# Most hated and most favorite movie themes
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [May 23, 2021, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733 "2021-05-23T10:05:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/41 "2021-05-24T20:01:51Z")
I was commented on the previous post, which is a sports movie where the underdogs don’t actually win.
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### Author:  [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2021, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/42 "2021-05-24T20:07:23Z")
I am so tired of the drill-sergeant theme whereby the cadet has to prove himself. The cadet goes through a predictable arc:
1. I hate the SOB’s guts, what’s his problem?
2. Why does he have it in for me? I’ll fight him. I’ll rebel, fuck it all.
3. I’ll show him.
4. We did it! Huggy, huggy. Kissy, kissy.
Not just the military - this gets extended to any teacher/student relationship or to an Older/experienced team member and the neophyte. Very predictable.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/43 "2021-05-24T20:13:40Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> …sports movie where the underdogs don’t actually win
Thanks! With a name like _Mystery, Alaska_, I was expecting it to be a horror or time travel movie.
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/44 "2021-05-24T20:31:42Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#):
>
> This, a thousand times over. I’d add comic book super heroes - very much a personal preference. I never read the comics and the few movie versions I’ve seen did absolutely nothing for me.
Yeah, it seems like most of the movies being made these days are comic book movies, and I just find them…shallow?..stereotpyical…? They’re just boring to me. But, then, I tend to fast forward through fight scenes (_except_ the one in “They Live” it’s so cheesy) and car chases. Snore.
I love time travel and related themes. A movie of this type that I love is _Happy Accidents_.
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### Author:  [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2021, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/45 "2021-05-24T20:36:49Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> I was commented on the previous post, which is a sports movie where the underdogs don’t actually win.
I’m kinda’ sick of the trope where the underdogs _do_ win. Usually at the 11th hour and/or due to some charismatic figure that seems to be able to rally a group that were heretofore misfits with low self esteem.
I won’t say I actually “like” a scenario where they _don’t_ win in the end, it’s that I appreciate the anti-cliche’ angle.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2021, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/46 "2021-05-24T20:55:47Z")
> [@Dropo](#):
>
> Liked Themes:
>
> Giant monsters destroying shit – This includes (virtually) all _kaiju_ and dinosaur movies, but excludes insects (with the notable exception of Mothra).
What do you have against insects? **Them!** is one of the first and best of the 1950s Giant Whatsit movies. I admit I could live without **Empire of the Ants** (even though it features Joan Collins being mind-controlled by ants), but there are other giant insect flicks worth the watching.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2021, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/47 "2021-05-24T20:58:49Z")
Music biopics usually get a big yawn out of me. Even the acclaimed ones. Ray, What’s Love Got To Do With It, The Doors, Walk The Line, etc.
Most recently saw Bohemian Rhapsody and also felt very meh about it.
The usual humble beginnings\> rise to fame\> too much too fast\> insert tragedy here\> death or redemption \> the end.
I either find them overly dramatic for drama’s sake, or if the person’s life was really that dramatic frustrating since I try to avoid people with that much drama in their lives since it’s usually self imposed.
Favorite movies are of the neo noir genre. Brick, Blade Runner, Sin City, etc.
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### Author:  [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2021, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/48 "2021-05-24T23:11:50Z")
I don’t like insects, giant or otherwise (excluding Mothra, who is always awesome).
I will certainly not dispute your assertion about _Them!_ (or _Empire of the Ants_). Not liking insects does not keep me from respecting a good/well-made movie. It just keeps me from liking it.
I went through several lists of giant insect movies to make sure there was not one I liked. There wasn’t.
Unlike too many compilers of such lists, I know enough to know that scorpions, giant or otherwise, are not insects. Thus, _The Black Scorpion_ (1957), which I genuinely like, is not a giant insect movie. Ditto for _Monster that Challenged the World_ (1957), which features mollusks (who are not insects) and is kinda underrated, imo. Similar to _Them!_, I respect _Tarantula_ (1955) - though I do not actually like the film - because it has some effective moments, but spiders are not insects, either. Nor would I count the Selenites in _First Men in the Moon_ (1964), another film I (mostly) like; though the Selenites can certainly be described as insectoid, it is doubtful they are actually insects.
When it comes to giant insect movies, there is far too much ignorance out there.
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2021, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/49 "2021-05-24T23:56:27Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#):
>
> Joe Bob Briggs, Drive-In Movie Critic of Rockwall, Texas, used to refer to those as “Teenage Pork Chop Movies.”
Good ol’ Joe Bob; a wise man.
(Somewhere, some time, someone has probably made a ‘teens picked off one by one’ movie in which the slaughtered actually _do_ get turned into chops…)
Which reminds me: add Torture-Porn to my ‘most hated’ list. And this element can show up even in movies not advertised as being torture-porn. Case in point: the 2020 movie _Becky_, which was clearly made by someone who wanted to duplicate the _Barry_ episode “ronny/lily,” without having a particle of the smarts and artistry of those who made “ronny/lily.”
The movie relied on gross-out violence to attract ticket-buyers even though the movie’s protagonist was a thirteen-year-old girl. Not an attractive choice.
> **[HBO’s Barry traces a hit gone wrong in an episode unlike anything else on TV](https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/5/5/18528669/barry-season-2-episode-5-ronny-lily-recap-hbo)**
>
> The sitcom about a hitman turned actor should have ended in season 1. Except season 2 is even better.
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/50 "2021-05-25T00:13:03Z")
[quote=“carrps, post:44, topic:942733”]
I love time travel and related themes. A movie of this type that I love is _Happy Accidents_ .[/quote]
YES. It’s one of the best.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/51 "2021-05-25T01:34:04Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> “True story” movies that egregiously play fast and loose with the actual facts.
Oliver Stone’s _JFK_ being a notorious example.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/52 "2021-05-25T02:07:05Z")
> [@BrickBat](#):
>
> I’m kinda’ sick of the trope where the underdogs _do_ win. Usually at the 11th hour and/or due to some charismatic figure that seems to be able to rally a group that were heretofore misfits with low self esteem.
>
> I won’t say I actually “like” a scenario where they _don’t_ win in the end, it’s that I appreciate the anti-cliche’ angle.
Exactly the point of my post, the best sports movies are the ones where the heroes lose at the end. Or in the case of _The Hustler_, Fast Eddie wins the game at the end, but it’s empty and means nothing.
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### Author:  [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/53 "2021-05-25T03:58:27Z")
Dislike: the superhero/wizard/whatever who loses their powers. Typically in a sequel.
The first story builds up the hero. Then the sequel comes out, and I’m looking forward to seeing the hero using their powers to the fullest. Instead, we get “oh noes! My powers are gone! Whatever will I do?” In the end, of course, the hero gets their powers back, just in time to defeat the villan.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/54 "2021-05-25T12:10:08Z")
> [@Dropo](#):
>
> I went through several lists of giant insect movies to make sure there was not one I liked. There wasn’t.
I admire and am baffled by your persistence and thoroughness. I don’t think I would go about verifying my dislikes in such a systematic way. and I’d probably compile my own list of Giant Insect Movies, rather than digging up several other lists. (Did you find them with a search engine? Because I honestly can’t think of another way to find a List of Giant Insect Movies)
of course, there’s a lot to dislike in Giant Insect Movies (and ones involving other arthropods), especially the ones from the 1950s. Most of those had appallingly bad special effects (see _Beginning of the End_, with awful matte effects and where, in some scenes, it’s clearly shots of grasshoppers on a photograph of a building). Or practically no effects at all – just cuts to close-ups of insects (_Killers from Space_ or _The Cosmic Monsters_ AKA _The Strange World of Planet X_. I suspect this film inspired Steohen King’s story _The Mist_). Sometimes they used incredibly bad “puppets” (the giant spiders in _Cat Women of the Moon_ and _Fire Maidens of Outer Space_). Another common ploy was to use blown-up shots of Tarantulas. The movie _Tarantula_ that you mention actually did a good job of the special effects, as did _The Incredible Shrinking Man_. But _Earth vs. the Giant Spider_ was obviously on a low budget. So was _Have Rocket, Will Travel_ and a host of other 1950s and 1960s flicks.
I have greater respect for animated instances. Ray Harryhausen did a great animated honeybee in _The Mysterious Island_ and a wasp in _Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger_, but these were only highlights – the movie wasn’t about the giant insects. _Monster from Green Hell_ , on the other hand, _was_ about giant wasps in Africa. The wasps were stop-motion animated by Gene Warren (who didn’t get any screen credit that I recall – he did lots of effects work for George Pal and for TV). But the film is mostly boring filler (stop motion was expensive)
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### Author:  [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/55 "2021-05-25T15:02:25Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> I admire and am baffled by your persistence and thoroughness…
Persistence and thoroughness are my middle names. Finding lists of giant insect movies is simple enough with Google.
You mention a number of giant insect movies here, but seem to dismiss them all as being either not good or not really about giant insects. Apart from _Them!_, can you name any good giant insect movies (excluding ones with Mothra)? Also please note: spiders are NOT insects. Neither are giant spiders.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/56 "2021-05-25T15:18:50Z")
> [@Dropo](#):
>
> Apart from _Them!_ , can you name any good giant insect movies (excluding ones with Mothra)?
Not sure I’d even include Mothra, to tell you the truth. I’m fond of the weird kaiju, but not really a huge fan of the movies.
There’s Insectosaurus from **Monster Vs. Aliens** , who has as much right to be there as Mothra does in those ensemble-cast monster films. But I admit that Insectosaurus doesn’t have an overabundance of personality.
I have to admit to a liking for **The Deadly Mantis** , which is really sort of goofy. I admire the rod-puppet work with the mantis, which actually looks surprisingly realistic, considering that a real mantis is basically a hinged exoskeleton. Having the titular mantis looking in on Our Heroes while they’re discussing the problem of the mantis itself is an outrageous scene. And I kinda like its death in the Holland Tunnel, a landmark I’ve been through often enough.
There’s a kaiju mantis, as well, **Kamacuras,** , but it really never got a personality, either
> **[Kamacuras (disambiguation)](https://godzilla.fandom.com/wiki/Kamacuras_(disambiguation))**
>
> Kamacuras (カマキラス, Kamakirasu?) is the name of a mantis kaiju that first appeared in the Toho film Son of Godzilla. It may refer to one of the following: Kamacuras (SoG) - the Kamacuras featured in Son of Godzilla Kamacuras - the...
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/57 "2021-05-25T15:36:42Z")
There are three that I really hate, although two are possibly more common in books than films:
1. _You want a villain? Okay, how about a pedophilic murderer?_ Sure, that’s bad, I get it, but like half the murder mystery/thrillers out there are pedophilic murderers. Come up with a new villain already!
2. _I alone haven’t been granted a special power or role during my teenage years…but wait for it…I’m a late bloomer and more powerful than everybody else!_ This is wish fulfillment, but it’s really lazy wish fulfillment. You can keep a teenage audience engaged without this trite pandering.
3. _The Chosen One_. Aren’t we past the idea of hereditary greatness yet? Instead of having someone born into greatness, please give me someone who has chosen through ahrd work and ingenuity to achieve greatness.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/58 "2021-05-25T16:30:31Z")
> [@GESancMan](#):
>
> Dislike: the superhero/wizard/whatever who loses their powers. Typically in a sequel.
I’ll second this one, especially if they lose their powers because of their emotional state. “You were bitten by a genetically altered spider that fundamentally changed your DNA, giving you super human powers! But only if you keep a peppy attitude, otherwise your DNA goes back to normal.”
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### Author:  [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/59 "2021-05-25T17:09:46Z")
Mothra is based on an existing insect. Insectosaurus is not. I haven’t seen _MvA_, but its cartooniness clearly puts it in a different category than most _kaiju_ or even most giant insects in movies.
I haven’t seen _The Deadly Mantis_, either, though I have seen clips. Tell you what: I will (try to) watch it tonight and report back. I will also try not to let the fact that it was written by a fucking HUAC squealer influence my viewing experience.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/60 "2021-05-25T17:42:06Z")
> [@Dropo](#):
>
> Mothra is based on an existing insect. Insectosaurus is not.
Interesting distinction. They’re both based on moths. I don’t think any particular type of moth was intended in either case.
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