The worst romantic movies

[DeltaAro]

On 2/1/2021 at 5:16 AM, Apathetic Echidna said:

So...I have so much hate for this movie:

The 5th Wave. 

This one is sooooooooo bad, astonishingly bad. But it's kind of an outlier in this thread. Not a typical bad romance movie, like Twilight. The romance stuff is completely absurd but also strangely underwritten, though it's very important for the plot. It puts in a few extremely cheesy romance scenes and then suddenly forgets about the romance.

On 2/1/2021 at 5:16 AM, Apathetic Echidna said:

Turns out enemies were alien sleeper agents who were activated to hunt human. Boy is actually one of those sleeper agents but turned good because he loved her. Not clearly explained, but it seems the only differences between humans and alien sleeper agents is the ability to (romantically) love. 

Cute alien boy says his species doesn't believe in love, so maybe they're naturally aromantic and he's the exception. I thought this was a way to show how devious those aliens are. In case them trying to kill every human wasn't enough to get it.

Edited February 4, 2021 by DeltaV

[Apathetic Echidna]

On 2/5/2021 at 6:18 AM, DeltaV said:

I thought this was a way to show how devious those aliens are.

The general killing of humans is the basic premise to the opening introduction of the movie so when he talks about the lacking of love it seems like a big reveal moment. I guess he is declaring his love for her so it is a 'big movie moment'? but it just seems there was too much emphasis on not-loving = evil rather than 'I have switched sides because I love you'. Yeah, it is in it's own universe of bad. Twilight is like a Hitchcock classic compared to this. 

Actually, speaking of Hitchcock and terrible romance....

Spellbound (1945)

So the movie is classified as a psychological mystery thriller. It uses romance as the only justification for the female doctor to stay with and help the male lead. A situation that plays out like compliance bordering on mental instability on her part. I really hope people who watch it now are as creeped out as I am because it is so ....insulting? disturbing? lazy? unexplained? Basically he introduced an interesting character then to make the plot progress as he wanted he hammered her into a very two-dimensional character by making 'love at first sight' her motivation for everything. 

[Alaska Native Manitou]

17 hours ago, Apathetic Echidna said:

The general killing of humans is the basic premise to the opening introduction of the movie so when he talks about the lacking of love it seems like a big reveal moment. I guess he is declaring his love for her so it is a 'big movie moment'? but it just seems there was too much emphasis on not-loving = evil rather than 'I have switched sides because I love you'. Yeah, it is in it's own universe of bad. Twilight is like a Hitchcock classic compared to this. 

Actually, speaking of Hitchcock and terrible romance....

Spellbound (1945)

So the movie is classified as a psychological mystery thriller. It uses romance as the only justification for the female doctor to stay with and help the male lead. A situation that plays out like compliance bordering on mental instability on her part. I really hope people who watch it now are as creeped out as I am because it is so ....insulting? disturbing? lazy? unexplained? Basically he introduced an interesting character then to make the plot progress as he wanted he hammered her into a very two-dimensional character by making 'love at first sight' her motivation for everything. 

As far as I can tell, wanting to depict violence against women was Hitchcock's reason for making movies.

[DeltaAro]

Midnight Sun (2018) was also extremely bad. Teen girl with XP / Xeroderma pigmentosum disease meets boy. At night of course. Tries to keep it secret first, yada yada… yeah duh. ?

BTW, I find the general obsession with XP a bit creepy. Really, really strange how diseases get “romanticized”. Like tuberculosis in the 19th century.

I guess with XP the romance story basically writes itself: you get the vampire theme, the isolation theme, the “running away for mysterious reasons” theme, the secrecy theme, the sick lover theme and the doomed romance theme all in one! The end result may be horribly contrived, predictable and manipulative but who cares?

[nonmerci]

Recently I saw 4 marriages and a funeral. I heard it was an iconic movie so I gave it a try. There were some fun scenes in it, sure, but the main romance... I just don't know how I was supposed to root for this couple. Carrie annoyed me so much. She knew Charles loved her, she knew she loved him, but she still decided to marry another guy (even after cheated on him with Charles even if it was only the second time they met). Charles is not better, he wanted to marry a woman just for the sake of marrying and then left her in the church because Carrie told him she divorced, so now he wants to be with her. I don't think I ever wanted more a couple to not get together.

And the worst part is : they made huge love declaration even if they met something like what, six times? Maybe less? And the whole time, Charles idealizes Carrie instead of seeing her as a true person. Am I really supposed to believe they are completely in love when they don't even know each other?

[DeltaAro]

  “DARLING in the FRANXX” (2018 – )

Ok, not a movie but an anime series. Still it deserves to be mentioned.

Because this is what state-sponsored fear propaganda against aromanticism would look like.

At first impression this is yet another shonen following the familiar “kids in mechas defending humanity from monsters” formula. A bit creepy, right from the start, though… like the mechas can only be piloted by a girl-boy-team… and they’re in a quite suggestive position while doing that… ?

But then there comes romance. Loads of it. And the anime suddenly tries to be a seinen, tackling more “mature”, “philosophical” themes. So romance is verboten, since we’re living under the boots of the arofascist regime of the Aromantic People’s Republic of Aroland. 

Ok, seriously: humanity has devolved into a race of sterile, emotionally dead, nigh-immortal aroace vampires (“sucking” – not that figuratively – another species dry*. Surprise: they’re behind those monsters).

Because there just has to be a 24-episode anime about the most hackneyed anti-aroace-trope: aroace = emotionally dead.

* spoiler: humanity was in the end just manipulated by evil aliens

Now, since children can’t be conceived in a natural manner anymore, those underage mecha pilots are cloned. They’re relatively normal (compared to the adults), though. And they must be, because the aroace vampire adults lack the necessary emotions to pilot the mechas ?. Still the kids don’t have any idea about the birds and the bees. And “gender differences” (the arofascist regime really dislikes gender differences). This knowledge is kept strictly hidden.

They still figure it out, kind of, find an old book, yada, yada. At some point they hold a wedding ceremony. But it gets disrupted by an aro SWAT team and the newlyweds get their memory erased.

To put it mildly: The problem with the series is that the “healthy normal” contrasted to this (indeed disturbing) dystopia just has to be …… cliche Western romanticism and traditionalist social values all leading up to a 1950s-family SERIOUSLY.

Edited July 30, 2021 by DeltaV

[nonmerci]

Oh I knew this anime. The who demonization of asexuality and aromanticism in it is wild.

Even without mentioning that the aroace are demonized, I remember the scene when this kid says "of course I look at girls (meaning him being attracted to them), I am a man!" This guy doesn't even know what attraction is, but still consider it normal and a part of any human being. Not forgeting even mention the sexism and homophobia. The kids are also known about what part of their body are considered sexual somehow even if I'm pretty sure nobody told them as it is supposed to not exist. (it could have been interesting, to be honest, a show about people not being told it exists discovering their own romanticism and sexuality, with kids that think it is important to them, other who don't get why suddenly their friends have these kind of feelings... but no of course).

The fact that they were all super involved into the main couple thing as a begining, wanting to know what a kiss is, and they acted they knew it was a romantic thing and what romance is, and that there was a romantic relationship goin on, even if they shouldn't have a clue. Just showing the show is unable to think about how a society that doesn't revolve around romance (and sex) would think.

And then this scene when the aro (and ace) SWAT team as you called them are interrumpted the romance and say horrible things with shaming them sexual behavior and call them deviant or something I don't remember (it was a while that I watched it), and that it show it is the bad guy because of course, who would be repulsed by romance or sex except bad people who are unable to accept people can have different view on that? I don't remember if the allo girl's answer shame the aroace or not, but the fact that they play the "aroace are villains" card is already enough.

Oh and let's not forget, the main couple, that are only able to fight together because of their love... OK, I exagerate, actually it is because the guy licked the blood's girl as a kid (if I remember), but it is played such in a romantic way that it kinda seems to be the message they gave... In particular as, if I remember, they all maried their fighting partner, and one the fighting couple even switch because it didn't worked but then it was better as soon as one of the guy ended up with the girl he was in love with (I'm not sure about this part though, been a while, maybe you know @DeltaV). 

 

Sorry for the long post, I think @DeltaVjust reminds me of that anime and how much it infuriated me. When I watched it, I was just discovering the a-spec communities so I didn't have a place to rant. So I'm doing it now. I feel better now lol.

[alto]

I don't know what this movie was called, but it was a French film and it was basically boy meets girl, boy is aro, they get married, they are separated because girl can't stand lack of sex, girl becomes super-sexy, girl impresses boy, and they kiss in the end with the implication that they will go on to have a "normal" relationship.  

It's not as messed up as some of the movies mentioned in this thread, but it is still pretty messed up.

[DeltaAro]

On 7/30/2021 at 11:15 PM, nonmerci said:

Even without mentioning that the aroace are demonized, I remember the scene when this kid says "of course I look at girls (meaning him being attracted to them), I am a man!"

Yes, the world building is atrocious… it contains all those inconsistencies you mention. And many, many more. E.g. how do those kids know what “pervert” means? Seriously.

The reveals later don’t explain anything but just add even more plot holes.

On 7/30/2021 at 11:15 PM, nonmerci said:

Oh and let's not forget, the main couple, that are only able to fight together because of their love... OK, I exagerate, actually it is because the guy licked the blood's girl as a kid (if I remember), but it is played such in a romantic way that it kinda seems to be the message they gave...

This series ends with Strelizia True Apus, a planet-sized mech in space that 100% looks like a real human (with the face of Zero Two), and is powered by romantic love…

On 7/30/2021 at 11:15 PM, nonmerci said:

In particular as, if I remember, they all maried their fighting partner, and one the fighting couple even switch because it didn't worked but then it was better as soon as one of the guy ended up with the girl he was in love with (I'm not sure about this part though, been a while, maybe you know @DeltaV). 

Except for this Futoshi (fat comic relief) who was dumped here. He gets coupled with Ikuno as a fighting partner, who is a lesbian.

On 7/30/2021 at 11:15 PM, nonmerci said:

Sorry for the long post, I think @DeltaVjust reminds me of that anime and how much it infuriated me. When I watched it, I was just discovering the a-spec communities so I didn't have a place to rant. So I'm doing it now. I feel better now lol.

Probably it was meant as a critique of transhumanism. And that theme is a bit too complex to work along all that familiar mecha series stuff.

So it ended up being an extremely clumsy, illogical garbage that decided to hate on aros and aces, because it doesn’t have anything else to tell.

It’s the same trap Akame ga Kill fell into. A shonen that really tried to be cynical and philosophical with its grey morality stuff. But ended up just pushing wildly absurd and offensive moral messages. Still found it way more watchable. It’s just too deranged to be taken seriously by anyone. And hilarious in that way.

[nonmerci]

25 minutes ago, DeltaV said:

Except for this Futoshi (fat comic relief) who was dumped here. He gets coupled with Ikuno as a fighting partner, who is a lesbian.

Oh yes, I completely forgot that. But true.

I also think they tried to be philosophical but failed. Philosophy is not the easiest thing to talk about in fiction and it is really hard to build a consistent and not cliche world and story around it. When it is done right, it is amazing, but most of the time it fails. Though at least, usually, they don't ended up insulting people, and even if it can be caricatural it is not inconsistent. Alsot the show try to talk about to much things, ad so in the end, everything is very superficial.

 

You know, I began this anime because I saw by hazard the flashback episode that tells how the main couple met and how the kids were raised and used (a guy was watching it with subtitles in the train and how he was sitting and I was on my feet (no seats left), I had a very good view on his phone... Not very correct I guess, but I had 40 minutes to spend in that train and it was no personal content, so don't judge me please).  I thought "it seems like an interesting story about a dystopic world that are using children for a reason I don't get yet, it probably talked about how these kids will realize they are being used and try to discover the truth, maybe rebelled". I can tell you, it wasn't as I thought it would be.

[ilse]

not sure if its been mentioned before, but both kissing booth movies. the plot is stupid, all 3 main characters are annoying, and it's overall kinda cringy (the omg girls....).

not to mention that the friendship elle and the other guy (lee i think was his name) had going on is just incredibly unrealistic and it was almost obsession from the guy's part (the fact that he was ignoring his girlfriend during half of the sequel) and also i just don't like noah, elle should have stayed with the dancing guy from the second movie.

[nonmerci]

On 8/1/2021 at 2:51 AM, ilse said:

also i just don't like noah, elle should have stayed with the dancing guy from the second movie.

For some reason in these teen movies, it goes with the following : girl met a boy who is at best not that great, at worst toxic, then in a sequel she met another guy who is nice and cool and everything, but somehow, she still prefer the one who treat her like crap. I don't get that.

[MaxIsCosmic]

definitely twilight the movie got so old so quick. ad don't get me wrong I think romantic movies can be good that one just was not. 

[Holmbo]

@Skittles87
I agree about he's just not that into you. The weirdest thing about that movie to me is that it doesn't seem to matter for the protagonist woman what her feelings are. She realizes that a guy has feelings for her and apparently that automatically means she wants to be with him.

I do like the story line with the other woman who dumps her cheating husband though. Maybe I'll make a cut with only that part ?

 

[roboticanary]

I will reserve a special place in hell for whoever tried to crowbar a romance into the hobbit. Why did anyone think it was a good idea to invent some silly love triangle between characters who weren't even in the story.

[Holmbo]

19 hours ago, roboticanary said:

I will reserve a special place in hell for whoever tried to crowbar a romance into the hobbit. Why did anyone think it was a good idea to invent some silly love triangle between characters who weren't even in the story.

Obligatory love story ?

[DeltaAro]

On 11/18/2021 at 4:58 AM, Spadster said:

romantic movies can be good

Really???  Maybe we should start a thread “The most bearable romantic movies”.

[electricbeans]

I dislike Grease the whole thing centers on this love story and im just like ok i came now give me 50s fashion 

[GoodbyeRepublicServices]

On 11/26/2021 at 3:18 PM, roboticanary said:

I will reserve a special place in hell for whoever tried to crowbar a romance into the hobbit. Why did anyone think it was a good idea to invent some silly love triangle between characters who weren't even in the story.

What do the creators of the movie expect the audience to think? That to be truly happy, we need to be involved in romance drama???

[Holmbo]

11 hours ago, DeltaV said:

Really???  Maybe we should start a thread “The most bearable romantic movies”.

There was one like that a short while ago. Something like "which romantic movie do you like"

[DeltaAro]

11 hours ago, Holmbo said:

Something like "which romantic movie do you like"

Oh… I remember. This thread. Don’t be shy, you yourself started it! And well … I even posted there…

[Holmbo]

On 11/28/2021 at 7:00 PM, DeltaV said:

Oh… I remember. This thread. Don’t be shy, you yourself started it! And well … I even posted there…

Oh I forgot I started it ?

[SquishyWing]

In my Spanish class, we’ve been watching some movie (called: Fools Rush In) where two people meet for the first time, have one conversation, accidentally get pregnant in one night, and then get married. Obviously this is supposed to be somewhat over the top, but the fact that people really do try to develop relationships instantly has never made sense to me.