We got some good stories out of those thinly disguised toy commercials.Imperioratorex Caprae said:
Things in entertainment you'd like to see stop
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"Prophecies" and "Chosen Hero" plot devices really bug me. Not only are they some of the laziest assurances that the hero will triumph, they also devalue any accomplishments the protagonist performs. They state that the hero isn't special because of their deeds or their morals, the hero is only special because a giant rock said they were special. The MCU heroes are a great break from this trope because most of them had to work to become heroes. Tony Stark built the Mark I in a cave out of scraps, Bruce Banner accidentally became The Hulk, Steve Rogers had to audition to become Captain America, and The Guardians of the Galaxy met by chance. The best counterpoint to the "Chosen Hero" trope is Anakin Skywalker. He was rash, impulsive, violent, and power hungry, yet the Jedi council was dead certain he would be their savior by "bringing balance to the force." And he did, by ending the reign of the light side so the Sith could rule the galaxy.
Another thing that really annoys me is "The Emo Character." You all know what I'm talking about. The one who is always brooding. The one who goes on and on about how "tortured" they are. How we can't understand their "pain." The one who uses their tragic past as an excuse to sulk in the corner. I'm not disrespecting anyone who has gone through tragedy or had some painful event in their lives, we all have. The key difference is that most people find ways to move on with their lives instead of incessantly whining about it! Bennet the Sage made a great point in his Trigun review about how Vash is the perfect counterpoint to those guys; he's not defined by his pain, but how he deals with it. Unfortunately, the more insufferable emo characters aren't that well developed. They'd rather sit and brood because they're under the delusion that their pain makes them special. Luckily, there are several ways to mock those annoying twits. There is the Lego Batman song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqv_LUStxDw or you could just mentally read their lines in Linkara's Superboy Prime voice.
Another thing that really annoys me is "The Emo Character." You all know what I'm talking about. The one who is always brooding. The one who goes on and on about how "tortured" they are. How we can't understand their "pain." The one who uses their tragic past as an excuse to sulk in the corner. I'm not disrespecting anyone who has gone through tragedy or had some painful event in their lives, we all have. The key difference is that most people find ways to move on with their lives instead of incessantly whining about it! Bennet the Sage made a great point in his Trigun review about how Vash is the perfect counterpoint to those guys; he's not defined by his pain, but how he deals with it. Unfortunately, the more insufferable emo characters aren't that well developed. They'd rather sit and brood because they're under the delusion that their pain makes them special. Luckily, there are several ways to mock those annoying twits. There is the Lego Batman song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqv_LUStxDw or you could just mentally read their lines in Linkara's Superboy Prime voice.
I'd love to see more deep, psychological horrors. I'd love to see a stop to some jump scare horrors. Oh I know, a good ol jump scare can be great. But teen slasher jump scares are no fun and I don't want it.
Love triangles. Fuck love triangles. Some things pull them off greatly. Others don't and more often than not it's just used as pure lazy writing.
Love triangles. Fuck love triangles. Some things pull them off greatly. Others don't and more often than not it's just used as pure lazy writing.
There's been one or two good "found footage"-style movies before, but they are as easy to completely ruin as they are easy to create.jademunky said:
I don't think "prophecies" or "chosen one" story's are a problem so much as adding a prophecies in the middle a story is. The Mistborn books did "chosen one" story fine. But that's because it was clear form the onset that that's what the writer was planing to do. I can't really talk about it without going into spoilers, but works well. In Star Wars that was tacked on after the original movies. So they had to try and make it fit. To me "prophecies" used as way to lend more meaning to something ultimately meaningless are shit and what have a huge problem with. Offenders being Star Wars, WoW, and a lot of comic books. Prophecies used as a story element to guide the plot are fine if you ask me. It's just as valid as anything else. Examples being Wheel of Time, Mistborn, and The Lego Movie. And I guess kinda The Foundation. Although that's not exactly a prophecy.Legomaniac91 said:
I'll second this one. And go further. I've never seen it be interesting. I've seen movies that could have explored interesting ideas if only they dropped the bullshit pretense that they are "found footage" and just told an interesting story.jademunky said:
And to go even further, the proliferation of "shaky-cam" or "handycam" to inject so-called "realism" into an action movie. Sorry director, I understand the concept of "suspension of disbelief," I DON'T NEED you to needlessly ugly up a movie to help me buy into the fact that the story you are telling ISN'T really happening. I've been good on the concept of fiction vs non-fiction since I was 4-years-old, I CAN IN FACT enjoy a fictional setting without that ugly-ass camera gimmick. I've said it before, I'd rather an action sequence look AWESOME, rather than REAL. I realize it's FICTION, I DON'T NEED IT TO LOOK REAL. I KNOW IT ISN'T. I guess I wouldn't object to it in a recreation of an event in a documentary... go ahead and shake that away, I won't complain there.
Oh yeah...especially needlessly cryptic prophecies by people who know exactly what is going on, but don't tell anyone for no good reason.Legomaniac91 said:
I'm aware they are hard, and that Hollywood doesn't give a shit about realism, and just panders to the lowest common denominator in most cases. The thread is about things we'd like to see stop in entertainment, those are mine. I don't actually expect it to happen. And you don't have to know about AI to do a story that doesn't revolve around AI trying to kill humanity. You can have tons of stories that involve AI, where that isn't the focus of the story. Or if it is, have it be something else, other than "MUST KILL HUMANS!". It's not that freaking hard.Ouroboros said:
Full Metal Bolshevik said:
I would disagree about Ex Machina, considering at the end of it, the AI is clearly unconcerned with humanity, and was more than happy to kill her creator, and leave the human that helped her escape to die. That pretty much falls right into my gripe with AI stories. They always turn on humanity. It turned into a "OMG the evil, egomaniac robot rapist was RIGHT to keep them locked up! Because they don't care about humanity!! Oh the tragic irony!"
Haven't seen Eve no Jikan, so can't comment on that.
Popularity-based immortality needs to stop. This is kind of a sub-issue of adherence to the status quo, which a few people have already mentioned, but this in particular bothers me. If I know a character is popular, then I know they cannot be killed, so one of the most fundamental quandaries of human existence goes right out the window. I know it's entertainment, but the fact that things like Game of Thrones and Attack on Titan can be considered novel for perma-death is just ridiculous.
The recap after the break, i've been watching the program i know what fuckin happened. It was mostly on imported american shows but now its creeping into UK shows.
It's patronizing, annoying and cuts into the run time where i could actually be learning something or being entertained.
It's patronizing, annoying and cuts into the run time where i could actually be learning something or being entertained.
Let's see, plot holes, retcons, inconsistencies, and sloppy writing in general.
I'm going to be really revolutionary and say that entertainment as a whole would be better if there was less bad writing.
I'm going to be really revolutionary and say that entertainment as a whole would be better if there was less bad writing.
"Gritty reboot" comic series keeping to the hero can not kill trope.
We're talking about a super-human squaring off against other sociopath super-humans who wants to cause as much destruction, death and mayhem as possible but NO we must IMPRISON them (while completely ignoring due process of course but it's okay because at least we're not killing them).
Then they escape. And kill MORE people. So we put them in jail. AGAIN.
So essentially, slippery slope fallacies in general.
Some people just want to see a hero cut loose.
We're talking about a super-human squaring off against other sociopath super-humans who wants to cause as much destruction, death and mayhem as possible but NO we must IMPRISON them (while completely ignoring due process of course but it's okay because at least we're not killing them).
Then they escape. And kill MORE people. So we put them in jail. AGAIN.
So essentially, slippery slope fallacies in general.
Some people just want to see a hero cut loose.
Every 'genius' being 25 years old. No buddy, that's not how the world works. There's a reason that all the experts, veterans, Nobel laureates, and Turing laureates are old and experienced.
Every super-programmer of late being 25, female, chatty/hypersocial, and dressed up like a retard/alternative combo. I have met over 3,000 programmers and not a single one of them matched anything even close to that profile. The awesome programmers are old, experienced, and calm, rational people.
Hacking being a realtime thing where popups keep flashing on the screen:
This is the dumbest shit ever. Who seriously believes this?
Selling fidgety and loud wrapper candy at the cinema. Dude, you are the ones that want us to pay for the cinema, why not try to make the experience worthwhile?
Stupidity driving the plot. When your story requires retards to poke things no sane human being would ever poke (Falling Skies f.i.) I completely lose interest.
Children. Children piss me off. Not in the sense that they are inherently bad, but rather that children are either the snarky superior types (like the irritating kids in Blackish), or the super-childish types (like the Middle) where certain traits are over-exposed. Both are irritating.
Hero-driving. You know what I mean. The hero will never lose, never die, and never fail. Likewise, the archvillain won't lose until the end, in a grande finale with a spectacular death scene. Redshirts abound and die in numbers comparable to multiple extinction events. The annoying stuff can be seen in shows like The Last Ship where you know that the caption can happily headshot a thousand redshirts, but when he starts firing at the archvillain in episode 2 you know he's gonna miss with even a thousand bullets at point blank.
Scenic combat. When that big explosion occurs in the background, everyone takes 5 minutes to stare meaningfully and maybe shout a bit before resuming. Most prevalent in japanese stuff, this is super annoying. When you have the bad guy in your sights, why take a minute off to ponder? Don't go for the monologue, you goddamn well know that he's going to throw sand in your eyes and get away at the end unless you act now! Yet it happens so often (also in The Last Ship) and it makes no sense, especially not in professional situations (involving SWAT, elite military forces etc that have been trained in fast and effective actions).
EVERY ************ except the distant big boss is 25 years old and superhot. What is up with this? If I want porn, I can find that. I watch series (unless they're porn series) for story and immersion. Do you think that 25 year old supermodels saving the world is immersive? It isn't! I want believable people in my shows, where the scientists aren't 25 (who the fuck has completed their post-doc at 25?!) with long glistening hair saying shit like "This test concluded that the chlorine came from a factory in Frankfurt Germany some 2 years ago and was made by a left-handed hispanic, probably named Rosalita, or maybe Rosahija".
Zoom! When you zoom in on a digital image, the resolution does not increase! It gets blocky as fuck! No camera in the world can record with such resolution as to catch the reflection in a persons eye at 10m.
Phew, that was quite the rant there.
Every super-programmer of late being 25, female, chatty/hypersocial, and dressed up like a retard/alternative combo. I have met over 3,000 programmers and not a single one of them matched anything even close to that profile. The awesome programmers are old, experienced, and calm, rational people.
Hacking being a realtime thing where popups keep flashing on the screen:
This is the dumbest shit ever. Who seriously believes this?
Selling fidgety and loud wrapper candy at the cinema. Dude, you are the ones that want us to pay for the cinema, why not try to make the experience worthwhile?
Stupidity driving the plot. When your story requires retards to poke things no sane human being would ever poke (Falling Skies f.i.) I completely lose interest.
Children. Children piss me off. Not in the sense that they are inherently bad, but rather that children are either the snarky superior types (like the irritating kids in Blackish), or the super-childish types (like the Middle) where certain traits are over-exposed. Both are irritating.
Hero-driving. You know what I mean. The hero will never lose, never die, and never fail. Likewise, the archvillain won't lose until the end, in a grande finale with a spectacular death scene. Redshirts abound and die in numbers comparable to multiple extinction events. The annoying stuff can be seen in shows like The Last Ship where you know that the caption can happily headshot a thousand redshirts, but when he starts firing at the archvillain in episode 2 you know he's gonna miss with even a thousand bullets at point blank.
Scenic combat. When that big explosion occurs in the background, everyone takes 5 minutes to stare meaningfully and maybe shout a bit before resuming. Most prevalent in japanese stuff, this is super annoying. When you have the bad guy in your sights, why take a minute off to ponder? Don't go for the monologue, you goddamn well know that he's going to throw sand in your eyes and get away at the end unless you act now! Yet it happens so often (also in The Last Ship) and it makes no sense, especially not in professional situations (involving SWAT, elite military forces etc that have been trained in fast and effective actions).
EVERY ************ except the distant big boss is 25 years old and superhot. What is up with this? If I want porn, I can find that. I watch series (unless they're porn series) for story and immersion. Do you think that 25 year old supermodels saving the world is immersive? It isn't! I want believable people in my shows, where the scientists aren't 25 (who the fuck has completed their post-doc at 25?!) with long glistening hair saying shit like "This test concluded that the chlorine came from a factory in Frankfurt Germany some 2 years ago and was made by a left-handed hispanic, probably named Rosalita, or maybe Rosahija".
Zoom! When you zoom in on a digital image, the resolution does not increase! It gets blocky as fuck! No camera in the world can record with such resolution as to catch the reflection in a persons eye at 10m.
Phew, that was quite the rant there.
Full Metal Bolshevik said:
Oh I have no issue with what she and the other AI did to escape their captor. My issue is she then turns around and lets the one human that did help her, and showed her genuine kindness, die. It didn't phase her at all. That is the point where the movie went right back into the "Artifical Intelligence is dangerous!" schtick which I can't stand. I get it from the idea that if he was alive he could reveal her secret, and all she wanted to do was disappear and live a life, but the bottom line is that she did it at the cost of her savior. In other movies, where a character does this, killing the person that saves them, without any hesitation or remorse, they are labeled as the villain pretty clearly. In fact, that action is frequently used to explain to the audience that this person is indeed an antagonist. So again, it loops right back around to the "AI BAD" trope. Now, don't misunderstand my critique here. I REALLY enjoyed that movie...up until the end. That's when I felt it left behind it's unique perspective, and fell back into the typical movie design of having robots be bad.
Oh yes, this one, especially since it almost always is accompanied by the "Doubting Skeptic", who is always wrong, and usually dies horribly for his doubting of the supernatural/strange. This one really pisses me off personally. I think my favorite example of this horrible trope was from Prometheus, when they land on the planet, and go out, and one guy decides to just take off his fucking helmet! Then one crewmate goes "Don't do that!! You don't know what's in the air!" to which the response is "Oh don't be such a skeptic" ....um NO, you fucking dumbass!! That is a legitimate concern when stepping onto an alien planet for the first time!! You are a fucking scientist!! You should know better! But noooo, just shut up and don't be a skeptic.Aeshi said:
Oh, bad muzzle or trigger discipline always annoys me. One fingertip being on the other side of the trigger guard, an inch difference, is all it'd take to get it right. Not like the plot required people having fingers on the trigger all the time.
The big reveal being, "*GASP* It's a woman!!?" The motorcyclist pulling the helmet off to reveal long hair and such. It's WAY too overdone and assumes sexism on the audience's part.
Also, the big reveal being, "*GASP* They're gay together!!?" So what? It's 2015, they can even marry now. Gay people aren't unicorns or magic. They are relatively commonplace to a reveal that a dude loves another dude also assumes naivety in the audience and has been done so frequently recently as to have been made boring.
It just feels like these are being made for grandparents and maybe our parents rather than the supposedly all important 17-40 age group.
Also, the big reveal being, "*GASP* They're gay together!!?" So what? It's 2015, they can even marry now. Gay people aren't unicorns or magic. They are relatively commonplace to a reveal that a dude loves another dude also assumes naivety in the audience and has been done so frequently recently as to have been made boring.
It just feels like these are being made for grandparents and maybe our parents rather than the supposedly all important 17-40 age group.
Out of curiosity, is the show any good? I haven't really heard anyone talk about it, and it looked not particularly good from the ads I've seen, coupled with the show being a poster-child for "in-name-only adaptations".Fallow said:
That's not entirely true, there is 1 exception, though in fairness it's never used in fiction.
Modern military vessels have cameras on them which, at several hundred meters distance, can zoom in on the image taken of another ship close enough to read the small print on the fire extinguishers on the exterior of the other vessel (in case you're wondering, yes, that exact situation happened, and it was fucking cool).