Blockbuster Movies
One Upping Each Other
...But Falling Into Plot Holes
Lat week I had the great pleasure of viewing Star Trek Into Darkness, not once but twice.The movie was a roller coaster ride of entertainment, as can be vouched by my own review. However one thing generally popped up, plot holes.
Now I'd like to make myself perfectly clear, I may be a big movie buff and love dissecting films but by no means do I really give a crap about plot holes. I mean we have to face it, what we are watching isn't real and on top of that it is crammed in a measly two hours, there are bound to be parts rife with mistakes.
Still though, these plot holes in the latest Trek film stood out. Not because they were worse than any other plot holes in every other genre film, but because this was the last straw. Gradually as summer or any blockbuster films have raised the bar, they have also failed to patch up clear holes in the plot.
To discuss this creeping issue I decide to begin from a point where Blockbuster movies changed, a point where Blockbuster movie either diverged into crap or serious pieces of art. The poin I refer to is Batman Begins, why? because it is the first part in a trilogy that has influenced the next few decades of mainstream cinema.
Personally for me, The Dark Knight Trilogy is the Godfather Trilogy of our generation. You may despair at how standards might have fallen, but for every thing bad with each of the three movies there is everything bad about the third Godfather film hence negating and in some ways equalizing the two trilogies (at least in terms of influence if not in terms of class, since let's face it Godfather I and II will never be replaced).
While Batman Begins may have started the trilogy, it never gets the same respect that the instant Joker classic Dark Knight is or the hype filled Dark Knight Rises. In my opinion this movie was a harder sell and if we look through the plot, it is actually the most complete film of the three and by far the much better.
Yes, you just read the above statement. It's a cold hard fact to admit, but Dark Knight would have not been elevated to the iconic status it has if it were not for Heath Ledgers...performance (what you thought it deserved credit for his death, I'm not that cruel or blind). Yes the film had a myriad of wonderful things but Ledger above all elevated it to another level.
Still it had dozens of plot holes. Once Batman saves Rachael as she is thrown by the Joker from Wayne Towers, Batman is neither shown to return to check on the safety of Bruce Wayne's guests and neither has Joker done anything else within the penthouse including trying to find Harvey Dent.
Joker's plan to kill Rachel and have Harvey go bat-shit (pun intended) crazy relied on a lot of chances including Batman being in time to save Harvey, Gordon and the Police to be late and most importantly having the most retarded officer stand guard with him in the interrogation room rather than watch him from across the glass. Sorry if I spoiled your image of a still epic film.
Then again even Batman Begins has its own plot holes but not as many, while don't get me started on Dark Knight Rises. Just scour the web for the millions who complain about how Bruce got back to Gotham from the hell hole without any money or how he is alive when even with eject he would have had barely anytime to run away from a nuclear blast.
There's more but my focus is on the whole set of Blockbuster movies since. I am not going to list every plot hole I find, you can scour the net yourself for most here. My only concern is how frequent they become with each movie.
It's not that Plot Holes haven't been abundant, the problem is their increase in an era where there would be expectancy of better writing. Better Writing, your probably laughing at me. Why should I expect better writing, when the top ten grossing movies every year barely have any originality about them. Most either are remakes, reboots, sequels and most profoundly adapted from comics and books.
What can I do about it? Nothing, once again with many of my serious posts, this is just a rant which began as a trial to write something meaningful but ends up all emotionally jumbled.
All in all, it doesn't matter, it never does. As mentioned above, movie plot holes are a part of the cinematic experience it shows us that the movie world in its absolute is not real. After all why do you think this article refers to blockbusters, Indie movies that reek of realism rarely ever have multiple noticeable plot holes.
And I still love watching these movies, because they bring the greatest parts of my childhood to reality. They gives us a fantasy look into worlds and things we may never see (I haven't lost hope that one day a Superhero will be born :D). Even then a part of me can't help worry that with each great movie a bit of intelligence or as Spock (a character from the movie that spawned this article) would put it 'Logic' is lost. Think about it when you watch these movies a second or maybe more than second time (leave the first, so as you can just enjoy the experience).
'Nuff Said
Aneesh Raikundalia
Now I'd like to make myself perfectly clear, I may be a big movie buff and love dissecting films but by no means do I really give a crap about plot holes. I mean we have to face it, what we are watching isn't real and on top of that it is crammed in a measly two hours, there are bound to be parts rife with mistakes.
Still though, these plot holes in the latest Trek film stood out. Not because they were worse than any other plot holes in every other genre film, but because this was the last straw. Gradually as summer or any blockbuster films have raised the bar, they have also failed to patch up clear holes in the plot.
To discuss this creeping issue I decide to begin from a point where Blockbuster movies changed, a point where Blockbuster movie either diverged into crap or serious pieces of art. The poin I refer to is Batman Begins, why? because it is the first part in a trilogy that has influenced the next few decades of mainstream cinema.
Personally for me, The Dark Knight Trilogy is the Godfather Trilogy of our generation. You may despair at how standards might have fallen, but for every thing bad with each of the three movies there is everything bad about the third Godfather film hence negating and in some ways equalizing the two trilogies (at least in terms of influence if not in terms of class, since let's face it Godfather I and II will never be replaced).
Plot Holes have been abundant in a series considered to have some of the best writing (no doubt), What worries me is about the poorly written films.
While Batman Begins may have started the trilogy, it never gets the same respect that the instant Joker classic Dark Knight is or the hype filled Dark Knight Rises. In my opinion this movie was a harder sell and if we look through the plot, it is actually the most complete film of the three and by far the much better.
Yes, you just read the above statement. It's a cold hard fact to admit, but Dark Knight would have not been elevated to the iconic status it has if it were not for Heath Ledgers...performance (what you thought it deserved credit for his death, I'm not that cruel or blind). Yes the film had a myriad of wonderful things but Ledger above all elevated it to another level.
Still it had dozens of plot holes. Once Batman saves Rachael as she is thrown by the Joker from Wayne Towers, Batman is neither shown to return to check on the safety of Bruce Wayne's guests and neither has Joker done anything else within the penthouse including trying to find Harvey Dent.
Unfortunately the realism of The Dark Knight movies still couldn't abandon plot holes that also pervade the Batman comics. Most give Superman grief for his Clark Kent identity schtick but Batman never gets chastised. Cause he's Baaatmmmaaaannn!!!
Joker's plan to kill Rachel and have Harvey go bat-shit (pun intended) crazy relied on a lot of chances including Batman being in time to save Harvey, Gordon and the Police to be late and most importantly having the most retarded officer stand guard with him in the interrogation room rather than watch him from across the glass. Sorry if I spoiled your image of a still epic film.
Then again even Batman Begins has its own plot holes but not as many, while don't get me started on Dark Knight Rises. Just scour the web for the millions who complain about how Bruce got back to Gotham from the hell hole without any money or how he is alive when even with eject he would have had barely anytime to run away from a nuclear blast.
There's more but my focus is on the whole set of Blockbuster movies since. I am not going to list every plot hole I find, you can scour the net yourself for most here. My only concern is how frequent they become with each movie.
It's not that Plot Holes haven't been abundant, the problem is their increase in an era where there would be expectancy of better writing. Better Writing, your probably laughing at me. Why should I expect better writing, when the top ten grossing movies every year barely have any originality about them. Most either are remakes, reboots, sequels and most profoundly adapted from comics and books.
There's a lot more I want to say, but I can't remember under the ranting
What can I do about it? Nothing, once again with many of my serious posts, this is just a rant which began as a trial to write something meaningful but ends up all emotionally jumbled.
All in all, it doesn't matter, it never does. As mentioned above, movie plot holes are a part of the cinematic experience it shows us that the movie world in its absolute is not real. After all why do you think this article refers to blockbusters, Indie movies that reek of realism rarely ever have multiple noticeable plot holes.
As more and more blockbuster movies release, I cannot help use this expression.
And I still love watching these movies, because they bring the greatest parts of my childhood to reality. They gives us a fantasy look into worlds and things we may never see (I haven't lost hope that one day a Superhero will be born :D). Even then a part of me can't help worry that with each great movie a bit of intelligence or as Spock (a character from the movie that spawned this article) would put it 'Logic' is lost. Think about it when you watch these movies a second or maybe more than second time (leave the first, so as you can just enjoy the experience).
'Nuff Said
Aneesh Raikundalia
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