July 26, 2013

"That's not a plot hole. Allow me to explain."

Scott Ney explains the movie device of having the characters themselves take note of the plot hole you the audience member are going to notice so there can be dialogue bullshitting about why it actually should not be viewed as a plot hole. This device, once you start noticing it, is much more irritating than the plot holes you might have been able to ignore.
I first noticed this tactic being employed in... "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" [which goes into] underworld to rescue Jack Sparrow, following his death at the climax of "Dead Man's Chest." Since that film ended with Captain Barbossa's resurrection, courtesy of voodoo priestess Tia Dalma, two comic relief sidekicks can't help but inquire, as anyone in the audience who's even kept track of the plot might as well, why she didn't apply the same treatment to Captain Jack? Ah, she answers, but Barbossa was only dead in spirit, his body still earthbound, while Jack has gone to the other side body and soul....
Via Metafilter, where somebody says:
God, this drives me nuts. The last Star Trek film was full of it. Like ten minutes in, when Scotty was freaking out about how being underwater would wreck the Enterprise, I leaned over to my husband and said, "Pointing out how stupid this is doesn't excuse how stupid this is."
And here's every question Ellen Page asks in "Inception":




To paraphrase one of Page's questions: Who'd want to be stuck in a movie for 2 hours?