I must have missed those ones. All the superhero movies I saw were various shades of lame.
I can agree with Zombies being over-done, especially in books. There seems to be a flood of self-published e-books around that are almost carbon-copy stories.
A few stand out - *Ex-Heroes *was pretty damn good and the first of the Autumn series had its moments. Now zombies seem to be showing up everywhere, even when they are not needed or even make the story worse.
I picked up a copy of Bigfoot Wars to read. The author got his start in zombie horror books and then moved on to this novel. It was pretty good for a few dollars. The concept was a pretty standad “kids’ dad gets killed by monster, no one believes him, he comes back to town 15 years later to get his revenge”. In the process he sparks off a war and dozens of pissed off bigfeet (foots?) swarm out of the mountains and proceed to dis-assemble the town and most of the people in it.
Along comes a sequel - oh, look the people bitten by bigfoot in the first book turn into zombies and then bigfeet bitten by zombies turn into zombie-bigfeet!!! :rolleyes:
Just…why?
You already have a protagonist who is bigger, stronger, faster and tougher than humans. Why introduce freaking zombies? It really smacks of an author who just ran out of idea and turned back to what he knew. The real shame was that there were moments when he really could have taken the story in intersting directions - some passages from the bigfoot POV which indicates the reason they hide from humans is because of the danger of making zombies and that they had fought them before.
What should disappear from the face of the earth forever?
Mushy, overcooked pasta…Yuk!
How about 'humanity finds last-minute miracle to defeat the aliens"?
Just once, I’d like to see a movie where the aliens destroy civilization on Earth. Why can’t the aliens win?
Because Earthlings write the script.
Sad for you. Doesn’t change my experience one iota.
Your experience is atypical.
To answer the OP - none. Or almost none. “Reality” programming can disappear.
Rape / abuse as backstory. I’m willing to allow that rape may have some useful purpose in a plot (I’ve used it. In very small amounts.) But when that’s basically the entirety of the character’s backstory, it’s ridiculous. And when every other character has been abused and/or raped, it’s just a giant blackhole of grim.
Reboots and remakes. No explanation necessary, I think.
I don’t believe so, given critic’s ratings and box office.
Blasted Earthlings!
Pretty much the same here.
There are plenty of tropes I don’t like in my books. But everyone’s mileage varies. There are things mentioned in this thread that I really enjoy. It doesn’t have me in a frothing rage that other people have different tastes.
Except, as silenus said, reality TV. I’m embarrassed that it exists. That someone even seriously considered the concept.
There has been exactly one reality TV show that I enjoyed enough to want to watch every week. The first season of the Joe Schmoe Show.
If it has to get erased from reality to get rid of all the rest - and all references to them - I can live with that.
Actually, I think an explanation * is * necessary. Why should Battlestar Galactica, the Batman Begins series, Thundercats, MLP:FIM, Star Trek 2009, and every Civilization game besides the first one be wiped from the face of the Earth?
Sure they are. Sometimes. It’s perfectly possible to make a coherent vampire movie: The Hunger, for instance.
Star Trek: 90210 was horrible, and I don’t know what MLP:FIM is, but the other properties you name are all worthwhile.
Alright, I’ll make an exception for Batman and MLP. (I haven’t actually watched MLP, but from all reports it’s awesome). Thundercats was meh.
(For Teh, My Little Pony: Friendship in Magic.)
This is why I don’t rule the world. (Actually, if I did rule the world, a selection of fans of the original would have to approve any remake or reboot.)
Why? I would have opposed the ThunderCats reboot, and I would have been entirely wrong. I would have been in favor of Trek: Let’s Make James Kirk An Irredeemable Asshole, and I’d have been wrong there too.
The awfulness of New Trek (in my view) doesn’t make Old Trek any less wonderful, etc.
Rappers, you need to quit referring to yourselves as “soldiers”. A soldier is a trained professional who knows what teamwork is. That’s not you. You’re a self-obsessed amateur who can’t even hold his pistol right.
You may be a soldier in the colloquial sense of a pawn who takes orders, but is that something you want to brag about?
Come up with something else to rhyme with “told’ya”.
Several other folk already mentioned my top pick, the “Chosen One.” If you’re not going to explore what it means to be “chosen” (see “Avatar: The Last Airbender” or either Buffyverse series for how to handle this correctly), don’t use that trope. I’m looking directly at you when I say this, J.J. Abrams. Yes, you. Stop taking away your characters’ agency. Stop it now!
Second in line would be the need to turn classic stories into EPIC WARS. Snow White… with an EPIC WAR! Robin Hood… with an EPIC WAR! Stories don’t need to be about clashes between giant armies just to be interesting, dammit.
The Chosen One, a thousand times, The Chosen One.
but if you’re HERE… that means… OH NO!