It seems like in every movie where there's a dolphin or a chimpanzee, one or more of the characters will refer to them as a fish or a monkey, and someone (usually a scientist character, who happens to work with the animals in question) corrects them (sometimes--actually most of the time--in a rude manner). Perhaps my view of people is skewed, since I try not to hang about with people who are uneducated, but are most people that ignorant? Is it supposed to be funny that a character doesn't know the difference? What's the point of keeping this cliché going, which is has been doing since at least the '70s?


This doesn't only happen in sci-fi--but from my reckoning this is where it started--whenever a ship, building, whatever with electrical technology in it is hit by a weapon, the electronics burst into sparks, flames etc. Sometimes even large chunks of foam that look very much like fake rocks explode out. Why there's explosives inside, why such high voltage and amperage is flowing through computers and pieces of technology with ambiguous function and why there's no circuit breakers is never explained. Seems like a problem someone in the fictional universes would want to fix, since it happens so often.


Boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy gets girl back, they live happily ever after. Done. To. Death. There's a few movies with this formula that I like--such as Say Anything...--but it has very un-cliché plot points that offset this cliché. Plus the acting is great.

What about boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy finds someone else? Or boy meets girl, boy figures out she's possessive and kinda crazy, so breaks up with her and finds someone else. Or girl meets boy, girl falls for another girl, so breaks up with boy. Or girl meets girl, girl dies tragically, other girl kills herself because of the resulting depression. Or simply boy meets girl, they stay together and have a life of ups and downs like most people, then maybe get divorced ten years latter, "Because the magic's gone."

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