So finals and AP tests are just around the corner, which basically means my mom will take an axe to my head if I try watching movies instead of studying. Thus, this week’s post will be a bit different from my normal reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about a few of my movie pet peeves (in no particular order), just a few of the many little things in movies that make me want to activate “Super Saiyan” mode.
1. Part II’s: Everyone knows sequels are rarely as good as originals, but what makes it worse is if they have “Part II” in their names. Laziness is the only explanation that I have as to why filmmakers would ever think to add the words “Part II” to the names of their sequels.
2. Obnoxious Subtitles: At least they weren’t lazy enough to plop a “Part II” next to its name and squeeze out a sequel, but still, subtitles are annoying. And no, I don’t mean subtitles like the words that scrawl the bottom of the screen with the dialogue during the movie (I actually like those subtitles. Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and whine and hate, but they’re actually very helpful). I’m talking about subtitles like in “Thor: the Dark World” and “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones.” I mean, seriously? What does that even mean? Why can’t sequels just have names of their very own?
3. The Lack of Diversity in Hollywood: This is a bit of a weighty one, but my biggest pet peeves is the under-representation of different races and ethnic groups in movie castings. We’ve all seen it. Movies such as “Avatar: the Last Airbender,” “Prince of Persia,” and “Dragon Ball Evolution” have taken originally ethnically diverse characters and painted them white for movie adaptations. As a Sri Lankan-American and, therefore, a member of a minority myself, I find it disappointing that minorities cannot portray themselves in films and that children of different races are stripped of their once diverse role models. Our nation has changed into a beautiful melting pot of different races and now, Hollywood must change with it or be left behind.
4. The Shaky Cam: Shaky cam is basically when a filmmaker purposefully shoots with an unstable camera. Ever since “Saving Private Ryan” successfully used the shaky cam method to disorient viewers and add a sense of realism to its portrayal of D-Day, many movie makers have quickly adopted this technique. However, the vast majority of these movies have overused the shaky cam to a point where viewers can’t even tell what is going on. The results are movies that appear as crappy YouTube videos shot by amateurs with potato cameras. “Battle: Los Angeles,” the “Bourne” movies, and even “The Hunger Games” used this grossly overused and disgustingly immature camera trick and proved to us all that the shaky cam must be annihilated.
5. 3D: I hate 3D with the fiery passion of a thousand burning blue humanoid creatures. That’s right. I’m talking to you, “Avatar.” Ever since “Avatar” waltzed on by with its pretty 3D effects, filmmakers have decided to jump on the bandwagon and pump out more 3D movies than ever before. However, unlike “Avatar,” these movies are often poorly converted to 3D and frankly don’t even need 3D effects. All 3D is anymore is an underhanded gimmick to entice innocent movie fans into paying extra money.
6. Two-Part Movie Adaptations of Books: One book does not equal two movies, but unfortunately, many producers haven’t gotten that memo yet. Makers of “Twilight,” “The Hunger Games” and now “Divergent” have all decided to succumb to this concerning trend. However, all this does is stretch out the book in order to bring in more financial revenue and is almost never beneficial to the development of plot. So thanks a lot, Harry Potter.
Now I could go on and on, but I think I’ll just stop there so I can go study some statistics (fun stuff). Therefore, I bid thee farewell and wish you good luck in surviving the burning pits of hell we are all about to stumble into (a.k.a. finals and AP/IB exams).
I’ll be back,
Fernando, Christine Fernando.