by approaching them beforehand and giving them the opportunity to try and defend themselves in a fair struggle, before being raped. Jake has no such qualms and will pop out from right above you with no warning and force his queue right into you.

I get that he wasn't the first. I'm just bothered that he managed to do it at all, given that the entire race has been actively trying to do so for generations. The fact that of all the worthy riders at that place and time, the only one deemed worthy was a human. It's silly is what I'm saying.

I know others have already jumped on you for this.

Forever did you even watch the movie, he explicitly states how he did it. He assumed the largest bird in the sky wouldn't expect an attack from above.
This surely being a solution that the natives were too dumb to figure out on their own.
 
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