Building off of yesterday's question, what's your particular threshold for invoking the "it's just a movie" defense of a plot hole, and which plot holes are impossible for you to ignore even with that defense?
Like, for me, I find the ending of Independence Day insanely dumb. I'm willing to go with the idea that these aliens have mastered interstellar travel and come all this way simply to wreak devastation and destructing. And you know what, I'm even willing to go with the fact that it's rather easy to destroy an entire alien ship simply by hitting it's one weak point. Hell, I'll even allow for the ridiculousness that since the ships are 15 miles wide, that the one Randy Quaid destroys must have shifted at least 7.5 miles in another direction before it crashed - otherwise it would have hit Area 51.
But you know what I can't ignore? The fact that Jeff Goldblum is able to hack into an alien computer and implant a virus using his Mac laptop. Ridiculous. I can invoke "It's just a movie" for a lot, but for some reason that straw breaks the camel's back.
Conversely, even though I'm sure 95% of what the computers in Live Free or Die Hard do is ridiculous, I'm able to just shut off my brain and go with the flow for everything in that movie. Go figure.
So what examples can you think of where a particularly ridiculous plot point pulled you out a movie, and what is the most ludicrous twist you HAVE been able to swallow?!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
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I know a lot of people who couldn't follow Pixar's Up past the dogs flying planes. Talking dogs was fine but once they hopped into a cockpit a lot of people tuned out.
ReplyDeleteI would argue almost every episode of the UK's Doctor Who in its current incarnation (2005-present) features at least one head-slapping moment of implausibility, but the show's sheer enthusiasm lets it get away with it every damn time.
ReplyDeleteI think the TARDIS towing a stricken spaceship away from a planet literally being sucked into a black hole is the one that stands out, with the Doctor casually remarking 'oh, black holes don't affect the TARDIS' as he sailed merrily away with the ship in tow.
With regards movies, I'll have a think back over some Big Dumb Movies because no doubt there's countless examples there :)
the ending of AVATAR. I mean, come on, they turned Jack into a Navi and transferred his soul!!!That was just too easy and lame. It would have been bittersweet if he had stayed a human...
ReplyDeleteEasily Timecop. "Same matter can't occupy same space!" Um... what?!
ReplyDeleteWhen Harrison Ford's character uses his kid's iPod in FIREWALL to steal $100 million from his bank...
ReplyDeleteWhen Kevin Costner bought it at the end of Message In A Bottle. It is one of the few movie deaths I have actually laughed at because it was so ridiculous. Of course it's my own fault for watching a Nicholas Sparks film in the first place. Mea culpa.
ReplyDeleteWar of the Worlds remake.
ReplyDeleteOh no, my son runs into a ball of fire!!! Oh he's okay in the end... what?
Sorry gotta rip on the last section of Dark Knight. "Cellphone mapping super computer" that Morgan Freeman threw together. Cool idea, but I felt they pulled it out of no where.
Gattaca!
ReplyDelete*SEMI-SPOILERS* and *POSSIBLE TMI*
When a major twist hinges on a supposedly right-handed person using their left hand for a specific function that MY PERSONAL right-handed self actually uses his left hand for, I call megabullshit. Took me right out of the movie (which is otherwise excellent, so I forgive, though I do not forget).
Taken-- seems to me kidnapping wealthy american girls, forcing them into prosititution at constructions sights and/or auctioning them off to fancy rich guys-- is a pretty bizarre way to run a criminal ring. Why not just sell drugs or shake down small businesses- or even sell counterfiet pocketbooks- that seems much less risky and probably more lucrative.
ReplyDelete@Peter Dwight I felt that was pretty over the top as well. But imo it also has overtones of the Bush administration's war on terror...
ReplyDelete@eve -- There actually exists a sex slave trade in Europe/the Middle East/etc. So there are really criminals out there doing fucked up shit like that. But I digress...
ReplyDeleteI rarely, if ever, pull out my "it's just a movie" card. I can literally suspend my disbelief for anything, and just carry on. The only thing that takes me out of a film is a continuity error. I recently had an issue with (500) Days of Summer. I am quoting this comment from another blog I posted it on...
"As much as I love that [scene set to Hall & Oates] in (500) DAYS OF SUMMER, there's one part that ruins it for me because an extra fucks up her choreography. I know it's uber nitpicky, but I don't give a shit.
If you watch as everyone starts swooping in around him for the home-run cheer, there is a woman in a green dress that moves towards him, then stops and backs up for a fraction of a second to let someone in front of her, before going in to waves her arms slightly later that everyone else. It's like she didn't commit completely to the scene, and as a result it becomes overtly obvious that it is all fake. That world they were creating breaks down because of her and pulls me out of the moment. It goes from being believable, to unbelievable in a fraction of a second. And not because of a cartoon bird.
As I said, uber nitpicky...but I'm wicked observant. I wish the editors had noticed it in post, because I couldn't enjoy the scene as much as I wanted to."
@Monster Zero -- Doctor Who jumps the shark nearly every episode, but it's freaking brilliant and just something you accept as part of the universe.
ReplyDeleteWhen the ceiling fans are on in Jurassic Park after the power goes out. Not a story thing, but still, it angers me every time!
ReplyDeleteDie Hard 4 is a good example of fake technology. Do I believe a computer hacker can open up a freeway tunnel in ten seconds using a lap top? No. Do I believe a hacking protocol known as “fire sale” is common knowledge among hackers. No. Do I believe a computer nerd can access 3D renderings of ultra secret government information from his grandma’s basement? No. (even if it is Kevin Smith).
ReplyDeleteAnyone see Hackers (1995)? I’m still waiting for the wrist watch that can turn stoplights on and off. Or the Virtual Reality video game that they play in the underground club.
I think the main problem is if the movie does not follow its own internal logic. I mean, in real life, we know that computers cannot do half the things they do in the movies. But in the movie world, if it is consistent and every character accepts it, it makes it easier to accept.
ReplyDelete@Nicholas - yeah, I agree. I love the show to bits and back again so I'm firmly in the 'forgive the madness' camp :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point, actually - when something gets away with an auadcious or plain loony plot twist because it knows (it KNOWS) you love it so much that it can get away with it. Like a cute pet who just did his business on the carpet.
@ Nicholas...OMG I can't stand inconsistencies in movies either! I'm the kind of person that finds all the typos in novels for fun, so seeing something in a movie that editors missed really irritate the piss outta me.
ReplyDeleteAs for "it's just a movie" moments...I recently got Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull in my Netflix queue (no way I was going to pay $9 a ticket AND pay a sitter to watch that tripe in theatres) and most of that movie really left me smacking my forehead. Some funny moments and good dialogue, but I have my reservations about how Indiana Jones can defeat laws of physics and come out unscathed. When he tumbles around inside an old fridge and lives through an atomic bomb, that was it for me. Nuff said!