5 Movie Tropes That Need To Die In A fire
Movies work in part because we have all been watching them for so long, there are devices film makers can use as shorthand. While unnatural, these devices work as dramatic shortcuts that make movie storytelling work more efficiently. These are called “tropes”. In the language of film certain tropes become so common we do not even notice them until they are conspicuously absent. Many of these are good, and a positive part of the evolution of the medium.
These five need to die in a fire.
Smurfette Syndrome
Most ensemble hero movies, especially action/adventure films, suffer from this. A Smurfette movie is one in which the heroes are a bunch of guys and one girl, who is just another one of the guys. Nowadays this is so glaring Now You See Me 2 actually felt compelled to unironically comment on this when Lula exclaims “I’m the girl horseman!” (More on that can be read here.) In films with a long canon like The Avengers, this is unavoidable to a certain extent, but even then there is a lot to answer for. Was it necessary to keep The Scarlet Witch out of the Avengers franchise until just the last couple films? The problem with Smurfette Syndrome is it reinforces the idea that the woman is there not because of her natural properties as a character, but because she has overcome her woman-ness to be like the men. This implicit message is either tasteless when deliberate, or can serve to undermine what the storytellers are doing if accidental.
The Magical Negro
Can the average moviegoer recall a role played by Morgan Freeman when he wasn’t some sort of god figure, magical mentor, or shape-shifting magical ally? How about one in which he isn’t that and doesn’t die? In Now You See Me 1 and 2, The Lego Movie, Bruce Almighty, and (at least to the other characters in the film) Robin Hood he is literally a Magical Negro. He is actually the host of something called The Story of God. Morgan Freeman is better than this. The inventory of black actors are better than this. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with a black actor playing this sort of role, the fact that these characters are nearly universally played by black actors, and that black actors do not get cast in different roles with the same frequency underscores the trope that black characters are only certain types of characters. Ever watch The Vampire Diaries? Hint: if you see a black character, they have magic powers and there’s a good chance they will also die, potentially in a fire.
Girl Likes Sex Therefore Girl Is Evil
In this trope, the order of those two things can vary. The trope that bad girls have sex, or that girls who have sex for pleasure will be evil is A Thing. Nearly every Bond film plays this trope, as do most horror films (in those films, sex usually leads to a guilt-free death because She Is A Slut.) Why this trope needs to die shouldn’t be a puzzle: this trope explicitly says a woman who enjoys sex is probably evil, and by implication a woman who is allowed the same pleasures as most men must be evil. This is just sexist bullshit.
Redux
While less common than some of the other tropes, this one is a personal bugaboo. When Lucasfilm re-released the original Star Wars trilogy with remastered film and computerized special effects, it was touted as a great leap for the film, both narratively (as new scenes could be included) and technologically (as newer is perceived to be better). Lucaslfilm’s SFX department spent years re-rendering the space battles, aliens, and light sabers. Still, in Return of The Jedi, when Darth Vader is kicked down a flight of stairs, rises, and speaks to Luke, his light saber is still casting a shadow. A shadow. Cast by an object made of light. Millions and millions of dollars spent “improving” the effects that were already just fine and they missed this glaring mistake. Meanwhile, what quickly became apparent about the bonus scenes was that they were not cut because the special effects weren’t good enough back in 1977, they were cut because they were bad and or unnecessary. What this says to anyone who notices (and I noticed, as a child) is that the whole SFX redux thing is a marketing ploy. Instead of re-rendering special effects on a good movie thus making it not as good, studios should try making decent sequels.
Of course, there are also the non-special effects films that get remade, sometimes with credit given. The Psycho remake was awful, despite being a shot for shot remake of the original. Why remake a film with the exact same cinematography? What’s the point?
The remade films lead to another type of redux, only this is the more pernicious kind: chameleon syndrome. Warner saw the success of the Nolan Batman films and decided all films they make in that genre should imitate the style of those films, if not the substance. They forgot that the style should suit the material, and it blew up with idiotic films like Batman V. Superman. The Day The Earth Stood Still was a wonderful film from the 1950s about the cold war and the danger of “otherizing” the communists. The 21st century version was just… awful.
If you’re going to go for a redux, do it properly or not at all. There are plenty of films that could use a new version, faithful to the intent of the original but with a fresh perspective.
Architectural Carnage
I know, we’ve been here before. In disaster movies, buildings always seem to fall down. In Star Trek buildings fall down on in a space station. In Man Of Steel buildings fall down in Metropolis. In The Avengers buildings fall down all over the world. Buildings fall down in Independence Day, Captain America, Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull, Avatar (a tree, technically), Pacific Rim, Godzilla, The Transformers, Deep Impact, Deadpool, Iron Man, X-Men, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man (all variations), World War Z, Rogue One, etc. etc. etc. This happens for two reasons. The first is that studios know that mass destruction doesn’t require subtitles (“The Chinese will love it!”) and looks great in a trailer. The second reason it happens is because the technology to make the effect has evolved a great deal because of its continued use, and it isn’t hard to do anymore. It needs to die because not only does it make all these movies play with the same stakes (and thus no differentiation) but also because none of these movies will live up to the real life destruction they emulate. The studios have to stop trying to beat Al Queda at its own game and leave 9/11 in the past.
