I just watched Weapons in theaters. The amount of hype and critical acclaim this movie got caused me an emotional response somewhere between rage and sorrow. I can definitely be a bit pedantic and nitpicky as a person. Still, I can also totally enjoy movies that make no sense and/or especially suspend disbelief for magic or world rule changes that the plot purposely introduces. And in fact, I did enjoy this movie somewhat; it was well shot, well-acted, and fun. 5-6/10. Entertaining but ultimately meaningless and without real themes or allegories because it was an idiot plot of the highest degree. This movie put some classic miscommunication-based rom-coms to shame in that regard. I don’t 100% agree with everything in this post, but it explains the general outline of the plot holes in the movie for those who have seen it or don’t care about spoilers.
I’m somewhat ok with people taking the perspective of “look i know this movie makes no sense but i really enjoyed it and thought the campyness/nonsensicalness added to it” and/or “I like this movie in spite of the plotholes”. That being said, the degree to which people seem to be able to enjoy vaguely serious-seeming movies despite massive, world-shattering plot holes doesn’t sit right with me. It feels like a socially acceptable form of wireheading. The average person has a slider of how much they care about whether or not things make any sense in the current moment that they can swing up and down wildly at will, without even realizing it. And yes I already knew this. I know what a blockbuster hollywood film looks like, I know people like ridiculous conspiracies, wasting all their time consuming brain rot, how the average voter chooses to vote, and yes i’ve met and engaged with a wide variety of people in my life. I still get triggered because it does matter to me that things make sense. I’m aware that it is a waste of time to loop about this and that it should update the reader more on my aspie traits than the state of the American public.
It’s also possible that most of the difference in ratings that viewers and critics gave the movie is due to them not agreeing with me about the plot holes being plot holes. This doesn’t make me feel much better because that would imply I’m on a completely different plane of reality, which is also probably true.
(This comment is probably out of scope for the forum. On the other hand, I generally think the forum would be better if people felt comfortable spewing more low effort garbage so i’m going to go for it but totally understand if people don’t want stuff like this polluting the forum.)
There are many stories I enjoy despite plot holes because the setting/characters/prose delight me so much that it’s fun to imagine what hidden factors could justify the plot holes — I can trust an author so much that I assume they’ll explain things later (or that there’s a hidden explanation they created for me to discover myself).
Recent examples include Sousou no Frieren (lots of symbolism and emotion to obscure thin worldbuilding, I feel so many feelings that I barely think about the plot) and Moonfall (written like a fable from the perspective of someone who doesn’t fully understand the world, so that I can imagine any plot holes may be due to something they don’t see).
This isn’t rational, but not all fiction is meant to be rational. And in some sense, isn’t all fiction “wireheading”? Even reading rationalfic is an escape of sorts, into a world unlike our own, one that is more interesting and fun to think about (on average).
I just watched Weapons in theaters. The amount of hype and critical acclaim this movie got caused me an emotional response somewhere between rage and sorrow. I can definitely be a bit pedantic and nitpicky as a person. Still, I can also totally enjoy movies that make no sense and/or especially suspend disbelief for magic or world rule changes that the plot purposely introduces. And in fact, I did enjoy this movie somewhat; it was well shot, well-acted, and fun. 5-6/10. Entertaining but ultimately meaningless and without real themes or allegories because it was an idiot plot of the highest degree. This movie put some classic miscommunication-based rom-coms to shame in that regard. I don’t 100% agree with everything in this post, but it explains the general outline of the plot holes in the movie for those who have seen it or don’t care about spoilers.
I’m somewhat ok with people taking the perspective of “look i know this movie makes no sense but i really enjoyed it and thought the campyness/nonsensicalness added to it” and/or “I like this movie in spite of the plotholes”. That being said, the degree to which people seem to be able to enjoy vaguely serious-seeming movies despite massive, world-shattering plot holes doesn’t sit right with me. It feels like a socially acceptable form of wireheading. The average person has a slider of how much they care about whether or not things make any sense in the current moment that they can swing up and down wildly at will, without even realizing it. And yes I already knew this. I know what a blockbuster hollywood film looks like, I know people like ridiculous conspiracies, wasting all their time consuming brain rot, how the average voter chooses to vote, and yes i’ve met and engaged with a wide variety of people in my life. I still get triggered because it does matter to me that things make sense. I’m aware that it is a waste of time to loop about this and that it should update the reader more on my aspie traits than the state of the American public.
It’s also possible that most of the difference in ratings that viewers and critics gave the movie is due to them not agreeing with me about the plot holes being plot holes. This doesn’t make me feel much better because that would imply I’m on a completely different plane of reality, which is also probably true.
(This comment is probably out of scope for the forum. On the other hand, I generally think the forum would be better if people felt comfortable spewing more low effort garbage so i’m going to go for it but totally understand if people don’t want stuff like this polluting the forum.)
Low-effort comment!
There are many stories I enjoy despite plot holes because the setting/characters/prose delight me so much that it’s fun to imagine what hidden factors could justify the plot holes — I can trust an author so much that I assume they’ll explain things later (or that there’s a hidden explanation they created for me to discover myself).
Recent examples include Sousou no Frieren (lots of symbolism and emotion to obscure thin worldbuilding, I feel so many feelings that I barely think about the plot) and Moonfall (written like a fable from the perspective of someone who doesn’t fully understand the world, so that I can imagine any plot holes may be due to something they don’t see).
This isn’t rational, but not all fiction is meant to be rational. And in some sense, isn’t all fiction “wireheading”? Even reading rationalfic is an escape of sorts, into a world unlike our own, one that is more interesting and fun to think about (on average).