Dan Wilbur
Directors take note: people who love your movies are sharing what scenes and tropes make them instantly hate your films. Unless, of course, you’re Zack Snyder. Then, keep at it, I guess. No one in the industry seems to care what audiences say about your movies.
We’ve all seen a movie that’s grabbed our attention for the first few minutes, then completely loses us because of one or two scenes. Heck, I’ve given up on movies just based on one line (Venom: “my legs were broken and now they aren’t broken.” I laughed out loud in the theater.)
Someone on Reddit wanted to know what moments in movies completely ruin what they’re watching. Unsurprisingly, people on Reddit watch a ton of movies, so they had answers.
Here are the moments in movies people claim “100% ruin the movie” for them:
1. My ears hurt because I’m old.
“Having to constantly have my remote in hand to turn down the absurdly loud action scene, to then have to crank the volume for the next dialogue that is far too low.” –aidanpryde98
2. “…And a little sex!”
“Added love story to an adaptation of a book with no love story.” –hafilax
3. Don’t sell out.
“Badly implemented product placement. Product placement itself doesn’t bother me. If there’s a character driving a Toyota, or eating a Pizza Hut pizza, I don’t care. If there’s a pointless shot in the movie that shows the fucking Bud Light logo for 10 seconds, I mind.” -anonymous
4. So much chemistry!
“Unnecessary love scenes where the main character and a side character fall in love just cause, despite having known each other for like five minutes.” –Sanitee
5. A classic double standard.
“When the movie calls for an ugly guy, they get an ugly guy.
When the movie calls for an ugly girl, they get a sexy girl and dress her in dumpy clothes.” –MeGrendel
6. Actors know this is a tough thing to do.
“When it’s very obvious when someone isn’t actually having a conversation on the phone. They just say their lines without giving enough pause for the other person to respond. I also hate when you’re supposed to be looking at security footage but it’s clearly just a previous shot that’s had a filter put over it.” –coldfury18
7. They’ve made some improvements on cars so this doesn’t happen.
“When things explode for no reason. “Vehicle had minor collision or simply rolls over and spontaneously explodes” –Cornishkilla
8. Hacking the mainframe.
“The bit where hackers take 20 seconds of furious typing to disable a countries infrastructure.” –KairiZero
9. Just like real life.
“When one character who’s an expert in some field stops to explain the most basic concepts to another character who’s also an expert on the same subject.” –sad_jeb
10. Fix it in post.
“Action scenes with lots and lots of cuts, that make it obvious (or appear like) the actors can’t do the fight choreography.” –VarangianDreams
11. Be smart.
“When the premise for a major conflict in the movie is something that any sane person would have just said “oh no there’s a misunderstanding” and they all have a laugh and go on with their days… But instead it turns into some convoluted drama.” –xx2983xx
12. Better than a fake first-person shooter.
“”video games” in movies that are set after 1988 yet they all sound like pacman or space invaders.” –TDalrius
13. Make one where the villain wins like in the second Star Wars.
“The very strong/smart main villain turning weak/dumb in the end fight so the heroes can win.” –nothing_in_my_mind
14. Can’t wait to see the long version.
“When the trailers reveal most of the plot.” –tallandlanky
15. No time!
“”There’s no time… save yourself!” when there’s clearly ample amount of time for both characters to get to safety. made even worse by the fact that they usually waste a minute or more arguing about it, saying teary-eyed goodbyes, and making out before character 1 finally gets up and leaves.” –SinkTube
16. Batman, is that you?
“When the protagonist will kill anyone in his way but when he gets to the big bad suddenly killing is wrong.” –axisrahl85
17. Time works differently for screenwriters.
“When there is a timer and it takes longer to count down than the time that was called/shown. It drives me crazy.
Generic example, 50 seconds until a bomb explodes. Dialogue for 30 seconds. Timer is showing 30 seconds left. More dialogue for 40 seconds. Timer is at 5 seconds. Quick one-liner, bomb defused with one second to go.” –FreshRigi
18. Don’t be cheap.
“In horror movies: too many jumpscares.” –ihateyoumrfluffs
19. I also hate this.
“When there’s a 20+ year age gap between the leading actor and actress and it’s not addressed in the movie, especially when the movie pretends like they’re around the same age.
“We’re both experienced, leading scientists in our fields, even though I look like a grizzled war veteran and you’re fresh off the set of High School Musical.” –
20. Why are we doing this? We’re evil, that’s why!
“When bad guys have no redeemable qualities. It’s too convenient and unrealistic.” –MrBowlfish
21. Hello, fellow kids.
“Teenagers who sound like screenwriters trying to sound cool.
Never in the history of humanity have two 15 year olds randomly recited 18th century poetry to each other on the day they met, and all those snarky remarks makes the kids sound insufferable and annoying a lot more than clever.” –RepresentativeAd7785
22. But wait, there’s more!
“Twist villains where the bad guy is revealed in the last 10 minutes of the movie.” –R_Jay101
23. Do better, comedies!
“When the jokes are so forced. They’re just trying is hard to be funny that it isn’t. Or when they’re offensive or just downright stupid. Totally ruins it. Unfortunately alot of comedy movies have tons of this so I tend to steer clear of comedies.” –-keewee_
24. Have you, uh… met a person?
“Overused female tropes. The angry black woman, plus sized women always being loud and clumsy, and of course, the manic pixie dream girl. This isn’t some feminist soapbox, it’s just lazy and uninspired writing.” –naugahydeandlace
25. And that’s when I realized…
“Forced moral messages, like really forced, the kind of messages that feel so unnatural that nothing can justify.” –silverbird2005
h/t Reddit: r/AskReddit
