Worst Clichés

What are the worst clichés in your opinion? You know, which you see in movies, shows, and video games.

For me it is the misunderstanding cliché (especially when it comes to romance), Damsel in distress cliché, overprotective parent cliché, never believing when framed or accused cliché, and the never believing until it's too late cliché.

The girl always surviving last in a horror movie. Its become so stale and boring, I mean I get the reason behind it and its nice and all but it has to be for EVERY horror movie? Oh sure, you'll also sometimes get a couple which is too boring and sometimes even the killer just kills everyone. But why can't guys be the one to survive? Would the director and cast get arrested if heaven forbid the guy is the one last one to survive at least one horror movie every now and again? Jeez.

Black dude dies first. Besides the obvious problems one would have with it, it also is terribly predictable and honestly the black dude of the group is more interesting than his white friends 9/10 in a horror movie.

@wolfrazer: And the Black Guy always dieing first....

Ha! Already complained about it before you could! :P

@decoyelite: 20 flipping seconds....Next time...

The trailer noise. -_-

@joewell: You will never beat my super robot complaining reflexes. :P

@racob7:

something temporarily blocks most of the view on the screen (usually a door) and then the character closes/moves it and something scary pops up behind it

someone about to die always manages to say something meaningful before actually passing (whoever witnesses said death usually moves his/her hand over the face of dead person and "closes" their eyes)

during an action movie, shit hits the fan, and someone (a cop, a soldier, whoever) will say "I didn't sign up for this shit" when in fact as they are a cop, soldier, whatever...they did

what about how predictably groups or teams are populated, in terms of gender and race? like there's almost always 5 people. if we're lucky then the gender split is 3 guys and 2 girls but just as often we see 4 guys and 1 girl. the hero is always a blandly handsome white dude and the "heroine" (I use quotes because she's usually just there to hang on the hero's arm and be his trophy at the end of the story) is a blandly attractive white woman, and they predictably fall for each other by the end of the story. IF there is any minority presence in the team at all then it will usually be one single character, often a black guy or an Asian girl. if this is a really "progressive" story then we'll get both. we never see two members of the same race on a team like this unless that race is "white". for example, the New 52 Justice League had 7 members. 6 were male, 1 was female (Wonder Woman). of those 6 only 1, Cyborg, wasn't a white guy. and that's just the first one that came to mind, once you know what you're looking for it's incredibly easy to spot.

oh also, I'm really sick of the trope where one relationship partner walks in on their partner in what at first glance appears to be a compromising position, like it looks like their boyfriend/wife/life partner/whatever is cheating on them, but that's not what's happening, so instead of staying and dealing with it (which would lead them to realize that no cheating was actually happening, it was all a big misunderstanding ha ha ha) they run off crying and do something stupid. I'm sure I could think of examples if I thought about it for 30 seconds but I hate that cliche so much that I don't care to waste the mental effort.

This summer...

Finally! I thought I was the only one who was sick of that cliché. That's the misunderstanding cliché type I meant especially when it comes to romance. What makes that cliché more annoying is the boyfriend/husband will say "Hurr hurr hurr no honey it's not what you think!" and the girlfriend/wife won't believe him, but later finds out he was telling the truth and gets back together. I wish they would change that cliché at least once like having the girlfriend/wife believe the boyfriend/husband or stop using it. We all know what's going to happen. What's the point of keep doing it.

I'm really sick of the trope where all the characters have to be American regardless if there black, white or whatever.

The "BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" sound effect in trailers. You know the ones used in Inception, that was inexplicably used in World War Z trailer. That among many things drove me away from watching that movie.

@jonny_anonymous: agreed. that's one thing I really liked about Pacific Rim. the cast was diverse and multinational. it was about the world coming together to fight a bigger threat, one that forced us to put aside our petty squabbles and stand united as humanity, not a single nation. sure the hero was a blandly handsome white dude but at least the female lead was a Japanese woman and the team leader was black.

Now,the Inception-Dark Knight music in trailers.

Eh.. the cliche kiss between two people who have barely met each other just before the hero goes off to save the day.

Or, the cliche "we're teenagers, let's go on an adventure!" theme of certain movies (yes, Percy Jackson, I'm looking at you). Harry Potter did it, and it worked out well, seeing the characters grow into the adults they would later become, while tackling darker threats. Percy Jackson and Kick Ass really have none of that.. it just seems too unrealistically silly for me to enjoy, especially when you consider how insignificant a teenagers role in that situation would be realistically. Narnia, can pass. Hunger Games, can pass. Harry Potter set in stone the theme of a teenage adventure movie. Percy Jackson ruins it.

Er.. can't think of many more that genuinely bug me.

Oh, actually, I also REALLY hate when a situation in movie or sit com can be solved as easily as someone just SAYING SOMETHING.

When someone gets caught "cheating" on their partner, even though they weren't.

Ah.. just when someone really isn't in the wrong about something, and all it takes is for them to go "look..." and explain themselves, but instead they freeze up and completely fail to defend their position, while the other person gets all pissy and storms off.

Me too. I'm sick of it as well. I mean what's the point of keep doing it if we know what's going to happen or at least change it with the girlfriend/wife believing the boyfriend/husband when he says "Hurr hurr hurr no honey it's not what you think!?"

I am SICK of the "loser guy getting the extremely hot girl" cliche. Transformers, I'm looking at you.

Oh yeah, this. 90% of attractive girls in real life wouldn't look the road any regular, keeps to himself, humble, not the most handsome guy in the world, type guy, would walk on. Yet in the movies, you'll see Megan Fox or something in high school, magically attracted to the quiet geeky guy in her class. In fact, this happened in the Amazing Spider-Man, and it kind of made no sense, despite Gwen coming off as not that shallow. But girls like her are normally too shallow to fall for a guy like Peter Parker. IT MAKES NO SENSE DAMNIT >:|

@dragonborn_ct: You should watch the the video I posted above

Kick-Ass getting Lyndsay Fonseca :3. Even though Taylor Johnson is actually a good looking dude, Kick-ass is a nerd.

The cast may have been diverse in ethnicity and race...but 90% of them were also bad actors with a worse script ...;p

I'm sick of the bad guy always holding out on killing the good guys and then the good guys end up somehow getting out of the situation to save the day.

• The black guy dying first
• The hero refusing to kill somebody even if they have murdered countless lives and will kill again
• Lightning clashing at the top of a building
• Love triangles with an evil and good girlfriend/boyfriend

That is exactly what I was thinking :P

I hate characters on tv shows movies etc etc. that "fall in love" with each other despite sharing little to no screen time together or not knowing each other beyond first names and occupations. What i hate even more are when these characters do thing that should put them in the running for a darwin award because they are in "love." I hate that they portray an infatuation as love because there is a huge difference.

I also hate the cliche where some young kid gets transported to another realm/dimension/planet and learns some lesson about being true to yourself or being brave or some stupid bullsh-t. I hate how these kids survive these adventures since they almost always revolve around some sort of war or conflict. This also falls under my hated "Chosen One" cliche

This is a cliché that has been done to death. It's the Liar Revealed Cliché, but for some reason it doesn't bother me. I guess that's because I never notice it when I was young and didn't watch that many movies with it.

It's when someone lies about something and then takes up most of the third act until it's revealed he/she lied. Then they aren't trusted, but eventually are trusted again.

These are perfect example of movies that has it.

A Bug's Life (1998)

Shark Tale (2004)

Over the Hedge (2006)

I would say more, but the list would just go on.

Any revenge movie ever.

The "This Planet will explode in 5 minutes" cliche.

Also hate the damsel in distress cliche as well.

You and me both. Trust me.

The lighting a pool of gasoline with a lit cigarette...... That $#!% doesn't even really work! You can't light gas on fire with a lit cigarette!

What? Which movie is this?

The falling plane that malfunctions and escapes view of the camera and suddenly comes out flying working again..... It hasn't been used lately, but it's there....

The "everyone is retarded but the killer" in horror films.

@monsterstomp said:

Someone says something will happen in, let's say, 40 seconds. Twenty minutes later, it happens. It happens more in shows than in films.

The quote is from Dragon Ball Z, in which the planet explodes four hours later.

Nice. Really hated the Spider-Man/MJ relationship in the 2002 Spider-Man...Prefer the Padme/Anakin relationship, THAT was the best couple of 2002! :)

How every movie..and when I say "every movie" I mean EVERY MOVIE no matter the genre, horror, action, comedy, thriller, etc, has to have romance in it, even if it's completely forced. I guess we as a culture are a bunch of hopeless romantics.

Yes, this is true. Seriously they shove it into everything.

Any story written where the protagonist is revealed as a liar or something bad, his group abandoning hin only for hin to prove his worth in the climax. THIS IS IN FAR TOO MANY MOVIES

I would state a list of clichés but I have one thing to say:

Man of Steel. The whole movie was filled with clichés.

Example?

Interesting; you got me on something here. I was going to write about a bunch of stuff in the movie that can be seen as clichés, but the more I think about them the more they seem to be flaws rather than clichés. I think that I am confusing clichés with a generally generic plot.

However, if I was to give what I am confident is a cliché, it would be Zod's perfect opportunity when that family was nearby at the station. It felt forced, the villain's perfect chance to challenge the hero by targeting small-close to heart-objects at a decisive movement, as were most things (forced) in the movie. I don't know, I can't help thinking 'undeveloped' and 'unoriginal' every time Man of Steel comes to mind. Maybe it's me but most things about Man of Steel felt familiar, too familiar, overdone. I really enjoyed it, but that's where I stop.

Hell, let's do some clichés:

• Zod surviving Krypton's destruction by being sent in to the phantom zone. It's not bad writing, but the time frame was horrible. That is why it leans toward cliché territory.
• Superman and Lois Lane's kiss right before he faces the biggest threat yet, Zod. It's forced romance and has been done to death. Could have been tolerable if their romance throughout the movie was better.
• Any other "clichés " I had in mind seem more like flaws territory. So I am leaving it at this.

The evil/villainous woman falling in love with the hero and switching sides because of it.

The whole Romeo and Juliet thing in general annoys me, but it especially pisses me off when it's the above.

The "everything is possible through the power of love "cliché"

Like the whole world has been put under a spell to do the evil guys bidding but when the main character is about to kill/hurt some one there like "remember me... I love you" and the hero instantly snaps out of it with the....

This is a cliché I cannot stand.

The woman kicking the man out of the house cliché. Seriously it's always the woman. Why can't it ever be the other way around for once. It's been so overdone in every show or movie I've seen with it.