And then they ruined it with romance....

[Crowfather]

I knew about the upcoming Wonder Woman movie and such, which is why I specified "released thus far." I still think it's ridiculous that it's taken them this long.

Ideally, meaning it's probably a long shot but we can dream, she'll have some sort of peacemaker role where she'll be too busy keeping Batman and Superman from destroying each other and/or the world for there to be much of a love interest potential. Considering the Hollywood school of "there must be romance in EVERYTHING", I'm not holding my breath, but it would certainly be a welcome change of pace.

Ooh, now I really need to watch Winter Soldier. I'm kind of a bad fangirl as far as Marvel's concerned because I'm obsessed with the universe even though I've only seen Daredevil, Elektra, and the two Avengers movies, but like I said, that'll probably be fixed when my friend sets up her marathon of pretty much everything Marvel ever (because she owns virtually all of it).

You know Daredevil and Elektra aren't part of the MCU, right? The original Ben Afflec Daredevil that is. The new Netflix series is, which I highly recommend.

[Vega91]

I knew about the upcoming Wonder Woman movie and such, which is why I specified "released thus far." I still think it's ridiculous that it's taken them this long.

Ideally, meaning it's probably a long shot but we can dream, she'll have some sort of peacemaker role where she'll be too busy keeping Batman and Superman from destroying each other and/or the world for there to be much of a love interest potential. Considering the Hollywood school of "there must be romance in EVERYTHING", I'm not holding my breath, but it would certainly be a welcome change of pace.

Ooh, now I really need to watch Winter Soldier. I'm kind of a bad fangirl as far as Marvel's concerned because I'm obsessed with the universe even though I've only seen Daredevil, Elektra, and the two Avengers movies, but like I said, that'll probably be fixed when my friend sets up her marathon of pretty much everything Marvel ever (because she owns virtually all of it).

Definitely watch Winter Soldier, I think it's one of the best. The Iron Man movies are pretty good too, though the Pepper/Tony thing there is at some points reminiscent of standard comic book movies. Or, at least Tony's attitude to it is, though the movie doesn't seem to celebrate his womanizing. (I mean, compared to James Bond or someone where a woman is just a conquest.)

I like Thor, but I really don't like Jane Foster. Just because she is a Brilliant Astrophysicist.

And yet, when her boyfriend takes her across space, she's too busy staring at his sexy abs to do anything. I mean, she could just take a spectrum of the star Asgard orbits, or ask heimdall one of a million questions, each of which would win her all the Nobels... So yeah, she's kinda a pet peeve of mine. But Sif is cool, I hope they don't form some stupid love triangle with Sif and Jane and Thor.

I'm scared for WW, but I really want it to be good. Same for Captain Marvel though. :D

[Ricecream-man]

I knew about the upcoming Wonder Woman movie and such, which is why I specified "released thus far." I still think it's ridiculous that it's taken them this long.

Ideally, meaning it's probably a long shot but we can dream, she'll have some sort of peacemaker role where she'll be too busy keeping Batman and Superman from destroying each other and/or the world for there to be much of a love interest potential. Considering the Hollywood school of "there must be romance in EVERYTHING", I'm not holding my breath, but it would certainly be a welcome change of pace.

Ooh, now I really need to watch Winter Soldier. I'm kind of a bad fangirl as far as Marvel's concerned because I'm obsessed with the universe even though I've only seen Daredevil, Elektra, and the two Avengers movies, but like I said, that'll probably be fixed when my friend sets up her marathon of pretty much everything Marvel ever (because she owns virtually all of it).

Definitely watch Winter Soldier, I think it's one of the best. The Iron Man movies are pretty good too, though the Pepper/Tony thing there is at some points reminiscent of standard comic book movies. Or, at least Tony's attitude to it is, though the movie doesn't seem to celebrate his womanizing. (I mean, compared to James Bond or someone where a woman is just a conquest.)

I like Thor, but I really don't like Jane Foster. Just because she is a Brilliant Astrophysicist.

And yet, when her boyfriend takes her across space, she's too busy staring at his sexy abs to do anything. I mean, she could just take a spectrum of the star Asgard orbits, or ask heimdall one of a million questions, each of which would win her all the Nobels... So yeah, she's kinda a pet peeve of mine. But Sif is cool, I hope they don't form some stupid love triangle with Sif and Jane and Thor.

I'm scared for WW, but I really want it to be good. Same for Captain Marvel though. :D

Yessss. But Vega, every hetero woman must be mystified by beautiful abs. I mean how could there be anything else more important in the world? >.>

This thread definitely made me happy. Romance is perfectly fine in certain movies such as the Iron Man series where the two of them becoming romantically inclined actually leads to character development.

Some of the pure action movies and some of the action based animated series really annoy the crap out of me when unnecessary romance is involved.

Possible movie spoiler.

Mad Maxx made me pretty happy because of the lack of romance in it. Very strong platonic feelings yes, but not any kind of real romance between the main protagonists.

[Vega91]

Agreed 100% with you on your spoilered topic. Another thing to love about the movie.

Well my hetero friend did enjoy Thor's shirtless scenes and Cap's tight shirt... :P

[Ricecream-man]

I'm still waiting for the introduction of an asexual character who someone tries to seduce. Like the other gender starts undressing and the character just looks at them and sighs and directs them to the nearest shower :P

[Vega91]

Oh yeah. That would be so beautiful.

Something like what Mystique did in first class or days of future past, where she seduced a dude. And if, instead of falling for her, just sighed and ignored her.

[Dodecahedron314]

I knew about the upcoming Wonder Woman movie and such, which is why I specified "released thus far." I still think it's ridiculous that it's taken them this long.

Ideally, meaning it's probably a long shot but we can dream, she'll have some sort of peacemaker role where she'll be too busy keeping Batman and Superman from destroying each other and/or the world for there to be much of a love interest potential. Considering the Hollywood school of "there must be romance in EVERYTHING", I'm not holding my breath, but it would certainly be a welcome change of pace.

Ooh, now I really need to watch Winter Soldier. I'm kind of a bad fangirl as far as Marvel's concerned because I'm obsessed with the universe even though I've only seen Daredevil, Elektra, and the two Avengers movies, but like I said, that'll probably be fixed when my friend sets up her marathon of pretty much everything Marvel ever (because she owns virtually all of it).

You know Daredevil and Elektra aren't part of the MCU, right? The original Ben Afflec Daredevil that is. The new Netflix series is, which I highly recommend.

*points to thing about being "kind of a bad fangirl" in OP* They've got the Marvel intro thing in the beginning, that's what I was going off of. I do really want to watch the new Netflix series, but unfortunately I don't have Netflix at this point.

[~RedArcher]

Hmmmmm, everything XD

Mostly films where the protagonist wants to gain or achieve something, has no thoughts about romance at the beginning and then...it just...

Like The Little Mermaid. Ariel wanted to learn about the human world and become an independent woman. "FIND TRUE LOVE'S KISS OR YOU'LL BE A MERMAID AGAIN". Well, damnit...

If the protagonist is looking for romance in the beginning then fair enough, but when they don't have two thoughts about it and the one guy/girl they meet becomes their one true love, I'm like.... Please stop.

[.diva plavalaguna.]

Every Syfy movie ever...I mean, they're shit to begin with but then they get worse with the unnecessary romance.

I was just watching the Matrix the other day (Revolutions, I think? Idk...whatever the first one was called). I don't know if there's a book/how it went down in the book, but in the movie Trinity's attraction to Neo makes no sense and it starts fairly early on. And from that point on all I seem to see about her is how she likes Neo and how their relationship is so important...like, what? There were so many interesting characters but they either die or have no terribly important storylines. Now I could be/am probably forgetting some things that are actually good. But this is what's fresh in my mind. xD

I KNOW there are more that annoy me but I can't remember them :/

[stuckinwonderland]

THE CHAOS WALKING TRILOGY I'm reading Monsters of Men and firstly it's ripping my heart apart and secondly SHE'S NOT "YOUR VIOLA", TODD, YOU SAID SO YOURSELF

[Elluna Hellen]

I've read 2 books that start off with a female character being completely fine on her own and actively not wanting to get into a relationship, but then soon a love interest is introduced because "no, you really do want this though".

So upsetting.

these books are:

- Boy Proof (way to stick to your guns, book)

it would've been funny if the love interest was a girl, in this case. I suppose not? :P

Also, the Hunger Games series. Every time there was some angsting about the guys I was like 'GET BACK TO IMPORTANT THINGS ALREADY' xD

[Dodecahedron314]

Every Syfy movie ever...I mean, they're shit to begin with but then they get worse with the unnecessary romance.

I was just watching the Matrix the other day (Revolutions, I think? Idk...whatever the first one was called). I don't know if there's a book/how it went down in the book, but in the movie Trinity's attraction to Neo makes no sense and it starts fairly early on. And from that point on all I seem to see about her is how she likes Neo and how their relationship is so important...like, what? There were so many interesting characters but they either die or have no terribly important storylines. Now I could be/am probably forgetting some things that are actually good. But this is what's fresh in my mind. xD

I KNOW there are more that annoy me but I can't remember them :/

The first one is just The Matrix, the second is Reloaded, I think, and the third one is Revolutions, IIRC. And it is based on a comic book, apparently, but I haven't read it so I couldn't tell you how the book and the movie correspond.

Yeah, the whole thing between Trinity and Neo is totally manufactured and makes absolutely no sense. Especially at the end. Gahhhh, the end. That's...just...not even remotely how anything works, ever. No. Stop it. Figure out some other ridiculous way to save him. No matter how ridiculous it is, it's still probably more plausible than what ended up happening. Oh, and it only gets worse in Reloaded. (WARNING: Reloaded has a sex scene.) I haven't seen Revolutions, so I can't comment on that one. But anyway, I completely agree, and would like to add that not only is that whole thing illogical, it also damages Trinity's dimensionality as a character--she had so much potential to be the awesome heroine who kicks arses and takes names, but instead she's mostly just reduced to the love interest...like always. See above ranting about comic book heroines and their lame representation in film.

(Aro moment: At the end of the first movie, when all of that stuff is going down and there's supposed to be this dramatic/romantic tension going on with how to save him and stuff, the thing I was paying attention to most was how comfy Trinity's sweater looked.)

[Crowfather]

I've read 2 books that start off with a female character being completely fine on her own and actively not wanting to get into a relationship, but then soon a love interest is introduced because "no, you really do want this though".

So upsetting.

these books are:

- Boy Proof (way to stick to your guns, book)

it would've been funny if the love interest was a girl, in this case. I suppose not? :P

Also, the Hunger Games series. Every time there was some angsting about the guys I was like 'GET BACK TO IMPORTANT THINGS ALREADY' xD

It might as well be a girl. The only thing said about his appearance was that he has long black hair and a dandruff problem.

But he's artistic so sóóóóó dreamy! *swoon*

[Elluna Hellen]

I've read 2 books that start off with a female character being completely fine on her own and actively not wanting to get into a relationship, but then soon a love interest is introduced because "no, you really do want this though".

So upsetting.

these books are:

- Boy Proof (way to stick to your guns, book)

it would've been funny if the love interest was a girl, in this case. I suppose not? :P

Also, the Hunger Games series. Every time there was some angsting about the guys I was like 'GET BACK TO IMPORTANT THINGS ALREADY' xD

It might as well be a girl. The only thing said about his appearance was that he has long black hair and a dandruff problem.

But he's artistic so sóóóóó dreamy! *swoon*

*le eyeroll*

[HeartfulPeach]

I've read 2 books that start off with a female character being completely fine on her own and actively not wanting to get into a relationship, but then soon a love interest is introduced because "no, you really do want this though".

So upsetting.

these books are:

- Boy Proof (way to stick to your guns, book)

it would've been funny if the love interest was a girl, in this case. I suppose not? :P

Also, the Hunger Games series. Every time there was some angsting about the guys I was like 'GET BACK TO IMPORTANT THINGS ALREADY' xD

I know what you mean XD

I personally hate romance in a movie/book when it comes out of nowhere and develops at high speeds. It has happened more than once that I'm enjoying a movie and I tell myself "this movie is awesome" and then, out of nowhere: it's nightime, protagonist is half naked and alone, someone knocks the door, BAM love scene and then I literally eyeroll and say exactly what the thread's title says "they ruined it with this"

I stopped reading a book that it's absolutely amazing because the protagonist suddenly slept with someone. I am not entirely against it but I thought it was out of character so I didn't like that. I resumed reading after 4 months or so and I'm trying to get over it.

[Cale]

The focus of Disney's "The Fox and the Hound" was supposed to be friendship/loyalty/betrayal, but they had to give one of the leads a love interest. I can see how it helped make the coming-of-age aspect more believable, but to give the storyline its own song and let it be such a distraction from the main plot that you start becoming impatient was a bit much. Even my heterosexual brother agreed with me when I discussed this with him. I really like the Todd character, but they had to go and make him all goofy and sappy on us! xD

I don't think it's only aces either who don't appreciate the romantic aspects of most children's media, most kids don't like it either! The mush is annoying and the kissing grosses them out. I don't think there's a need or a place for romance in most comedy. The contrast of moods and mixed messages really rub my emotional mind the wrong way. I'll cringe, and I should only be cringing during the gross-out gags. I think producers think they'll lose money if they don't add in the chick-flick aspect, but the clichee is getting really tired. Don't you think?

[Rean]

I haven't really enjoyed either of the new Star Trek movies, but one of the things that I find most off-putting is the romance between Spock and Uhura. I don't find it believable, I find it tactless and I don't see how it's of any consequence to the plot.

I appreciate that they probably wanted to make Uhura a more central character than she was in original Star Trek, but I think it's sad if the only conceivable way to do that was to make her a love interest to one of the male protagonists.

[Dodecahedron314]

I haven't really enjoyed either of the new Star Trek movies, but one of the things that I find most off-putting is the romance between Spock and Uhura. I don't find it believable, I find it tactless and I don't see how it's of any consequence to the plot.

I appreciate that they probably wanted to make Uhura a more central character than she was in original Star Trek, but I think it's sad if the only conceivable way to do that was to make her a love interest to one of the male protagonists.

I've only seen the very beginning of the first new Star Trek movie, so don't consider me an authority on matters of modern Trek by any means, but in all fairness the romance between Spock and Uhura was actually supposed to have happened in the original series. I seem to recall reading somewhere on the Internet, probably io9, that the whole thing with TV's first interracial kiss was supposed to be with them, then William Shatner got jealous or something and had the script rewritten so it was with him instead of Leonard Nimoy (and also there's obviously the fact that that would have been completely out of character for Spock unless they'd made it at least somewhat awkward, which isn't exactly something you want for your grand TV milestone--as it is I have no idea if they've managed to handle it even remotely well in the newer movies). And you probably already know that Uhura being a love interest in the movies isn't new either--she was with Scotty in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but the relationship didn't get all that much screen time.

This "female characters are only worth watching if they're the love interest of one of the "real" male characters" thing unfortunately seems to be rather popular in Hollywood right now, to put it mildly. -_-

[Star Inkbright]

As far as I'm concerned, it's not the precence (or even over-representation) of romantic love in culture. I like many books and movies that contain romance or are all about romance. I just don't like when people think no story can be interesting without romance, and drop possibly more interesting plot lines where the characters could develop through others kinds of love ;)

Hear hear.

I particularly hate the 'Pair the Spares' trope where all the left over single characters are joined up as an afterthought (often as the credits roll) because the idea of anyone left unnattached is *sarcasm* sooo unthinkable.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

[fuzzipueo]

Every Syfy movie ever...I mean, they're shit to begin with but then they get worse with the unnecessary romance.

I was just watching the Matrix the other day (Revolutions, I think? Idk...whatever the first one was called). I don't know if there's a book/how it went down in the book, but in the movie Trinity's attraction to Neo makes no sense and it starts fairly early on. And from that point on all I seem to see about her is how she likes Neo and how their relationship is so important...like, what? There were so many interesting characters but they either die or have no terribly important storylines. Now I could be/am probably forgetting some things that are actually good. But this is what's fresh in my mind. xD

I KNOW there are more that annoy me but I can't remember them :/

The first one is just The Matrix, the second is Reloaded, I think, and the third one is Revolutions, IIRC. And it is based on a comic book, apparently, but I haven't read it so I couldn't tell you how the book and the movie correspond.

Yeah, the whole thing between Trinity and Neo is totally manufactured and makes absolutely no sense. Especially at the end. Gahhhh, the end. That's...just...not even remotely how anything works, ever. No. Stop it. Figure out some other ridiculous way to save him. No matter how ridiculous it is, it's still probably more plausible than what ended up happening. Oh, and it only gets worse in Reloaded. (WARNING: Reloaded has a sex scene.) I haven't seen Revolutions, so I can't comment on that one. But anyway, I completely agree, and would like to add that not only is that whole thing illogical, it also damages Trinity's dimensionality as a character--she had so much potential to be the awesome heroine who kicks arses and takes names, but instead she's mostly just reduced to the love interest...like always. See above ranting about comic book heroines and their lame representation in film.

(Aro moment: At the end of the first movie, when all of that stuff is going down and there's supposed to be this dramatic/romantic tension going on with how to save him and stuff, the thing I was paying attention to most was how comfy Trinity's sweater looked.)

Trinity falls in love with Neo because (cue the da-da-da music) the Oracle told her that was her destiny. Sound familiar? Like fairy tales ...

Revolutions brings an end to the love affair in a rather, err, gut punching way, with a bar of rebar, and appropriate OTT romantic soppiness. For the record, I find the scenes between the dancing and Neo & Trinity in Reloaded extremely uncomfortable to watch, even though I like the music.

===

Speaking of something that got ruined by unnecessary romance, the movie: The Seeker: The Dark is Rising. The book (The Dark is Rising) is a wonderful piece of fiction in which the young hero, Will Stanton, is just turning eleven years old and coming into his gifts as an Old One. The author, Susan Cooper, is on record as to why she made the protagonist eleven, mainly because kids that age aren't interested in romance or related ideas. It was not a subject she was interested in exploring, nor does it fit with the series over all. Unfortunately, the producer and the screenwriter for the movie decided that not only did Will need to be fourteen instead of eleven, but that he had to have a love interest in the character of Maggie Barnes (who, in the book, actually has a bit of interest in one of Will's older brothers). On the whole, it was an really annoying change, and just one of the many, many unnecessary changes made between the book and the movie (but that's a rant for elsewhere).

[theredspade]

The latest Avengers movie. I love Widow, but why did we need to see her fawn over a guy. It was so uncharacteristic of her.

You'd think the "I used to be a KGB agent who killed innocent people" angle would be enough of an interesting personality trait without wasting screen time with romance.

Actually, pretty much any action movie since it seems like in 99% of those films, female characters are added just for T&A, and to motivate the male characters.

If we talk about movies - then definitely The Hobbit. I still can understand taking a book with no women at all and add a few into the movie, but romance?????

And even worse, some of the dwarves look like dwarves, but three of them were made to look like attractive human males. Hell, if you force a female Elf to love a dwarf, let's see you making him look like a dwarf, you're trying to hint love is not about appearance, aren't you???

This, so much. Though I do appreciate that the dwarves were made to look distinctive, the book didn't do much in that regard.

But there was finally a strong heroine with more than 1 scene, why did they have to give her some pointless love story. Couldn't she just decide to help the dwarves because she wanted to help other people?

Actually, I was less bothered by Black Widow and Bruce than I was by Hawkeye and his random wife and kids. Like. What. What. Really?? At least I could see something between Widow and Bruce, even if I would've just left them as friends, or maybe, in a world that acknowledged other types of relationships, they'd make cute queerplatonic partners, but there was something there. Hawkeye and his wife just broke my mind. It makes no sense. She has no character, no personality, no involvement, and his kids, I don't even remember their names. It was just thrown in there as, hey, this character that we could've given interesting background and plot development and - nope! He's normal, what are you talking about?

Augh.

[DigitalBookDust]

I read the book The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi. It's a dystopian thriller set in the near future and features a detective/assassin/spy and a reporter as protagonists for the main story line. It's set in the dying city of Phoenix on the verge of collapse as its water runs out. There's a second story line with a Texan refugee. Just as things are getting interesting, the author unnecessarily (as far as the story line goes) introduces sex and romance into the scene. It distracted from the plot and was superfluous. The book would have been much better had he left it out, IMHO. Another book ruined by sex and romance!

[*a*rteest]

I've only seen the very beginning of the first new Star Trek movie, so don't consider me an authority on matters of modern Trek by any means, but in all fairness the romance between Spock and Uhura was actually supposed to have happened in the original series. I seem to recall reading somewhere on the Internet, probably io9, that the whole thing with TV's first interracial kiss was supposed to be with them, then William Shatner got jealous or something and had the script rewritten so it was with him instead of Leonard Nimoy (and also there's obviously the fact that that would have been completely out of character for Spock unless they'd made it at least somewhat awkward, which isn't exactly something you want for your grand TV milestone--as it is I have no idea if they've managed to handle it even remotely well in the newer movies). And you probably already know that Uhura being a love interest in the movies isn't new either--she was with Scotty in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but the relationship didn't get all that much screen time.

I'm buzzing through ST:TOS on Hulu episode by episode and right in the first episode, Uhura flirts with Spock, annoyed that she' can't see what makes him tick.

So that relationship wouldn't be entirely unbelieveable for me now.

That written, are there still plans to make Thor into a woman? I think that is the BEST idea ever, and kudos that her name won't change a bit. However if that is still going to happen (or already did, I can't keep up lol) and they make her a powder-puff-pink princess I'll never sink another dime into the franchise ever again.

[Vega91]

That written, are there still plans to make Thor into a woman? I think that is the BEST idea ever, and kudos that her name won't change a bit. However if that is still going to happen (or already did, I can't keep up lol) and they make her a powder-puff-pink princess I'll never sink another dime into the franchise ever again.

If we're going by the art released by Marvel, I think her costume will look a lot like male Thor's armor.

[Rean]

I haven't really enjoyed either of the new Star Trek movies, but one of the things that I find most off-putting is the romance between Spock and Uhura. I don't find it believable, I find it tactless and I don't see how it's of any consequence to the plot.

I appreciate that they probably wanted to make Uhura a more central character than she was in original Star Trek, but I think it's sad if the only conceivable way to do that was to make her a love interest to one of the male protagonists.

I've only seen the very beginning of the first new Star Trek movie, so don't consider me an authority on matters of modern Trek by any means, but in all fairness the romance between Spock and Uhura was actually supposed to have happened in the original series. I seem to recall reading somewhere on the Internet, probably io9, that the whole thing with TV's first interracial kiss was supposed to be with them, then William Shatner got jealous or something and had the script rewritten so it was with him instead of Leonard Nimoy (and also there's obviously the fact that that would have been completely out of character for Spock unless they'd made it at least somewhat awkward, which isn't exactly something you want for your grand TV milestone--as it is I have no idea if they've managed to handle it even remotely well in the newer movies). And you probably already know that Uhura being a love interest in the movies isn't new either--she was with Scotty in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but the relationship didn't get all that much screen time.

This "female characters are only worth watching if they're the love interest of one of the "real" male characters" thing unfortunately seems to be rather popular in Hollywood right now, to put it mildly. -_-

I've heard about that thing with the kiss in Plato's Stepchildren before, but it's been kind of a mixed batch. Some sources say the same that you are saying, others say that the kiss was originally to be between Kirk and Uhura, and they at some point wondered about making it between Spock and Uhura instead as a way of distancing the whole interraciality business by making it happen with an alien guy. As far as aything in that scene goes, I'm not sure if being forced to kiss one another would be considered very romantic under the best of circumstances. (Apparenty it didn't do Chapel any good with Spock.)

I also think I've heard somewhere that Nichelle Nichols would have said that she (playing Uhura) saw Uhura's relationship with Spock as being one of a mentor and a student, and I like that idea a lot better, not the least because having any and all female characters have a love interest among the male characters is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. (The thing with Uhura and Scotty in Star Trek V is a bit different in my eyes, since they've already known each other for such a long time. That and I can't really take STV very seriously.)

I'm buzzing through ST:TOS on Hulu episode by episode and right in the first episode, Uhura flirts with Spock, annoyed that she' can't see what makes him tick.

So that relationship wouldn't be entirely unbelieveable for me now.

While I'm not against the idea of a romantic relationship between Spock and Uhura per se, I always thought of that scene as being there to show the viewers that Spock just isn't that keen on beautiful women. I always thought of both that and the singing scene in Charlie X as just Uhura goofing around with Spock in a friendly manner. Since these both happen in early season 1 and nothing similar happens later on, I've always thought that any evidence for a romantic relationship between them in TOS is pretty slim.

Even though the idea of Spock and Uhura in a romantic relationship isn't hard for me to grasp, I don't like the way they've played it out in the new movies. Their public dispay of affection doesn't to me seem like something Spock would do, and also having Uhura discuss their relationship during an important mission and right in front of Kirk does not make her seem like a professional Starfleet officer.

[*a*rteest]

While I'm not against the idea of a romantic relationship between Spock and Uhura per se, I always thought of that scene as being there to show the viewers that Spock just isn't that keen on beautiful women. I always thought of both that and the singing scene in Charlie X as just Uhura goofing around with Spock in a friendly manner. Since these both happen in early season 1 and nothing similar happens later on, I've always thought that any evidence for a romantic relationship between them in TOS is pretty slim.

Even though the idea of Spock and Uhura in a romantic relationship isn't hard for me to grasp, I don't like the way they've played it out in the new movies. Their public dispay of affection doesn't to me seem like something Spock would do, and also having Uhura discuss their relationship during an important mission and right in front of Kirk does not make her seem like a professional Starfleet officer.

The only thing I take issue with is "Spock isn't keen on beautiful women". He is not a pure Vulcan; he's half-Vulcan. And even the Vulcan race certainly has the ability to feel emotions, they are simply *repressed*. There is a huge difference between repression and compete absence.

[Calamity Jim]

The latest Avengers movie. I love Widow, but why did we need to see her fawn over a guy. It was so uncharacteristic of her.

You'd think the "I used to be a KGB agent who killed innocent people" angle would be enough of an interesting personality trait without wasting screen time with romance.

Actually, pretty much any action movie since it seems like in 99% of those films, female characters are added just for T&A, and to motivate the male characters.

If we talk about movies - then definitely The Hobbit. I still can understand taking a book with no women at all and add a few into the movie, but romance?????

And even worse, some of the dwarves look like dwarves, but three of them were made to look like attractive human males. Hell, if you force a female Elf to love a dwarf, let's see you making him look like a dwarf, you're trying to hint love is not about appearance, aren't you???

This, so much. Though I do appreciate that the dwarves were made to look distinctive, the book didn't do much in that regard.

But there was finally a strong heroine with more than 1 scene, why did they have to give her some pointless love story. Couldn't she just decide to help the dwarves because she wanted to help other people?

I actually enjoyed the Hulk being all dewey eyed and weak kneed over Black Widow and enjoyed that she was the one in charge with regards to that.

But yeah, the Hobbit. So frustrating. Partly because thematically it made no sense and undercut the Leagolas Gimli plot line in Lord of the Rings, after all, they were having the first Dwarf/Elf thing in thousands of years. I also totally think they were all romantic together and deeply enjoy when queer relationships are snuck past the censors.

Another movie ruined was "Now You See Me". It was so good. And then it got weird.

[VindicatorPhoenix]

Spoiler alert for new San Andreas movie:

The new San Andreas movie: awesome special effects, suspenseful disaster movie, dramatic family aspect, and a guy who is falling in love with a girl because of her looks. <_< Oh well, at least there was no sex on first date, that would be too silly.

Awesome movie other than that, though.

[gigangster]

True, the avengers ruined the movies

[dash]

Yeah, the whole Tauriel/Kili thing in the Hobbit. I can accept that romance sells, even if an elf/dwarf romance makes no sense to me. What really bugged me though was Fili and Kili's death scenes. In the book the brothers died fighting together in battle. In the movie, Fili dies alone and Kili dies defending Tauriel. Why is romantic love more important than the brotherly love that was stressed in the book, and the movies up to this point? I thought it would've been better to keep the book version, but have Tauriel find Kili's body after the battle or something.

Kind of off topic a bit but the movies veered more and more into fanfic, IMO. Including the bizarre romances (dwarf + elf?!).