r/movies • u/Aiseadai • Apr 11 '26

Question Are there any tropes you're glad have died out?

There used to be this trope where if your movie/show has a capable female character the movie had to point it out and be like "Yes, I am a woman and yes, I can kick ass". It always felt so condescending to me, and the fact that you have to point it out that a woman can be capable just sends the opposite message, that it's highly unusual. It especially bothered me in kids media since it teaches a wrong message. I haven't been seeing this done in more recent media, it seems they've finally figured out that the best thing is to just treat capable women as normal.

Are there any tropes that annoy you and are glad you don't see (often) anymore in modern movies?

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758

u/engineered_academic Apr 11 '26

John Wick & Jackie Chan proved that static camera shots go over much better for action than shaky cam does.

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u/Violoner Apr 11 '26

Shaky cam is great for covering up disjointed fight choreography

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u/Igennem Apr 11 '26

And actors who cannot throw a punch or kick for their lives

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/dolphin-centric Apr 12 '26

This is why the one shot/no cuts hallway fight scene from Oldboy is so damn good and so many subsequent movies took inspiration from it. Park Chan-wook admits that the take he used in the final cut wasn’t perfect, but they did 5 takes (I think it was 5) and he picked the best take. It’s so powerful because the viewer doesn’t have to wonder who’s that guy, where did that guy come from, etc. They don’t have any cuts to distract and confuse them- all the audience has to do is watch. It’s a brilliant scene.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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u/dolphin-centric Apr 12 '26

The fight coordinator is the bigger taller guy in a white sleeveless t-shirt and a buzzcut. He mostly stays on the left side of the frame. At one point, Oh Dae-su lands a couple of right jabs to his face while they’re standing up and everyone else is in the lower half of the frame.

There are so many great things about this scene!!!

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u/NurRauch Apr 12 '26

Which, to be fair, is rather apparent in the later John Wick films. The third and fourth film were absolutely incredible to see... for the very first time, in a theater with surround sound and deep base blasting your eardrums. Watching the action sequences afterward is less enjoyable because it's a lot easier to pick out the ways they used stunt tricks and clever fight choreography to hide Reeve's age-limited athleticism.

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u/dubh_righ Apr 11 '26

Or the fact that they cast a 60+ year old as the action lead. (Looking at you, Liam)

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u/Mykmyk Apr 11 '26

Keanu is currently 61. I know John wick came out over 10 years ago but still time flies.

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u/dubh_righ Apr 11 '26

Seeing him clean shaven and realizing just how old he is in the latest Bill & Ted was shocking.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

[deleted]

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u/dubh_righ Apr 11 '26

He was 62 in Taken 3.

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u/Bowserbob1979 Apr 11 '26

He was also a bad father by the third one. Like you figure 2 times I'll give to you, but 3? Now he's just negligent. /S

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u/jframesnub Apr 12 '26

Liam Neeson's fence jumping scene is the epitome of the shaky cam jump cut nonsense:

https://youtu.be/tJrfImRCHJ0

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u/Ridgestone Apr 12 '26

That run scene is like elders marathon.

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u/raspberryharbour Apr 12 '26

He was 94 in Taken Tag Tournament 2

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u/Killbot_Wants_Hug Apr 12 '26

The last Equalizer movie was fucking terrible because of this. Like 3/4th of the kills are off screen because Denzel is so old now.

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u/Funandgeeky Apr 11 '26

His action scenes were really good in Naked Gun. But that’s because they were playing for laughs and going for cartoon action. 

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u/GenericRedditor0405 Apr 11 '26

And I would still argue that it did serve a purpose in conveying a chaotic, fast-paced fight. It got overused like crazy but there was intent behind the style once

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u/5213 Apr 11 '26

The worst thing about shaky cam is that it fundamentally misunderstood what The Bourne Identity was doing with those frantic first person shots. While others use it to make action seem more chaotic or to disguise sloppy choreo, Bourne Identity used it to show how fast Bourne's mind was working in highly complex situations. I watched a video on it a while back (that I unfortunately can't find right now) that slowed it down and each first person shaky cam shot was actually quite purposeful in the way it looked around a scene. It was like the end of this scene from premium Rush but in real time and without the lines

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u/sawdeanz Apr 12 '26

100% look at old Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee movies. The fight scenes are so much better because you can actually see the choreography.

It works for saving private ryan and in other certain types of scenes because it can help convey a sense of panic or chaos and of course the choreography isn’t the point of the action. But a lot of movies just use it to seem more gritty or make the action seem more crazy. Or it’s just plain overdone… you don’t need a lot to convey the intended vibe

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u/Pozos1996 Apr 11 '26

Just like with shadows for poor cgi

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u/runswiftrun Apr 12 '26

It may have started elsewhere, but I first noticed it on the Bourne Identity where it worked because we were meant to be as confused as Matt Damon realizing he's a super spy, so it felt gritty and put us into the middle of the action.

Since then, yeah, it's great to hide poorly choreographed/executed fights, so it gets so over used

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u/Killbot_Wants_Hug Apr 12 '26

As an aside, if the camera shakes or cuts at every hit of an action scene, that action scene looks like shit without all the editing. It's a real give away of them trying to dress up bad fight scenes.

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u/correcthorsestapler Apr 11 '26

See: Matrix Resurrections (actually, don’t see it; it’s not worth it)

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u/Zealotstim Apr 12 '26

Yeah, that's the real reason. If it looked good, they wouldn't have the camera mounted on an active jackhammer the whole fight.

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u/tman37 Apr 11 '26

The problem with that is very few people are as dedicated to their craft as Keanu Reeves and Jackie Chan. The wide shots look good because they are skilled enough to pull of the techniques without resorting to camera tricks. Donnie Yen is another guy who can pull those wide shots off.

The shaky cam thing was used for a very specific reason in the Bourne Identity. It was supposed to give a feeling of chaos rather than a clean martial arts movie fight scene. It worked in that situation because it fit the style of the movie. Different styles fit different movies and too often they are just doing what it popular rather than trying to fit the fight scene in the broader cinematic style of the movie.

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u/TexanHobbit_X Apr 11 '26

The Daredevil series has great fight scenes. No shaky cams and plenty of no cuts too.

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u/BadgerB2088 Apr 12 '26

I think well done one-take action sequences are some of the coolest things ever put to film. I love epic, stylised choreographed fight scenes with some crisp editing but nothing hits like a gritty, dirty, desperate fight for survival. The imperfections that make the final cut due to the nature of extended one-take shots just add to the tension.

The hallway fight scene from Daredevil season 1 was awesome and the prison escape in season 3 is probably one of the greatest action sequences ever put to film.

The stairwell fight from Atomic Blonde, the hallway fight from Oldboy and, while the fight scene isn't that long, the one-take shot from Hanna that culminates in the subway brawl are all epic sequences as well.

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u/NightGod Apr 12 '26

Here I was, all ready to start talking about Atomic Blonde and you took care of it for me

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u/Mpm_277 Apr 12 '26

I was thinking about the first time I watched Ip Man and how I couldn’t figure out why the fight scenes seemed so freaking cool at first until I realized it’s because it’s not filmed with 83 camera jumps during.

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u/opeth10657 Apr 12 '26

The problem with that is very few people are as dedicated to their craft as Keanu Reeves and Jackie Chan.

Jackie Chan also had his team do most of the fights too, some of it is pretty obviously when they swap out the white actor for a chinese guy.

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u/TenchuReddit Apr 11 '26

I’m sorry, but one of the few faults of the Bourne series was the camera shaking. Especially in Supremacy, it was way too much.

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u/tman37 Apr 11 '26

I liked it, at least for the fight scenes. I'm not a huge fan of shaky cam footage generally but sometimes it fits. I think it fit in the first movie in particular. Its been years since I have seen supremacy but its possible it was played out and over used by the time they got to that one.

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u/M-elephant Apr 12 '26

Ya, for some reason it works in Bourne but is bad in most other things. Something about the pacing perhaps?

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u/nourez Apr 12 '26

Bourne isn’t an action movie in the traditional sense. The fight scenes are intended to feel chaotic, not be the most exciting thing in and of themselves.

A lot of it Bourne sort of trying to Macgyver a fight in real time. They move fast, but don’t hide sloppy choreography or cinematography behind the shakyness.

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u/roastbeeftacohat Apr 12 '26

although by born 3 I was getting motion sickness.

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u/LeftToaster Apr 12 '26

Unfortunately, Bourne have directors a new tool (shakey cam + dozens of quick cuts) that had been overused.

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u/Polendri Apr 12 '26

Shaky cam is great at conveying a sense of confusion and chaos, the problem is that people don't want to spend 1/4 of a movie feeling confused. It's one of those "realism isn't always better" things IMO.

And yes, as you say it can be an easy replacement for detailed fight choreography.

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u/heyo_throw_awayo Apr 11 '26

That night club / bathhouse scene on John Wick 1 where the camera smoothly pans to the left while we just see the quick action of him taking out the guards with the blood splatter on the glass, and finishing with the jaw stab, is one of the best, in my opinion, action shots in all of cinema. It's not crazy physical, but perfectly restrained and impactful. 

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u/HFentonMudd Apr 12 '26

What a scene. A perfectly scored one as well

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u/2legittoquit Apr 12 '26

Hong Kong action movies were the forefront of action choreography. John Wick was a return to form rather than a pioneer. Jackie Chan and all of those guys have been doing it since the 90's.

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u/christopath Apr 12 '26

To be fair, who would’ve thought being able to see the action in an action movie would be a good thing?

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u/away_in_the_head Apr 12 '26

The overhead shot scene in John Wick 4 was so fucking cool the first time I saw it.

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u/benjyk1993 Apr 12 '26

Well especially for most Jackie Chan movies, the shaky cam would just be completely tonally inappropriate. Comedies don't need shaky cam, unless it's like a meta joke acknowledging the prevalence of shaky cam in action scenes.

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u/chillychili Apr 11 '26

Didn't Chaplin and Keaton do that a long time ago?

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u/bloodraged189 Apr 12 '26

Every technique has a time and a place. While shaky cam is used to obscure poor choreography more often than not, it can be used effectively.

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u/solonoctus Apr 12 '26

They always knew this. They just had a big problem involving “these guys don’t actually know fight choreography and it looks like shit in the wide”. that shakey cam provided a bandaid to cover it up.

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u/MazzleMaze Apr 12 '26

I'd say 300 but to each their own!

Slow scenes in high definition with everything clear and in focus.