10 Movie Cliches Everybody Hates
1. The Third-Act Exposition Dump
Being overly reliant on exposition is one of the worst crimes any movie script can commit, because nothing screams lazy filmmaking more than a movie keen to vomit an explanation for everything into the audience's lap.
Aside from being condescending to the paying audience, it's the least-creative way possible to get information across, to literally have a character spell out everything to another character.
The first and especially third acts of movies are often guilty of this, with the exposition monologue perhaps being confirmed and immortalised by Alfred Hitchcock's horror classic Psycho.
Despite the undeniable brilliance of the film, a finale that literally spells out Norman Bates' (Anthony Perkins) state of mind feels laughably on-the-nose, especially to contemporary audiences well-acquainted with the nature of psychology.
Other egregious examples include Silent Hill literally grinding the movie to a halt to play a film reel exposition dump for the audience's benefit, and just this past week, there's been plenty of hand-wringing over the surprising amount of ham-fisted exposition in the climax of Jordan Peele's new movie Us.
It's good to keep the audience abreast of what's going on, but a) don't over do it and b) if you can, do it visually.
What do you make of these painful movie cliches? Got any more to share? Shout them out in the comments!