Adventure
Adventure is always the one curious explorer going to various parts of the world or different landmarks and even hunting long lost ruins of forgotten civilizations. The two best examples of adventure is Indiana Jones and Around The World In 30 Days which both emphasize seeing all that was never previously exposed for finding things that were concealed for very long lengths of time. Any adventure is the sheer opposite of a campy film that emphasizes a series of events happening in a planted location, adventure could even be a space explorer wanting to know what is beyond the boundaries of our world or solar system and maybe there are challenges, dangers and other things upon his adventure yet that doesn't stop him from exploring or being curious. The more adventure, the more fantastical the tale most would say.
Apocalyptic
Apocalyptic often has elements of events and disasters beyond human control or sometimes within our control but overcome by insanity or sometimes by stupidity, this genre stretches back as far as the Babylonian tale 'The Legend of Gilgamesh' and even in the Holy Bible as 'The Great Flood' a real historical event. In Japanese animation, apocalyptic often has to do with war, mystically prophesied events or major characters with super powers that unfortunately led to the end of the world. Most apocalypses in American cinemas have to do with natural disaster phenomenons, the ones from the 80's on into the 90's had to do with man's most violent aspects taking over the earth reflected in films like The Postman, video games like Fall Out also became shining examples of apocalyptic stories, The more recent 00's example is The Book of Eli, in any case these films reflect a human imposed apocalypse. Now trending is the idea of a biological apocalypse where humans are turned into the living dead known widely as a zombie apocalypse, the survivors are essentially at war with the reanimated dead and have to think of ways to survive though they aren't able to identify the threat until late in the story when the few survivors realize they are up against zombies.
Action
Action seems to always be about a top secret agent, a black ops soldier on the run, a warrior trying to escape confinement or out for revenge. Action always features a couple of fight scenes, bloodshed, explosions, a covert agent kicking all kinds of tail, a ninja-styled agent taking out foes before they can detect him and maybe even a sword battle. Another common sort of action flick or story is often called a war film which features any historical war or even a war not in our history but regardless, there are always strong willed survivors in these wars. Action often uses weapons but there are films where the martial art is the weapon known commonly as 'kung-fu movies' which goes into Chinese history, action universally features the most chaotic moments in anything and the most fierce battles.
Romance
Romance is a lot more into the heart, a man and a woman who meet and start to become interested in one another, then it becomes about how the man charms the woman, enchants or even bedazzles her to fall for him. Often the man in the film is a gentleman as is expected, that gentleman goes to great lengths to prove to the woman he loves her or that she is the beacon in his life. Sometimes it can be about a woman who formerly desired vanity but later learned that what she wanted most was right in front of her the whole time and thus submits her life into the charms and passionate love of the man she was a good friend to and decides to marry him. Romance films are always heartfelt and sometimes emotionally driven as in there is drama, tragedy and other things that influence the film but in one way or another it is about the couples finding their way to each other in heart and soul.
Comedy
Comedy focuses a lot on a world of ignorance and is like a living caricature of people's ultimate flaws, films like Zoolander, Idiocracy, Austin Powers or even The Big Bang Theory takes on one or another aspect of pointing out shortcomings and ignorance. Comedy can either take on stereotypes or the most annoying flaws about other people in a very clever way and often what it is like to live in a primitive minded reality or essentially a far less cultured one. Comedy can be people trying to cover up their disguise in a very clumsy or not well thought out way because of spur of the moment, much of today's comedy is generally crasp, dirty or dark yet it seems that comedy takes whatever is going on in the world today and makes light of it.
Tragedy
Tragedy looks at the worst case scenarios always, it reflects on humanity's worst aspects and shows how far it will go to wreck the world we love until nothing remains. Often, tragedy is seen as the loss of a loved on in a violent way or by an incurable disease, the protagonist who loses someone dear to them is wracked with pain and anguish to the point they either attempt suicide, seek revenge, or see that person's vision of a better world and try to embody creating that better reality in honor of their memory. Tragedy could be about a hero who feels guilty he failed to save lives or he led to their destruction believing he was cursed and thus wants to vanish into solitude, other themes of tragedy are strong in apocalyptic stories or in tales about everyone vanishing from the world in one night so their pain is coming to terms they are all alone now.
Mystery
Mystery is found in a lot of films with detectives or horrors but outside of them, mystery starts with curiosity, someone trying to contact the protagonst but gets nailed by the villian before he has a chance to reach him, sometimes it can be someone trying to smear the protagonist's ancestor and other times it can be influenced by a loud event that makes the protagonist want to get to the bottom of what happened or is happening so they can get back to a normal life again. Popular mystery stories feature clues which in old days involved words on paper, pictures with hidden or unnoticed images and even hushed up secret alleyway conversations mentioning keywords leading to the plot source, today it has symbolism which meant something that is rarely shared any longer, secret things in cultures and stories with hidden messages. The best part of mystery is the answer is not revealed until practically the very end of the story, but if done shortly before, then the protagonist is left with a choice as to what to do or go from there.
Thriller
Thriller often is a story featuring a deranged individual or psychopath with creepy moments, disturbing slow-burn moments working chills down your spine or even the jack-in-box jump scare moments which can be exercised in any fashion. In some films, thrillers feature dangerous individuals like criminals, dirty politicians, black ops commanders, or other scary people whom the protagonist doesn't want to get caught by as they try to find the truth behind a conspiracy, try to rescue a fortune or find and rescue an individual who was stolen a long while ago. These films can have it to where the individual is in a race against the clock before the antagonist reaches their office where the protagonist snuck in to get information or whatever the need to bring that antagonist down. Thrillers are always filled with heart pounding and racing moments with sweat trickling down the audience's face as they watch it, we find ourselves saying, 'get out of there. get out!!! Oh my god!' or 'no, don't open that door. get the heck away from it stupid!' and more than often the character isn't very intelligent or gets caught halfway and struggles to get free of the attacker. Old thrillers like H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe or Stephen King are more often slow burners with gruesome moments every now and again but often featuring a race against fate to survive the horrors or it can be some form of superstitious designed fate where the character got into something best left buried and ends up getting chased by it until it ensnares and kills him or he manages to outwit it and survive.
Noir
Noir is sometimes known as crime drama or crime drama/thriller which also in some cases has conspiracies, mysteries, sexy femme fatales, a mobster with the city in his pocket, a looney villian and often the protagonist is some sort of beat cop. In noirs, its a war against the criminal underworld, the protagonist often has a hot and generally worried girlfriend who he must protect as much as he must his own family. High speed chases, thwarting attempted murder, rape, a bank robbery and even trying to dismantle a rigged bomb are all within the realm of noir films and the detective is never the most respected guy, just someone the celebrated cops can pawn off low priority jobs on so that the real villians always have an escape and loophole at their disposal. That beat cop more often is the most decent cop there is as he is very 'by-the-book' kind of guy, these kind of stories rarely end in a sad way as the era of their introduction always had a resolution of a satisfying kind instead of a guy returning to a broken home landing back where he started though without a girlfriend and back to a crappy paycheck as his buddies took credit for the case he cracked (which belongs to some newer noir films), overall, noir always deals with the judicial realm and its opposite the criminal underworld.
Horror
Horror is basically like a thriller but is more focused on inescapable fate where the majority of characters perish and maybe one survives but if good enough for one story, it will go on with a sequel where the survivor is the first to die in the next story. Horrors are often filled with serial killers on the loose, monsters going on a slaying rampage, psychopaths methodically lopping off victims with almost no one to get the word out about their evil, a lot of blood is spilled in a horror. Some horrors can even have the living dead or ghosts returning beyond the grave for revenge of some form killing and mutilating their victims as they go about forcing their fear on the world. One brand of horror is dark fiction but that is less about fear or dying and has more to do with the world of the cursed and damned.
Dark Fiction
Dark fiction is pretty close to major fiction though it involves more a world where only the monstrous and damned live, some of these want to live a normal life or be free of the curse. Often the member of this underworld will tell a tale about their life as one of the cursed and damned, the most famous of course is Lestat De Lioncourt and other tales could feature where there are factional disputes, civil wars and otherwise much like our world but is an every day reality in theirs. Tales of mad scientists chasing after impossible theories, tales of monsters born or created to a world where society made them into a monster, common stereotypical tales feature the cursed being trying to manipulate a mortal being into a trap using charm to lure them.
Bizarre Fiction
Bizarre fiction often fits into children's films as it only seems to make any sense there, bizarre fiction may feature superstitions brought to life or the absurd and highly unlikely becoming real. Movies like Kazam or Jumanji are strong examples of bizarre fiction, making any ridiculous idea into a realistic event or tool thus it drives everyone batty and even the novel 'A Light in the Attic' or 'Falling Up' are part of bizarre fiction. Ideas so far-fetched that to become real then reality itself would seem less real.
Introspective Fiction
One's view of themselves or their view of the events that took place both desolate and horrific tends to take many maddening twists until their mind is shattered by the pangs of reality. In some cases it could be based on a serial killer's twisted view of logic and passion but most often has to do with someone without knowledge of what is real and what is merely assumption. Sometimes what they forgot is too dark or traumatizing to recall making it all the better they don't recall should their world be rendered to ruin upon the memory. In rare cases, introspective fiction is about someone standing beside their darkest side which in time becomes their poltergeist if they aren't careful, having to face off of against the worst side of people and themselves while trying to realized the facts is all part of one deck in this genre. Often the mightiest in forces of protagonism versus antagonism is the individual versus their worst fears embodied by a great rival or a jealous acquaintance who'd use what they fear most to harm them or those they've grown an attachment to, all which from their perspective seems like forces of chaos battling them and their peaceful lives only turning out to be their struggles against that which try to wreck their lives.
Mystic Fiction
In some mystic fiction there is antagonism towards the holy powers, angels or demons where the only saviors are the nephilim or super humans. Others show where the angels hear the pleas of mortals as their world is being flipped upside down by demons and those who succumbed to their power. The remainder are about conceited beings on high who will not acknowledge the perils, tribulations and the bottomless suffering of the mortals below thus leaving cherubs to intervene on their behalf against forces that are colossal and costing countless lives. Often the fiction features the battles of the forces and good and evil that go forth to rend the face of the earth to becoming unrecognizable.
Superbiotic Fiction
Superbiotic fiction typically features superheroes in spandex or armored tight suits, the villains are often clad as common lowlives with seemingly no other reason to be except to disrupt society. Superheroes try to create utopia but the villains make that excessively difficult to make real as they have a tireless need to raise hell on earth. Not all heroes are super powered though, some just have really good tech, training or a superior will to overcome adversity where villains are either crazy, angry or pure evil. A heroes acceptance is never immediate for they are painted as vigilantes and cops are like workers who's job is taken by foreigners or machines, they don't like their jobs being done for them one bit so they respond by trying to take the hero down. In the end however the police see the vigilante as a hero instead of some mischief making villain.