We enjoy watching movies of various genres. They always have a story to tell that lightens our mood, lift our spirits, or just makes up jump in our seats. There have been literally thousands of movies that have been made and it’s impossible that some of them aren’t the same. There are some movie clichés that have been repeating since the very beginning. Despite being clichés, we the audience are too focused on watching that we barely notice them. Then again as long as the movie was well made or too entertaining then these clichés don’t really make a difference. Just because they’re clichés doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re bad it’s just that they’re repetitive. Clichés can also break a movie depending on how they’re executed but there are really those that stand out in a bad or good way.
1. The Failing Transportation
This cliché is normally found in horror, suspense, and action movies. They can also be found in other genres especially if the situation is related to a time constricted scene. The cliché goes that one of the characters is being chased by someone or something. This can also apply to a scene where they really need to move out of a specific location within a time limit. They get to a part where there’s a transportation of some sort which is usually a car.
Then that transportation suddenly won’t start for some reason even after numerous attempts. It adds a bit of suspense as to what happens next whether or not they’ll be able to move out in time. Then again a large percent of these scenes always ends up in a good way.
2. The Montage Scene
The montage scene is abundant in some movies. It usually compiles a series of events happening from a specific time to an endpoint. This can usually contain events from a couple of hours or events within a month all compiled into one. It’s sort of like a flash-forward instance where it shows a lot of scenes in a matter of minutes.
During this montage scene, some cool or inspiring background music is playing as it portrays the passing of time. This isn’t limited to a single genre as the montage scene works for any kind of movie.
3. The Dumb Bad Guys
This cliché is abundant in action or suspense movies but can also be found in several movies as long as there’s a bad guy. The cliché goes that every time the bad guy has the time or opportunity to get rid of the good guy, they like to play it cool. They tend to get arrogant and let the good guy live to allow them to get their countermeasures. It does add a certain suspense to see if the good guy can retaliate.
The point is that in real life, bad guys aren’t as forgiving but then again it’s a movie. Another example is that whenever a bad guy points a gun they tend to talk a lot rather than pulling a trigger allowing the good guy to retaliate thus defeating the bad guy instead.
4. The Unnecessary Love Story
Obviously, romance, drama, and love story movies aren’t affected by this cliché because that is their genre. Then again for some genres like action, science fiction, or even comedy, there come clichés like this. Think of a zombie apocalypse action movie with guns blazing through hordes of the undead. The characters have to survive which is all good and fine. Then at the midpoint in the movie, they introduce a cheesy love story between two of the characters that just happen to have met several hours prior to that scene and they think they’re soul mates.
It ruins the mood of the movie and is sometimes unnecessary. To be fair, if it’s executed properly then there shouldn’t be any problems but most of the time it’s like a late addition that isn’t even necessary.
5. The Happy Ending
Everybody loves a happy ending which is the natural flow of movies. One would argue but the reality is that over 95% of movies all have a happy ending. Regardless of what genre it is the happy ending is always there. If you’re watching a horror or suspense movie then chances are the surviving characters get to live another day sparking a somewhat happy ending. It’s only natural to have this formula because people who watch movies want to feel vindication after what the characters’ have gone through. They wouldn’t want to watch a movie where all the characters get slaughtered and the bad guy lives on or the main character ends up alone with a broken heart.
Then again there are movies that have managed to be good despite not having a happy ending. It’s the execution of these endings that makes them worthwhile. Then of course movies that end with a cliffhanger like a trilogy or series movies don’t necessarily end happily unless it’s the final installment.
Movie clichés are just a few things people barely notice or give importance to. They’re always a part of movies much like things you do on the daily basis. Then again if you’ve noticed them time and time again, it just goes to show how keen your eyes are or the movie is just that bad.