5 of the Worst Movie Cliches Ever

Let me just get down to business here: Movies are officially losing their originality. When everyone is constantly using the same effect that another director has used, it starts to get tedious and shows that creativity is at a downturn. I mean, sure, you have the occasional life-life character, but for every one of those, you also have a Mary Sue. Here's my first foray into tearing down five of the worst cliches in movies.

1. "The Cheap Scare" - popularly seen in slasher horror flicks, but also seen in more oddball movies.

This is the part of the movie where the director decides that it's not scary enough, so they make it all extremely quiet with suspenseful music where a character is all alone doing something. Then a shadow pops out and merely looks like the villain's shadow and the villain is creeping up on the character. A hand grabs the character's shoulder and BAM!....Oh, wait, it's just your Uncle Billy.

Remember this scene? You should. There has been one in every single slasher movie. It's a scene that has no real purpose, does nothing to help the story, and isn't even all suspenseful other than delaying the inevitable appearance of the baddie. It really is a filler scare as any can be.

2. "The Last Words" - seen in any movie where someone dies and gets to say his last breaths.

The main character's best friend is dying in his arms and he speaks words that are meaningful to the character and movie.

...Really? I mean, come on! The problem with this cliche is that it solves the secrets that we may want to know about the character, yet is so overused for every movie. It's also illogical considering that one isn't really keeping their sanity while dying. Even if you were able to speak properly, there's no way you'd be able to speak for more than 5 seconds. So many movies do the same thing with this cliche that it's really gotta die....and that's my last word about that.

3. "If You Shoot a Car, It Goes BOOM!" - Every single action movie out there.

I'm not even going to go into an example for this one since most of those reading will probably have seen at least one action movie where a car explodes after getting shot at. First of all, cars don't actually work like that if you've seen it. All those explosions are merely special effects inserting things such as dynamite inside the car's motor. But what movies are trying to say is that if one shoots a car's motor, the car will automatically explode into a ball of fire and debris. Cars are too tough for that, for one. Plus, even when the bullets would pierce through the car's outer shell, hitting the fuel tank wouldn't make it explode either. All it'll do is make a puncture through the tank and leak the gas. All said, however, it just feels like Hollywood science is downgrading the world's collected intelligence.

4. "The Storm Trooper Syndrome" - all action movies involving guns.

The standoff between the heroes and the villains. The heroes are outnumbered, them only being two, and the villains have over 50 men on their side. All of a sudden, bullets start shooting out. Every baddie henchman is firing their guns....and not hitting the heroes at all even they're in point blank range.

Ever notice that the heroes are never seriously harmed? They may have a few cuts, but no bullets will ever hit them. EVER. But those big baddies in front of them? It's basically a shooting gallery for the heroes. All the bad guys will die by getting shot by the heroes. C'mon, at least let the hero get shot once...like, in the arm...

5. "One Second to Save The World...Or Ourselves" - any movie involving a timebomb.

A countdown is going on as the hero attempts to deactivate a ticking timebomb. Which wire should I cut, he says. And so he cuts the wire with the color that is important to the character somehow.

First of all, why is it that all the wires are different colors? If anything, they all should have been the same color in the first place. Also, why not just detonate the thing via remote control? Some villains have done that before, but the heroes survive by jumping backwards away from the bomb (which was always stupid in the first place).

But, as to one-second-left moment, it's always there for the suspense, but you just KNOW the heroes will survive. It's a moment that has no suspense because you know what's going to happen, so what's the point of the scene?