People Are Sharing Popular Movie Tropes That Defined The Past Decade, But Will Make A Film Feel Verrry Dated In 25 Years
With 2023 quickly approaching, we have a lot to look forward to in terms of new releases: The Little Mermaid, Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Scream VI, just to name a few.
Warner Bros. Pictures / Via youtube.com
And while it's easy to be excited now, I wonder, with all the current tropes in modern movies, if sometime in the very near future, these new movies will feel dated.
Well, I'm not the only one. Recently, over on the r/movies subreddit, Reddit user u/DieFanboyDie asked "What are the popular tropes today that are going to make films feel 'dated' 25 years from now?" Here are some of the best responses:
1."Messenger chat bubbles appearing on screen."
2."Breaking the fourth wall and being meta."
"Way too much winking, self-acknowledgement, and calling out tropes within the movie."
3."Straight up being just absolutely too dark to watch. Not in tone, I don't mean dark as in 'gritty' — I mean, shit, bitch, turn on a light. I cannot see the movie. I'm watching a black screen. This could be an audiobook."
4."Post/mid-credits anything. I'm tired of them."
5."Snorricam. Mounting the camera to the actor in order to shoot their head and face, keeping them still while the background moves. It's mad overused." Like this scene from Pain & Gain (2013):
Paramount Pictures / Via youtube.com
6."Anti-heroes and sympathetic villains. Not every villain needs to have a tragic past or a completely sympathetic motive. Sometimes they can just like being evil."
7."'Well, THAT just happened' and other filler punchlines to complete the Avengers-style constant comedy quota."
"Something big and unrealistic has happened, therefore I must now make a quip about how ridiculous it is. God forbid we just let the audience suspend disbelief."
"They fly now?!"
8."I’ve noticed a lot of recent documentaries keep in the part where the guest enters the scene and sits down, has a bit of chit-chat, has their makeup adjusted, etc."
"Or we see 15–20 seconds of them cooking dinner, taking a phone call, walking their dog, etc. before starting the interview. I don’t recall seeing this until five years ago, but now it’s everywhere. I find it an annoying, transparent, and unsuccessful attempt at 'humanizing' the subject."
9."1980s everywhere. Nostalgic '80s music, clothing, and branding."
10."Sky beams."
"They need to stop trying to make sky beams or energy beacons or whatever into climactic set-pieces. It’s played out."
11."This is already starting to get a little dated, but those 'improv scenes' in comedy movies where the camera just stays on a character or two while they riff out a few zingers."
12."Trauma-focused horror movies will definitely be a marker of the 2010s/2020s."
"I don't think it’s inherently bad by any means. HOWEVER, I have noticed a huge influx of horror films that are essentially leaning on trauma as a crutch and as a replacement for, you know, actually making compelling and imaginative horror. I’m just getting tired of watching horror movies where in the end you discover that the ghost/demon was just grief/trauma all along. It’s like the new version of the old zombie trope where humans were the real virus."
13."CGI de-aged actors."
"This early age of digitally de-aging movie stars. The results we see now look 'painterly' at best and won't age well, but it's definitely a current trope. Whether it's this decade's 'bullet time' remains to be seen."
14."Ultra-dramatic and slow modern covers of songs."
15."Computer-generated blue and gold light constructs used everywhere to represent future tech. It's used way too much."
"The future tech where it's all floaty holographic computer controls. Call me crazy, but that seems like a lot of effort and technology to reinvent a keyboard."
16."Overly 'quippy' protagonists."
17."Over-reliance on current pop culture references for jokes or surprises."
18."Referencing social media and using internet slang incorrectly or in a cringey way."
19.And finally, "Rapid, chaotic camera movement and jangly, incoherent editing that tries to make action scenes more 'dynamic.' That shit’s gonna age like a banana under a heat lamp." Like this scene from Taken 3 (2014):
20th Century Studios
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
What other current tropes do you think will make a film looked dated? Let me know in the comments!
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