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Post by Slinger on Aug 4, 2018 14:52:46 GMT
How many times have you seen the group of people split up to search the "old house" or the lone heroine shuffle down the dark cellar stairs and thought "surely they've seen enough films or watched enough telly to know that's the easiest way to get captured or killed." Loads, I'm guessing, but it helps the plot along so the writer/director/producer/etc. gets away with it. That doesn't stop it being annoying, though; to me at least.
Apart from those two obvious examples, which plot devices annoy you? My current favourites (?) are these.
#1 - Our hero/heroine is being hunted. They encounter the bad guy and manage to stun him and then keep on running as he slowly gets back up and keeps on chasing them. Even people being chased in pairs choose to keep on running. WRONG! If you put the bloke on the deck you make damn sure he's NOT getting back up in a hurry. Put the boot in and keep putting it in until he's no longer a problem. Take his gun away and shoot him with it.
#2 - I've mentioned this one before. Super advanced weapons in sci-fi films that still can't hit a stationary target on the opposite side of a room. Why would so much R&D go into improving weapons but not into improving targeting solutions? Sorry, but it bugs me. I want a gun to shoot at what I'm looking at, not necessarily what I'm pointing it at, and if they're clever enough to get it shooting a beam of super-compressed neutrinos or some such gobbledygook then it should be able to hit stuff with said beam.
#3. Back to people being chased. Who, in their right mind, runs into a building and up the stairs when trying to escape, and how come they still manage to look surprised when they're cornered, on the roof?
Is it just me, or are there things that happen regularly in films or on TV that annoy you too? Maybe I'm being over-critical...or is it writers just being lazy.
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Post by MikeMusic on Aug 4, 2018 15:20:06 GMT
Agreed.
When these things happen I often turn them off.
When the bad guy is down make sure he stays down.
Not a lot of imagination required here. A sharp kick to the head will dissuade.
When the baddie is down and firearms are involved - shoot him in the leg. Times I shout at the telly to "shoot him in the leg !" are many.
The recent storylines in Dicte annoyed me. Stupid people causing harm and death to sensible people.
A classic good one from Firefly.
Baddie holding a hostage and a gun to their head.
Our hero shoots him in the head, without breaking stride. End of that story.
Scifi not being able to hit a barn from 10 paces is awful.
By that timeline (or most) the hero will be able to *think* the shot into the right place from a device nowhere near him.
The stories I really like is where our hero/es do something apparently dumb - to set up the baddie.
Lurve complicated.
Love stories where Mr.Ordinary is ambushed and is able to take care of himself very well due to training we were not aware of previously.
There was some of that in Spy.
The hero/heroine can still get into trouble but *not* by being 12 levels below their stupid level
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Post by MartinT on Aug 4, 2018 16:27:34 GMT
The plot device of an insane escape idea from a current predicament, complete with cod-scientific explanation to which they all buy in.
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Post by zippy on Aug 5, 2018 8:57:00 GMT
The classic is in Start Trek: If a completely new person turns up (especially for an away mission) you just know the only reason is that he's going to be killed off.
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Post by mikeyb on Aug 5, 2018 9:24:22 GMT
Never understood why American basements don’t have lights, or if they do they never work, well if not, why the feck go down there.
And why do they always fall over/trip when being chased.
Or what about about the one where they’ve been chased out of the house/trap, ran through the dark woods to then stumble onto the road in front of a set of headlights only to then realise it’s their pursuer, or sometimes not because all you see is an open door and a ‘shape’ sitting in the drivers seat as you are invited in through the open passenger door.
Oh and by the way have you ever tried to catch up with a car that left a couple of minutes before you, not knowing which way it went, virtually impossible.
American alleys are always always dead ends, with the wall or fence just a little too high to scale.
Why do they run with karate chop hands and push their hands up past their ears to kid on they’re running ‘really’ fast when in fact they’re hardly moving. Moving your arms faster than your legs doesn’t give the impression your running any faster!
And when your running ‘really fast’ never, never, ever look over your shoulder because....
A: you’ll fall over
B: you’ll run smack into the arms of the accomplice or
C: it’s the arms of the ‘hero’ who ran a different direction to cut you off, but isn’t really the hero, he’s the real bad guy, but we knew that didn’t we, he ALWAYS plays the bad guy, we knew it the minute his name appeared on the opening credits.
The superhero landing arrrgghh it’s been done to death.
Phrases like ....”Not on my watch”
Or my most hated one “I’m sorry for your loss” double arghh, you didn’t lose them, they f*****g died!
We all know Moscow is in Russia, London is in England etc,etc.
It’s because the American market is so ‘dumb’ they have to sign post everything, which is why European dramas and thrillers tend to be much better because they make you think for yourself.
Sorry this kind of turned into a moan lol
Ooh, last one I promise, fights where it didn’t matter if you didn’t duck it would have missed you anyway 😂
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Post by MartinT on Aug 5, 2018 10:41:41 GMT
Continuity cock-ups, where they're chasing through a recognisable city street. In the next cut, they're half way across the city. Or even in a different one.
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Post by Slinger on Aug 5, 2018 14:03:55 GMT
The classic is in Start Trek: If a completely new person turns up (especially for an away mission) you just know the only reason is that he's going to be killed off. That turned "redshirt" into an actual trope en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshirt_(stock_character) |
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Post by rfan8312 on Aug 5, 2018 15:26:36 GMT
I've always cringed that there always has to be a leader to a group of antagonists. There's one guy who is vocal and the rest seem to be his puppets. This kind of plot device is ancient and appeared in movies 50 years ago and is alive and well today. I watched the newer IT movie this weekend and the guy playing Henry the bully orders his cronies around and they do as he says without hesitation. I never saw anything remotely like that in reality back in school. You had to constantly earn your position in the group. I watched the bar scene in Goodwill Hunting last weekend and the guy talking smack has a gaggle of people standing behind him smirking and laughing supporting the cheesy quips he makes "haha good one" which actually lead to his demise only moments later. American market is so ‘dumb’ they have to sign post everything, which is why European dramas and thrillers tend to be much better because they make you think for yourself.[ +1 So many American movies are muddled up crap not because they dont trust the audience can think for itself but more so because they are so scared of losing a few dollars by losing someone who might not get it or get the joke. Soon they will pause the frame and insert a countdown to a joke, then insert arrows pointing to where the funny parts are, just in case. I stick to foreign films often and films directed by people not from the US. Although luckily in the US the more a director becomes trusted by his financiers the more of his original vision can be shown without studio interference. |
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Post by Slinger on Aug 5, 2018 20:31:42 GMT
Doctors, nurses, vicars, pathologists, judges, lawyers, etc., who are not only allowed to insert themselves into police investigations but who ride roughshod over the cops and are then allowed to join them when interviewing suspects. I rather suspect that these people wouldn't last an episode, let alone a whole TV series, because they'd be arrested themselves for anything from obstruction to perverting the course of justice.
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Post by MartinT on Aug 5, 2018 21:30:14 GMT
Silent Witness became an absolute parody of itself because of that. Pathologists who constantly take the law into their own hands.
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Post by Slinger on Aug 7, 2018 19:09:32 GMT
Doors, on spaceships. How do they know when to open? How do they know that somebody wants to go through them and isn't just walking past them?
Same theme. Stargate. How does a Stargate know when everyone who's traveling has passed through? It doesn't matter how many people there are, the Stargate always closes as soon as the last of them has passed through, be it one, two, or twenty-two travelers. Just to confuse matters it sometimes has to be closed manually, usually as an attempt to make the plot more exciting.
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Post by Tim on Aug 7, 2018 19:50:08 GMT
Maybe I'm being over-critical...or is it writers just being lazy. Neither, you are forgetting how thick and easily pleased the majority of people are  |
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Post by ChrisB on Aug 7, 2018 23:21:44 GMT
Lots of things fall into this category for me.
I find myself unable to watch things that initially appear to hold much promise and seem to be universally revered by everyone else on the planet because of this sort of stuff.
My two current hobby horses:
'Strong female characters' in historical dramas/films.
Not so very long ago, they simply didn't exist. They were almost always cowed by the male of the species if they even had the temerity to possess as much as an opinion of their own.
The portrayal of the use of firearms.
Here's just one example (and the list is extensive!). One of the very first things that I was taught many years ago when I first started shooting pistols competitively was that when you charge a pistol with its magazine, you push it in with your fingertips. Under no circumstances, must you ram it in with the heel of your hand. Now, I don't know about you, but I cannot recall a single incidence in a film or TV drama when I have seen someone do that simple thing correctly.
There are many, many more things that annoy the bejeezus out of me. So much so that I can't suspend the thought that the entire thing is a construct.
This subject is one of the reasons that I listen to music so much!
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Post by MikeMusic on Aug 8, 2018 9:01:52 GMT
Smoking
Bad enough when the baddies do it.
Having the goodies smoke is bad, some even chain smoke.
Is it to show the character is flawed, stupid ?
Does Big Tobacco pay them ?
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