Suffering through The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on an airplane some years ago, I noticed a movie trope that is even more overused (and is much more annoying) than “over and out” the tell-tale cough of death and bullets that throw people across rooms upon impact.
The scene: Thorin sees his father slain in combat and the camera zooms in on his face and then we go to slo-mo as he yells “No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!!!!!!”.
How many zillion times have I seen that in a movie? I thought, and has it ever really worked?
And how long before I have to watch this stale bit of film making again?
Answer, in the closing scenes of The Hobbit, a scant 8 hours later (I’m estimating by how it felt), Thorin is about to be killed by a big orc and so the camera zooms in on Bilbo’s face, and we go to slo-mo as he yells “No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!!!!!!”.
I wish every time a screenwriter and director agreed they were going to re-use this trope, someone sitting in on the script meeting would do what all the people in this youtube clip do.
All Good Movies 