Modern blockbusters tend to try and follow trends that are likely to give them the biggest returns, but some of these need to be retired for movies to truly be creative and unique. While studios are in the business of making money, and they spend hundreds of millions on producing new films all the time, some tropes that keep popping up are getting old fast. When every studio tries to repeat someone else’s success, it tends to lower the overall quality with poor imitation and lack of originality.
Great movies don’t come from doing the same thing over and over again, but studios often see consistent returns by making films based on the same IP or copying other popular ideas. Because of this, many modern films end up sharing common tropes, from minor moments in the film that are entirely unrealistic to much bigger issues like trying to create a shared movie universe. When movies are riddled with all of these tropes, audiences lose interest and faith in the studio to create something new and original.
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Shared Cinematic Universes
Failing To Make A Cinematic Universe
When Marvel successfully launched an expansive shared universe, it was a novel concept. In 10 years, they made 21 films before the massive event that was Avengers: Endgame. Before the MCU, trilogies, and franchises such as Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street experienced moderate success, but keeping quality high, telling multiple stories, and bringing the characters together had never been done to that degree before. With so many properties, adding up to several billion dollars in earnings, other studios followed suit creating universes of their own, but no other studio has come close to the success of the MCU.
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Part 1, Part 2, Etc.
Splitting A Movie Into Parts
Not every movie that is split into parts is a bad one. In fact, many create rich stories over multiple films. However, there is a big problem with a story stopping at a point that feels completely unnatural. Cliffhangers happen in TV shows, and also to some extent in movies, but a movie should still feel like a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. When a film is split into parts, they often abruptly end in what appears to be the middle of the story, leaving viewers unsatisfied and waiting 12 months or more to see the ending.
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Unnecessary Spin-Offs
Boring Characters, Empty Stories, And Hollow Movies
Following on from the shared universe point, spin-offs where no one is all that interested are often mundane and struggle to attract significant attention. Creating a whole movie based on characters that no one has any interest in, or failing to make the story engaging and exciting enough, pointless spin-offs wind up falling flat at the box office. Often, these spin-offs are made to capitalize on the success of the original and start expanding the universe, but they just make it more exhausting and difficult to enjoy a story with so many moving parts.
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Too Much CGI
And Not Enough Time
Special VFX studios work incredibly hard to create stunning visuals and make things that only exist in people’s imaginations into a reality, but when movies are saturated with poorly executed VFX, it can ruin the entire experience. Working on the fastest computers in existence, creating VFX still takes time to create 3D models, track environments, design, and render, and none of these steps happen quickly. When a movie has hundreds or thousands of VFX shots and a tight release schedule, the artists are frequently pushed beyond their limits, and the results often come out poor despite their best efforts.
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Post-Credits Scenes
Trying To Set Up Another Movie
Post-credits scenes in movies can be fun and exciting, and build anticipation for future projects. But, if a post-credits scene feels too detached, or occasionally more exciting than the movie that came before it, it can cheapen the whole experience. A movie should not be designed to get people excited about the next movie. The movie should be a complete and compelling story, and if a hint at some future story is naturally included, great, but that shouldn’t be the point. Too often, blockbuster movies lead into other stories, including great stingers in the credits, but it cheapens the film overall.
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Plot Armor
Main Characters Getting Injured And Carrying On Undeterred
While a protagonist is obviously going to connect with audiences and drive a story forward, movies have a tendency to make them invincible. This isn’t to say that these characters should die off more often, but if a movie includes a scene where they are shot, or injured in some way, it’s unrealistic to just show them carrying on completely without issues. Too often, movies include a traumatic event that could almost kill off the hero, but seconds later, they are fine. At least include a limp or something to show that moment meant was significant.
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Too Many Jump Cuts
Making The Action Almost Unwatchable
When an action sequence is oversaturated with jump cuts, and constantly changing the angles, it can become a strain to watch. Sure, it conveys a sense of motion, urgency, and speed, but it also means the audience misses almost all of the action. When a film slows things down or uses a continuous shot, it can often convey a sense of realism and scale, and for important fights or chases, it makes sense to give these moments the time and attention they deserve, rather than just smashing a bunch of different shots together in quick succession.
3
Relying Too Much On Humor
Undercutting Serious Scenes With Jokes
Comedy films are great and clearly have a huge audience considering the hundreds of movies released each year that fall into that genre. However, there is also value in giving a serious scene room to breathe, and not pushing jokes to lighten the mood. It can be helpful to move from a dark and serious moment into something brighter, but too often, films include jokes in these same sad scenes, which devalues the seriousness and lowers the stakes. Movies should be emotional, with both hard-hitting challenges and belly-laughing moments, but they don’t need to be both in every single scene.
2
Just Hanging Up
Nobody In The Real World Does That
Time is the most valuable commodity in a movie. In 90 minutes or so, a full story needs to be portrayed, connecting to the audience and delivering a satisfying resolution. So, when a phone call happens and the people speaking to each other and then it cuts to the next scene, it makes sense. However, if the shot stays on either character, and they simply hang up without any acknowledgment, it can be annoying. It may be nitpicky, but movies should be realistic and captivating, and this is a simple way to pull viewers out of the action.
1
Conversations While Driving
And Failing To Look At The Road
On the other hand, when a movie presents characters speaking to each other in a car while driving, one of two things is bound to happen. Either, the character who is driving fails to see another car, and they get into an accident, or they spend way too much time looking at the others and not watching the road. One can be an extremely engaging moment, but also predictable. The other pulls the audience out of the experience and quickly makes them aware that it’s all just a movie and there are no real stakes.
