5 ms·

The technical faults with movies don't bother me anymore, because my expectations are basically zero. What bothers me immensely more is the same but with human

The technical faults with movies don't bother me anymore, because my expectations are basically zero. What bothers me immensely more is the same but with human choices, motivations and character. There's no reason to try to understand characters as they increasingly make the most superficial or arbitrary decisions, pulled along by plot necessities rather than driving the story. The humans in recent movies feel like window dressing or set design.

dbrueck 3y ago
Yes, this drives me crazy. I particularly hate the trope where the plot hinges on two characters having a huge misunderstanding that would be resolved by a 5 second conversation.
- thedanbob 3y ago
  Or the "problem that would be resolved by a 5 second phone call" trope. I always thought it was funny how long it lasted even after cell phones became ubiquitous.
  - hef19898 3y ago
    Two films that got that right, in a creative and almost realistic way, are Cellular and Phone Booth. The exceptions that proof the rule?
- Cthulhu_ 3y ago
  "Ooh so I DON'T have to kill half the universe's population because some go hungry?" "...oh you mean I could also just... give everyone enough food with a snap of the finger?"
  - thatguy0900 3y ago
    What bothered me the most about this was Thanos destroying the stones after. He should realize that the snap is something that will need to be done regularly if he wants to actually keep population down. Halving the galaxy once accomplishes nothing
    - tshaddox 3y ago
      Are we not supposed to think that Thanos is deranged? I thought it was pretty obvious that his goal is comically evil (no pun intended) and his motivation so singular that it’s pointless to even think of him as an individual with a personality who could be persuaded or even influenced by emotion. He’s literally just a force of nature that’s going to kill half of the life forms.
      - hef19898 3y ago
        Thanos is the worst villian since Negan in Walking Dead. Both made me stop caring for the franchise. Which is a pitty really, since writing, and the villain, were really good in Captain America Civil War. Actually, Zemo was the best villain in tue whole MCU, since Loki is not truely a villain IMHO.
      - sbierwagen 3y ago
        >Are we not supposed to think that Thanos is deranged? A perennial problem in writing villains is characterizing them as insane and stupid (to explain why they do evil) but then in order to present a real threat to the hero they execute those evil and stupid plans with patience and intelligence. Thanos has an army! An entire naval fleet assembled from centuries of constant war. He's a space Napoleon. That required skill, intelligence and considerable effort, as several characters tell us. And then after achieving the goal he spent so many years thinking about, he makes a dumb mistake, apparently without realizing it? Same thing with the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008). Other characters say he's crazy. He himself says he's "just a dog chasing a car" with no plan or goals beyond causing chaos. Yet he is always executing complex plans which require precise timing? Not the behavior of a raving madman.
munificent 3y ago
Marvel movies are the worst about this for me. The adult characters use adult mannerisms and delivery, but the actual dialog and what they're saying is so cartoonishly simple and childlike that I can't suspend my disbelief when watching grown adults talk and act that way. It's easier for me to believe in superpowers than to believe in people that have the psychological complexity of houseplants.
- scotty79 3y ago
  Well, it's an adaptation of a comicbook. They didn't have believable personalities there either.
  - munificent 3y ago
    Sure, I get it. It just feels so awkward to me to watch actual real human actors behave in such a weird artificial way.
    - fshr 3y ago
      You have to find a way to not think of it as behaving, but acting like the characters they’re meant to portray. If they weren’t comic book characters, literally two dimensional :), then it’d be different. Maybe live action superhero films just aren’t your jam?
      - munificent 3y ago
        I do like superhero movies—i.e. films about characters with supernatural powers—just not the MCU flavor of them. I enjoyed Unbreakable, Chronicle, Birdman, Fast Color, Freaks, etc.
    - mannykannot 3y ago
      This reminds me of the uncanny valley.
- watwut 3y ago
  I can't watch superheroes or read American comic pretty much for that reason.
derbOac 3y ago
What's interesting is that you could think of it as a variant of the plumber problem, but where your area of expertise is human behavior and experience.
bombcar 3y ago
I still don’t like the stupid Hans plot in Frozen. I cannot make that character make sense no matter how I convolute myself. I just have to ignore it entirely.

dbrueck 3y ago

Yes, this drives me crazy. I particularly hate the trope where the plot hinges on two characters having a huge misunderstanding that would be resolved by a 5 second conversation.

thedanbob 3y ago
Or the "problem that would be resolved by a 5 second phone call" trope. I always thought it was funny how long it lasted even after cell phones became ubiquitous.
- hef19898 3y ago
  Two films that got that right, in a creative and almost realistic way, are Cellular and Phone Booth. The exceptions that proof the rule?
Cthulhu_ 3y ago
"Ooh so I DON'T have to kill half the universe's population because some go hungry?" "...oh you mean I could also just... give everyone enough food with a snap of the finger?"
- thatguy0900 3y ago
  What bothered me the most about this was Thanos destroying the stones after. He should realize that the snap is something that will need to be done regularly if he wants to actually keep population down. Halving the galaxy once accomplishes nothing
  - tshaddox 3y ago
    Are we not supposed to think that Thanos is deranged? I thought it was pretty obvious that his goal is comically evil (no pun intended) and his motivation so singular that it’s pointless to even think of him as an individual with a personality who could be persuaded or even influenced by emotion. He’s literally just a force of nature that’s going to kill half of the life forms.
    - hef19898 3y ago
      Thanos is the worst villian since Negan in Walking Dead. Both made me stop caring for the franchise. Which is a pitty really, since writing, and the villain, were really good in Captain America Civil War. Actually, Zemo was the best villain in tue whole MCU, since Loki is not truely a villain IMHO.
    - sbierwagen 3y ago
      >Are we not supposed to think that Thanos is deranged? A perennial problem in writing villains is characterizing them as insane and stupid (to explain why they do evil) but then in order to present a real threat to the hero they execute those evil and stupid plans with patience and intelligence. Thanos has an army! An entire naval fleet assembled from centuries of constant war. He's a space Napoleon. That required skill, intelligence and considerable effort, as several characters tell us. And then after achieving the goal he spent so many years thinking about, he makes a dumb mistake, apparently without realizing it? Same thing with the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008). Other characters say he's crazy. He himself says he's "just a dog chasing a car" with no plan or goals beyond causing chaos. Yet he is always executing complex plans which require precise timing? Not the behavior of a raving madman.

munificent 3y ago

Marvel movies are the worst about this for me. The adult characters use adult mannerisms and delivery, but the actual dialog and what they're saying is so cartoonishly simple and childlike that I can't suspend my disbelief when watching grown adults talk and act that way. It's easier for me to believe in superpowers than to believe in people that have the psychological complexity of houseplants.

scotty79 3y ago
Well, it's an adaptation of a comicbook. They didn't have believable personalities there either.
- munificent 3y ago
  Sure, I get it. It just feels so awkward to me to watch actual real human actors behave in such a weird artificial way.
  - fshr 3y ago
    You have to find a way to not think of it as behaving, but acting like the characters they’re meant to portray. If they weren’t comic book characters, literally two dimensional :), then it’d be different. Maybe live action superhero films just aren’t your jam?
    - munificent 3y ago
      I do like superhero movies—i.e. films about characters with supernatural powers—just not the MCU flavor of them. I enjoyed Unbreakable, Chronicle, Birdman, Fast Color, Freaks, etc.
  - mannykannot 3y ago
    This reminds me of the uncanny valley.
watwut 3y ago
I can't watch superheroes or read American comic pretty much for that reason.

derbOac 3y ago

What's interesting is that you could think of it as a variant of the plumber problem, but where your area of expertise is human behavior and experience.

bombcar 3y ago

I still don’t like the stupid Hans plot in Frozen. I cannot make that character make sense no matter how I convolute myself. I just have to ignore it entirely.