5. Both Sucks And Is Awesome - "Found Footage"
OK, so I'm gonna cheat a bit on this one, and call it number five on both the Suck and Awesome lists, because it is both. In the wrong hands, the found footage genre gives us crap like The Blair Witch Project, and the awful Paranormal Activity series - there have been other failures as well, but those are the biggest. To be fair though, Blair Witch, while one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life, was expertly conceived and began the entire viral marketing phenomenon. The premise, on the surface, was solid, genius even, but the execution was atrocious, and should never have achieved the critical acclaim it did. The flipside of this, and what makes this a double sided entry comes in the form of Chronicle, which is a found footage film for sure, but due to the nature of the film - teens who suddenly develop super powers, decide to film themselves having fun with their new abilities - director Josh Trank was able to flip this trope on its head. Namely, during the action scenes, one of the characters uses his powers to float his camera above and around the action, literally giving a new perspective to the found footage construct - in a similar way to the "found footage" sequences in End Of Watch. What about Cloverfield you ask? Well, for me it was a split decision. While I personally didn't really like the film, that wasn't because of the style of filmmaking, which I actually thought that was a pretty good genre effort and a strong idea for a found footage film, but the execution and story left me wanting. Others may disagree, having loved the movie, while others would say it was awful. Me? I'm in the middle, but again that shows how this trend can go either way, depending on how it's used and who's behind the (shaky) camera. Now, on to the four other awesome trends: