Are kids annoying in movies? YES!! *roll credits*

[small]

well the rage virus in 28 weeks later would be classed as a level 4 biohazard and they had her in a lab clearly not designed for that. if anything it would be one of the first things they established when they established things back in the UK before any civilians were moved back. but a movie where nothing happens makes for a boring movie so ill forgive it

 

[Username Redacted]

Ehh, I don't really like kids in real life, so I certainly don't want to put up with them in my fictional entertainment. They tend to fall into one of three archetypes. The really annoying, obnoxious kind which is, by far, the most common. The attempted comic relief kind, where a kid does/says silly shit to try and bring humour into the work, which I think fails. Or the unrealistically intelligent put-adults-in-their-place kind such as Clementine from The Walking Dead.

None of the above interest me at all. Actually, about the only kid-character I like off the top of my head is Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. That's really the only one I can think of.

Really? Short Round would be item one on page one of my list of annoying as fuck children in movies with the already mentioned Dakota Fanning in 'War of the Worlds' being item #2.
"Indy!"
"Indy!"
"Indy!"
"Indy!"
"Indy!"
"Indy!"
"Indy!"
"Indy!"
"Indy!"

Anywho...I actually thought that this was going to be a thread about children in movie theaters ruining the movie for everyone else. My only thoughts on that are that the people who drag their children to a movie so that the child can translate the movie for the parents can fuck right the hell off. I don't see too many movies in theaters but I still manage to experience this crap at least once a year.

 

[loa]

Alien 2.
Fuck that kid whose only purpose is to shriek constantly.
It doesn't even make any sense how she survived in an alien infested station when her reaction to stress is to scream loudly.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

snip

It could be that you're correct. But I guess compared to screaming Willie, Short Round seems like a goddamn saint.

 

[HardkorSB]

The kid in Iron Man 3 was actually used well.
He gave Tony food and shelter, helped him solve the mystery of the explosions, helped to cure his PTSD and even saved his life.
The actor also gave a decent performance.

I also liked the 2 black kids in Mars Attacks.
When I saw that movie as a kid I thought they were badass. They saved the White House from an alien attack because they learned how to shoot by playing arcade shooters..

Sadly, those are the only positive examples I can think of.
In most cases, kids are just in movies (especially action oriented ones) to be accessories for the protagonist (if the character has kids, people tend to sympathize with him more, even if that character isn't very well developed) or to create conflict (if the kids didn't do stupid things that put everyone in danger, the story wouldn't move forward or would be over very quickly).

 

[pearcinator]

I think it mostly boils down to lack of experience. Kids can't really act because they are too young and inexperienced at it.

Anakin Skywalker from Ep. 1 was pretty annoying but at least he was a better actor than Hayden Christensen LOL

Also, fuck that kid in Real Steel. So annoying!

 

[Roxor]

It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the hatred for kids in movies is just a subset of hate for stupid characters.

I don't want to watch stupid people. I get enough of that in real life. Give us sensible people whose otherwise good plans get set back by nature or the opposition throwing something at them they realistically couldn't be expected to plan for, or something they did plan for, but which slows their main plan down dealing with it.

 

[Xan Krieger]

"That's parenting instinct, a good proportion of the adult population will go to great lengths to protect children whether or not they are the actual parent in question, logic doesn't even come into it. I'd like to hope the majority of people would find that instinct in them if the worst was to happen, no way to know for sure though until one is put in that situation."

Since the quote button doesn't work JoJo I had to do it like this. Why would you want more people to do it when less would help people survive? It's why the women and children first thing was a bad idea on the titanic, the people who need to get on a lifeboat are the people valuable in a survival situation which means the pregnant women and babies stay on the ship while people who know what to do and can do it get off.

 

[JoJo]

That's parenting instinct, a good proportion of the adult population will go to great lengths to protect children whether or not they are the actual parent in question, logic doesn't even come into it. I'd like to hope the majority of people would find that instinct in them if the worst was to happen, no way to know for sure though until one is put in that situation.

Since the quote button doesn't work JoJo I had to do it like this. Why would you want more people to do it when less would help people survive? It's why the women and children first thing was a bad idea on the titanic, the people who need to get on a lifeboat are the people valuable in a survival situation which means the pregnant women and babies stay on the ship while people who know what to do and can do it get off.

Gah, this quote bug seems to be hitting quite a few people right now, hope they fix it soon >.>

Anyhow, it's not really a logical thing, though you could say that on average a child has more potential life to lead than an adult. In a situation where I had to pick between a random adult and child with no extreme factors like one having a terminal illness for example, I would always pick the child because it feels like the right thing to do.

Honestly though in most survival situations it wouldn't even make a difference, for example with the Titantic it made no difference prioritising the women and children over men(even though only 50% of the kids actually got off the ship) as all the survivors had to do was sit in a lifeboat until they were rescued. Anyone could do that. In a more zombie-type situation, you'd get plenty of adults who are physically unfit or would be liable to panic too, I wager a overweight adult could be far higher burden than a child who's old enough to run fast in the right direction. Having children in your group could help garner more sympathy and assitance from authorities and other groups of survivors too. Just throwing some ideas out there, anyway

 

[Someone Depressing]

I find kids annoying in media when they aren't realistic.

Little shit who sneezes on my coat in a food court > Pure, innocent, precious, sweet dear Joey who can do no wrong.

Kids are bastards, but they're also little bastards with their own identity and personality, so portraying them as pure little angels is both offensive and just bad writing.

So... 97% of all children in movies and books and games and comics and all media ever. Has nobody ever actually met a child?