To add a little to Takoma's response (which Takoma may or may not agree with),
A positive manipulation is one that I don't really notice or that I don't mind when I do notice it (i.e., it feels fitting).
A negative manipulation is one that I do notice, but because it is clumsy, overt, cliched. It is either a played out magic trick (the woman sawed in half) or a good trick performed poorly or bad (new) trick a trick that pleads with me to do too much work to make it work.
Can a good movie have negative manipulations? Sure. An otherwise good movie can have moments that we groan at (e.g., an all too obvious "save the cat" moment, cliche daddy-mommy issues to stimulate conflict, deus ex machinas, villains explaining they're evil plots in excruciating detail). A better movie, however, will not have these features.
A positive manipulation is one that I don't really notice or that I don't mind when I do notice it (i.e., it feels fitting).
A negative manipulation is one that I do notice, but because it is clumsy, overt, cliched. It is either a played out magic trick (the woman sawed in half) or a good trick performed poorly or bad (new) trick a trick that pleads with me to do too much work to make it work.
Can a good movie have negative manipulations? Sure. An otherwise good movie can have moments that we groan at (e.g., an all too obvious "save the cat" moment, cliche daddy-mommy issues to stimulate conflict, deus ex machinas, villains explaining they're evil plots in excruciating detail). A better movie, however, will not have these features.