In no particular order…
–A sympathy-baiting scene where bullies pick on a young version of our hero, then said hero demonstrates some skill that makes them back off.
–The phrase “it all makes sense now” (no one ever says that)
–Anything where a wife/female character sits at home and watches a man do something on television
–Knocking off Hans Zimmer’s Batman/Inception scores (can we FINALLY move on?)
–All comic book villain motivations (Seriously, we need to press a reset on our bad guys/gals, nothing [including my own work here] feels fresh or inspired anymore. Killmonger was good.)
–Kissing foley effects (Can we please, PLEASE dial these back by like 50 percent? Everyone hates them, they’re always way overboard)
–Basically all CGI animals.
–The hero who is “former Special Ops.”
–Alcoholism. Every character is an alcoholic now, and it’s always like cool, hip Bojack/Rick alcoholism that gives the character “edge” but doesn’t seem to have any real consequences. I give a lot of credit to “A Star Is Born” for subverting this one. I thought they were doing cool alcoholic at first, but then they made him piss himself on stage. Ouch.
–All musical biopics. Just all of them. We need to give them a rest for a while, because we are out of ways to tell that story until someone invents a new one. What this genre DESPERATELY needs is the kind of structural revolution that has affected biopics of famous historical figures. Spielberg’s “Lincoln” wisely focused on a small sliver of the man’s life, to great effect; “Darkest Hour” followed suit, as have others. This is what musical biopics need to do. No more fateful meetings, no more meteoric rise followed by tragic fall due to underlying issues from a difficult childhood, just scrap it all and start over. Focus on the recording of one album, hell even one song. Until then, I’m out.