What plot holes could be adequately explained away with a single shot or line of dialogue?

wjrii@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 195 points –

"We've almost got some of their telecommunications cracked; the front end even runs on a laptop!" The Mac that sunk a thousand ships could have been merely clunky product placement, not a bafflingly stupid tech-on-film moment.

"Senator Amidala is in a coma. Even if she recovers, she will never be the same and may not live long." But no.... George had to have his god-damned funeral scene, even if it demanded Simone Biles levels of mental gymnastics to save Carrie Fisher's most emotionally resonant moment from ROTJ, as well as one of the more intriguing OT lore dumps.

Bonus points if a scene was scripted or filmed and got cut.

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I hate it when storytelling pulls me out of the story, and back into the theater.

It’s a balancing act though, isn’t it?

Don't mean to be argumentative, but generally speaking? No, it's not.

Either you're in the story, and enjoying it, or you're in the theater, noticing the seat you're sitting in, and not paying so much attention to the movie being shown you.

A good Storyteller keeps you in the story, and doesn't let you escape until the end credits.

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Okay, I guess I see that, but allowing that the storyteller fucked it up, some failures of storytelling stick in my craw worse than others.

Okay, I guess I see that, but allowing that the storyteller fucked it up, some failures of storytelling stick in my craw worse than others.

Me as well. For some you just smirk negatively at, others you cringe at, and others you get pissed off at.

But all of those can pull you out of the story, and back into the movie theater. They're all bad, just in varying degrees.

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I remember my reaction to the sword moment in Pacific Rim the first time I saw it: This is dumb and I don't care. I was taken out of the story, but it was so cool that I pulled myself back into it.

With TV shows, they don't want to trap you, they want you to come back later to hear more. It's rare for someone to read an entire novel in one sitting, but a good story is one you'll pick up again later. With theatre, they give you an intermission so you don't pee on the seats. That used to be the case with movies, too.

A good Storyteller tells a good story. That's it.

I remember my reaction to the sword moment in Pacific Rim the first time I saw it: This is dumb and I don’t care. I was taken out of the story

Could you elaborate about what was it about that pulled you out of the story?

In my case I had the same reaction you described, but for me it was like "wait the other pilot wouldn't know that thing exists?", and I got pulled out of the story for a moment. It did affect my enjoyment of watching the movie.

If I was the editor for the movie I wouldn't have included that. And if they wanted some other deus ex machina moment to surprise the audience with, I would have tried something else.

With theatre, they give you an intermission so you don’t pee on the seats.

Um, that wouldn't pull you out of the story, as at that point the story is paused, for you to go to the restroom.

To be pulled out of the story, you have to be watching the story, and then see something completely wrong with the storytelling, while watching it.

That used to be the case with movies, too.

I remember them, as well as the music in the beginning before the movie actually starts to get everyone in their seats.

Star Trek The Motion Picture was one of the last movies I've seen in the theater that had that.

And even today if you watch the movie Ben-Hur on your TV you'll see a lot of times they play the bathroom intermission break halfway through the movie.

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The Tv stations play the intermission? I'd think they would just cut that and jam more commercials in there.

Well, that's a clear sign you haven't seen Pacific Rim. It's a dumb ability to have without using up until that point, especially given everything that led to it. But it's fucking awesome, so I rebuilt my willing sense of disbelief just to enjoy it some more.

You said you dislike it when you're reminded you're in a theatre. Intermission is the story literally just saying "you're in a theatre, go do something else for a few minutes and come back later." The play isn't good because you're unable to leave. It's good because you DO come back later.

Well, that’s a clear sign you haven’t seen Pacific Rim.

But, but..., I have..., multiple times.

And I saw the sequel movie, as well as the Netflix series.

Everything I saw fit into the world building/lore, and nothing pulled me out of the movie, with the one semi-exception of the sword scene.

You said you dislike it when you’re reminded you’re in a theatre.

No, I was stating that I hate being pulled out of the story. If I'm at home in the living room and the same thing happens, I hate that too.

Being reminded of where I am is a after side effect, and not the problem in and of itself. It's being pulled away from the story in the first place thats the problem.

That's an important distinction.

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