Romance in Movies

[tashiro]

Idle thought, talking with a friend:
If the plot of a movie can be told without a romantic subplot, why not just remove the subplot?
Case in Point:  Avatar.  The main character meets up with a female na'vi.  She trains him in her culture and ways.  They do not fall in love, and he joins the na'vi, not because he's in love with one of them, but

Comments

[merimask]

But, since he had lost his legs & the Navi world basically gave his legs back, there could never be a ~truly~ altruistic motive for him to become one of them. The fact that he could find one of them attractive enough to marry just showed how deeply he had become involved with their world. I liked the love story. And she was really cool. ^_^ I'd have fallen for her too.

[tashiro]

Oh, I didn't mind the love story, myself (and yeah, she was cool). I'm just wondering about those movies that insist that a love story must exist -- would removing the love story make the movie better or worse, or would it have no impact on the movie at all?

And true, the entire 'legs' thing does play a role here, I think.

[jagash]

Not really, he had his legs no matter what since both sides were offering them.

[merimask]

I wouldn't have trusted that Colonel for a second. :-/ I think, once he got to know him, Jake knew the guy was Machiavellian enough to make empty promises just to get Jake to cooperate.

[marinredwolf]

Same.

... Which, one can argue, is reason enough to remove it. The romantic plot really didn't add or detract anything to me. I suppose I might have rated it oh-so-slightly lower on cliche points without the romance, but really no big deal.

[kyn_elwynn]

American cinema has certain expectations and a romance between the male lead and a female he works with/saves that develops over time/was always there is a staple of the genre.
Seems like you'd rather watch s'more foreign movies :)

the cynical view

[brother_dour]

American cinema is highly formula-driven and IMHO is slowly stagnating. So, yes- in a way not having the typical 'love story' is somewhat unexpected.