10 Movies That Ruined Awesome Cinematic Tricks

10. Shaky Cam - The Bourne Supremacy & Ultimatum

Let's kick this list off with a pair of movies that simultaneously popularised a cinematic technique and inadvertently ruined it.

The Bourne Supremacy was directed by Paul Greengrass and received a lot of attention for its unconventional cinematography, combining shaky camera movements and quick-cut editing to bring a uniquely frantic energy to the action sequences.

And so, the term "shaky cam" was born, with Greengrass repeating the trick on sequel The Bourne Ultimatum.

Though Greengrass' use of artificial camera shake was criticised by some, it generally remains the most-praised instance of shaky cam in action cinema, due primarily to Greengrass' clear understanding of spatial geography while assembling these scenes. Basically, we still always know what's going on.

But Hollywood en masse took the wrong lessons away from Greengrass' pioneering use of shaky cam, with lazy and/or incompetent action filmmakers relying on the technique as a crutch.

From the mid 2000s onwards for around a decade, countless action films used shaky camerawork and frantic editing to artificially amplify the energy of scenes that felt sluggish during shooting, and also to ensure they didn't need to figure out complex fight choreography before filming. Looking at you, Taken 2.

While shaky cam certainly has its place in cinema, Hollywood's blatant, corner-cutting abuse of the technique has pretty much killed it off in recent years, as audiences have been drawn back towards smooth camerawork with longer shot lengths. It didn't have to be this way, though.