Movie trends can be bittersweet. Sometimes they're exciting, but other times they're infuriating, and sometimes they're both. These days, movie trends limit the creativity in an industry that is already lacking it. But at the same time, some trends can advance the industry by years, whether it's technically speaking or in terms of clever storytelling.

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Either way, whether for good or bad reasons, these movies started some of the movie industry's biggest trends ever. Between dark and gritty reboots, blue light beams, and shaky-cam, these are the movies to thank (or blame) for inventing them.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows (2010/2011)

Ron holds up the locket in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The Deathly Hallows is an interesting example, as it didn't technically start an in-movie trend, but it instead set the trend of the way films, particularly adaptations of young adult novels, were released. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the first major Hollywood adaptation to be split into two parts.

The same approach was taken with series including TwilightHunger Games, and most recently, Dune. It's the only way it could have been done with the Harry Potter novel, as it's just so long. Each Harry Potter movie adaptation could have benefited from this kind of release, as each novel has enough entertaining content to fill two movies. However, other two-part movies that followed struggled to satisfyingly pad out two feature-length films.

Batman Begins (2005)

Batman standing in front of the Tumbler in the Batcave

Christopher Nolan essentially reinvented the wheel when it comes to superhero movies with Batman Begins. Not only is it the best superhero origin movie, but it was a much darker and more realistic approach that had never been seen before too. What followed was a ton of dark and gritty reboots, such as Fantastic Four, Man of Steel, Power Rangers, and so many others.

Nolan basically did the exact opposite of everything that was done with Batman & Robin. And while that might seem reductive and like it's knocking the 2005 movie off its throne, only Nolan had the vision to pull it off in such a successful way, as it could just as easily have failed.

The Dark Knight (2008)

Joker showing a bomb inside his jacket in The Dark Knight.

Just as its predecessor did, The Dark Knight changed the way action movies were made once again, only this time it was more in the narrative than the movie's tone. With the introduction of Heath Ledger's Joker, it wasn't just the actor's performance that was innovative, but the character's plan influenced a sea of other iconic movie villains too.

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One of the parts of the Joker's intricate plan was to intentionally get caught by the police, only to escape a little while later. After this happened in the 2008 movie, Raoul Silva had the same plan in Skyfall, and Loki had the same plan in The Avengers, and it's happened in an innumerable amount of other movies too.

Inception (2010)

Arthur fights two men in a hallway in Inception

Some might consider Christopher Nolan overrated given how much he's talked about amongst cinephiles. But between Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception, and so many others, he has proven how trend-setting he can be over and over again.

However, it isn't Nolan who is the most influential figure here, but Han Zimmer, who composed the music for Inception. Zimmer is the most influential movie music composer working today, and when audiences first heard the "bwarm!" sound in the Inception trailer, pale imitations of that noise were rippled throughout every action movie trailer for the years following.

Transformers (2007)

The Autobots assemble on Earth in Transformers

The Transformers franchise isn't exactly the most ground-breaking or influential movie series of all time, in fact, it's critically savaged to no end. However, it started one of the most common trends in action movies of the 2010s.

Though it is far from one of Michael Bay's best movies, the original movie was the first film to feature that recognizable imposing and threatening blue sky beam. After that, the weirdly specific trend continued in almost every superhero movie, including The Avengers. Between the intentionally-getting-captured trope and this, as great as The Avengers is, it isn't all that original.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Honey Bunny orders customers at a diner to hand over their valuables in Pulp Fiction

The 1994 movie is a true classic, and the non-linear narrative is why Pulp Fiction still holds up today. The movie jumps between time in a way that had never been seen in a Hollywood movie before, and it's like trying to put together jigsaw pieces, especially when it perfectly wraps up at the end.

Pulp Fiction was in no way the first movie to have a non-linear narrative, as European movies had been experimenting with timelines in films for decades. However, it was the Quentin Tarantino-directed movie that started the trend, especially in Hollywood, as screenwriters were trying to mix up scenes in their screenplays even when it wasn't necessary for the plot.

The Matrix (1999)

Neo stops bullets in The Matrix

The Matrix is a whole well of influential practical and digital effects, and the 1999 movie completely changed the way movies were made. The movie industry was advanced by years thanks to the Wachowski sisters, especially thanks to Bullet Time, and the effect has been repeated in dozens of movies since. It has even been parodied to no end, even 20+ years later, as it was referenced as recently as last year with Space Jam: A New Legacy.

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Unfortunately, the newly released fourquel, The Matrix Resurrections, won't be setting any new trends, and it even almost tarnishes the Bullet Time legacy. In the 2021 film, the Analyst refers to the effect by name. However, it was never mentioned in the series as Bullet Time, as that was simply a name that was given to the digital effect, and it was never actually the name of a superpower that Neo had.

John Wick (2014)

John Wick firing a machine gun

Just like with Pulp Fiction and non-linear storytelling, John Wick might not have been the first movie to use gun-fu, but it was certainly the first movie that started the trend in Hollywood. Since John Wick, fight scenes in action movies haven't been the same, and gun-fu has become a popular fighting method amongst directors.

It has become so popular that Marvel Studios didn't waste any time in hiring John Wick director Chad Stahelski as the second-unit director on Captain America: Civil War, and it shows.

The Bourne Identity (2002)

Jason Bourne holds two hands on a pistol in The Bourne Identity

Movie studios in the 2000s fully invested in the idea of shaky-cam filming based on the success of the Bourne series. However, Bourne didn't just set the trend, but no other movie came close to replicating it in such a brilliant way.

Most other movies that adopted shaky-cam used it as a way to hide bad editing and terribly-choreographed fighting, and it quickly became a lazy way of directing an action scene. But The Bourne Identity and its sequels did it in such a way that made audiences feel the frenetic energy while still being able to understand what's going on.

Jaws (1975)

The shark attacking the boat in Jaws

Though another movie studio would have cottoned on to it sooner or later if Jaws didn't get there first, it was the 1975 movie that started the highly-profitable trend of summer blockbusters. Before 1975, summer was generally a dumping ground for movies that studios thought would be low performers, but Jaws made those studios realize the potential that the season had.

Summer blockbuster season is hardly a thing anymore, as there are so many blockbusters that get released annually now that there simply isn't enough room for all of them to be released over the one season. These days, a movie could be released in any month of the year and become one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. But the trend lasted for decades.

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