10 War Movie Cliches That Annoy EVERYONE

While it's not a cliche that's exclusive to war films, a worn-out trope for the genre is the use of slow motion. The successful use of slow motion in big-name outings from the 1990s led to a host of movies that tried to adopt this shooting technique. Designed to highlight minor pieces of visual detail during action sequences, there's a time and place for slow motion. However, featuring it heavily can come across as a played-out technique as of 2024.

Nothing detracts from a taut atmosphere like hitting proceedings with a blast of unnecessary slow-motion shots. Guilty big name offenders from the genre include 300, American Sniper, and Tears of the Sun - films whose carefully cultivated atmosphere dissolve in an instant as time slows to a crawl and thus squandering any suspense.

A cliche more closely associated with cheesy action flicks, the overuse of slow motion is one of the more annoying tropes, regardless of genre. While a perfectly executed slow-motion sequence like The Hurt Locker's opening scene occasionally bucks the trend, such examples are very much in the minority.