I was watching Dune this weekend, along with the rest of the world, and thinking about how burned out many of us are on the white savior trope ... the second half of Dune, if it gets made, will be about deconstructing that, which is sort of interesting. But I started thinking a bit about some of the tropes I love and hate and thought that might be a fun question to put out to the gen pop.
Tropes I'm Over: Manic Pixie Dream Girl, White Savior, Gay Best Friend (specifically the gay dude who takes the gal pal shopping and is very sassy)
Tropes I'll Never Get Over: Lovers on Opposite Sides of a War, Sibling vs Sibling, the Glorious Dumbass (hero or heroine who does things the worst way possible, but is kind of hilarious -- Ava Silva in Warrior Nun, Chris Pratt's Starlord, Wynonna Earp)
How about you? Please share! I'm curious.
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Down on his luck guy owing money to the mob. I have never met a single person who owes money to the mob the way fictitious characters do.
Dan Guardino LOL!
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I am tired of the White Savior Troupe, however, for Dune, I've made an exception. Dune is based off a book, so it is logical that the filmmakers stay true to the story as much as possible. To change the lead to something else would be forced and disingenuous. It's one of those damned if you do or don't type of things. And the sequel will deconstruct that, so I'm curious how that will look.
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Characters that don’t know they are in the movie. Janitor walking through a bloodbath listening to music.
The bad guy that is impressed by the god guys conviction to something. “I admire your guts kid - let him go”.
That a narcissist is undone by being told they are self absorbed. That is the point, they believe the world looks up to them. They see that sort of criticism as a fault of the person not themselves.
String between items on a crime board for no reason. I work in the intell space. That shit means stuff, not the way they do it in films.
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Post apocalyptic wastelands and characters fighting for survival. I know, instant inexpensive drama. Be more creative.
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David, not so loud, I have one in a funding round in Canada..lol. But they can be lazy. My one is more about pushing people together in a world where they don’t have resources to fall back on.
Not as cheap as you think. Getting hold of locations that have no sign of life has been a challenge for the producers. The options have been the USA, Croatia and even Canada. The locations normally come with some money incentives. I sold this thing a few ago. Then a pandemic hit. We all know how that ended.
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A great trope is "a lie agreed upon for a greater goal". There aren't many opportunities to use it but it can be very powerful. Best examples are the ending of The Dark Knight when they agree that Batman should be blamed for Dent's murder to cover up his crimes and preserve the good he did, and The Immitation Game when they realise that they must let some of the attacks they know will happen go ahead to preserve the secret that they have cracked the Enigma code. The second one is true and heartbreaking.
Ohhh, yeah that's a good one!
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I enjoy well written stories. For me it doesn't matter what trope is used as long as it's used well.
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Sorry Craig. I used to go to drive-ins in the 70s and there was always at least 1 B post-apocalyptic movie. If they are done well they can be good but the writing was usually poor. Good luck to you. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
Ewan, I agree and now would be a good time for that story.
I'll keep it short.
- 2nd Act Breakup
- Heroic Sacrifice
- Young Love/Romance
- Prophecy
- Deus Ex Machina
- Diabolus Ex Machina
I told you I'd keep it short.
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A trope I don't like: a majority of students bullying a kid.
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I would agree with you, @Maurice - I can see stealth one-on-one bullying, but not group bullying.
I remember seeing a movie where all the students (or almost everyone) bullied a student, Kay.
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If you're into tired, stale, worn-out tropes, you'll love the new Netflix sitcom, "Pretty Stupid". If they've missed a sitcom trope, I'm not sure what it might be.