General

We recently watched Independence Day with the kids, and I thought the exact same thing about that one.

I was surprised how well the movie still held up though. Hadn't seen it in like 15-20 years.

What ruined Raiders of the Lost Ark for me was when I realized that the entire story works without Indiana Jones. If he wasn’t in the movie, nothing important would change.

bonham2 wrote:

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

This was brought up in an episode of The Big Bang Theory, but it mainly hinges on the expectation that if Indy hadn't stolen the head of the staff Nazis would have correctly interpreted the Staff, dug in the right spot, and still have died for opening the Ark.

What ruins movies and TV as much as plot holes are the unrealistic plot devices: Someone goes to another country (or planet) and just happens to run into the person they need to find in order for the plot to move forward. The Quantum Realm must be awfully small (no pun intended) for all of the characters sucked there to end up within a few relative miles of where Janet previously landed. People with machine guns can't hit the broad side of a barn and get taken out by a guy with a handgun or less. Weapons fail at the most convenient time. All rescues happen just in the nick of time. No villain ever simply kills the protagonist - they keep them alive to witness the events. You're stretching my suspension of disbelief just a bit too far.

I recently read a headline about the most overused tropes in movies and TV. They didn't give examples, but they were clearly still in use. 30 years after Kirk gets a surprise offspring, Picard gets one as well. Quantumania has an evil henchman being redeemed in the end.

Don't get me started on bad science.

Accidentally sent this in a PM

> What ruined Raiders of the Lost Ark for me was when I realized that the entire story
> works without Indiana Jones. If he wasn’t in the movie, nothing important would
> change.
>

That "theory" is such BS. If they knew where to find the headpiece, they would have found the ark easily, and they probably wouldn't have opened it. The only way they found the headpiece was they followed IJ to Marion. He stops them from acquiring the headpiece, so they can't find the ark. They only knew the markings on one side because the bald dude burned only one side of the headpiece on his hand when he picked it up from the fire. That is why they were digging in the wrong spot. In other words, the ark is never found if IJ isn't there, and the US government never would have acquired it.

Also, the Nazis fully intended to fly the ark out immediately (no stopping on a remote island to open the ark). The only reason they didn't fly it out of there was because Indy blew up the plane.

lol. I love that episode of Big Bang Theory. I didn't even watch the movie but it was so funny to me. It made me wonder about it though. Like, I think in theory the movie can still be good even if this is true. Especially if the audience isn't aware of it, which presumably would be the case on a first viewing.

I had a thought about the og Star Wars recently. The scene where Darth Vader looks at the Falcon and then leaves. Why did he leave? If it was some routine ship capture that happens all the time then sure maybe, but he actually says out loud that he senses something then just up and leaves. He couldn't sense that a literal jedi was on board? Maybe the midichlorians made him do it. But that just goes to show why it's an awful plot device.

On second thought, I accidentally came up with an explanation while writing this. HE KNOWS. He purposefully left so he could face Obi Wan which would only be possible by letting him escape off the ship.

edit: I've actually never properly watched Episode II *in full* but the scene where Obi Wan is captured and Dooku spills everything to him struck me as such a bad scene. It basically removes all sympathy toward the jedi even if all the events in the movie doesn't already accomplish this. (I.e. The jedi utilizing a clone army of obviously shady origin and an assassination attempt made on the one jedi sent to investigate it) from the audience standpoint Dooku is obviously telling the truth otherwise the scene is pointless.

Also, when Anakin kills the sand people. Are we supposed to emphasize with them? Are they animals or people? They're in between somewhere? We don't know. That doesn't exist in real life.
Also I found anakin's plot to be a blatant case of woman in refrigerator.

edit: as much as I like Kylo Ren, the hilts on his saber are never used. And even if they were the mechanism would break. They are just there to look cool but at the same time create the illusion of making his saber seem shorter which in turn makes his attacks seen less dynamic relative to other lightsaber users.

Inglorious Bastards... and anything Tarantino after Jackie Brown except Django Unchained. Dude took a path I do not enjoy... and mostly stuck to it. Prior to that he was one of my favorite modern "filmmakers".

What about it? What path did he take? I loved Kill Bill (I know they were supposed to be one, but if I have to choose I prefer the 2nd one).

I know it's a stupid thing, but if you made many of the 80's and early 90's movies using today's available tech, they'd be like 5 minutes long:
Home Alone: Mom sends Kevin a text, tells him to hang tight.. The end

I was definitely going off The Big Bang Theory :). Hey, I learned more about Raiders of the Lost Ark!

The biggest plot failure in Star Wars 1 through 3 is that they never went back to free Annakin's mother. They didn't have enough money to buy her and Annakin on the first trip, but they could have gone back at any time over the next few years and bought her freedom. Instead, they left her there in slavery all that time.

Marvel didn't address the complete chaos that would have ensued if half the population of the earth disappeared overnight. Half of the politicians are gone. Half of the factory and retail workers are gone. Half of the farmers and commercial fishermen are gone. Yet all of their infrastructure is still in place. The world struggles to adjust to feeding, housing, and providing for only half the population. Maybe incentives have been offered to repopulate the planet. Five years later, Thanos is defeated and 4 billion people are back - after they've likely been declared legally dead. Miraculously, life on Earth goes back to normal almost immediately. Everyone just seems to have picked up where they left off. Peter Parker and his friends are back in high school. No mention is made of the millions of widows and widowers made from the event who probably remarried. People came back to find half of their family and friends are 5 years old than when they last saw them. Many came back to find family members and friends had died in those five years. All property owned by those who disappeared has been redistributed.