Online film discourse has been rife with problems for years now, not least its heavy use of ridiculous jargon. Those unfortunate enough to have encountered film bros will be familiar with egregious complaints about political agendas, amusement park movies, and worst of all, that a film has too many plot holes. This critique is too shallow and misses the core reason we engage with film.
Film is not, and has never been, a medium that aims for moral and ethical precision. If people wanted order, they’d read a philosophy book. They don’t because philosophy is boring. People watch films because they want to relate to the characters within them. People watch films because they want to see things that are both beautiful (nature, romance, physicality) and ugly (horror, death, violence). People watch films, in short, because they want to connect with the material on screen emotionally. If they feel, on a sentimental level, that they resonate with a film, they’ll happily justify any contrivance or logical error. This is how people work in life, and this is how they work with fiction too.
To give an example of this phenomenon, Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) is the most beloved film of its (extremely popular) franchise, and one of the most beloved films of the last three decades. I would posit that not only does it have individual plot holes, but it is holistically incoherent. The crux of its story relies on time travel, yet no such system exists in the film. Not only that, it is absurd that Fred and George never question why Ron sleeps with ‘Peter Pettigrew’.
Some films have been lampooned as nonsensical despite being far more objectively cohesive in plot. Why have these films been slated while Prisoner of Azkaban receives so much praise? Because Prisoner of Azkaban is magical (quite literally), charmingly funny, filled with interesting imagery, and does a wonderful job at characterising its protagonists. People care far more about the aesthetics and the theme of a film than they do the particulars of its plot. That is not to say that people do not care about consistency in general. Character and thematic inconsistencies can be quite disconcerting because they detract from the elements of the story that people relate to and become energised about. That is why The Last Jedi (2017) is so unpopular. But plot inconsistencies have become an easy way for people to bash things without having to introspect on why they actually don’t like them.
This blatant refusal to critically engage in film proves people don’t actually care about plot holes. If you find yourself complaining about them without reason, please find a new hobby.
Photo by Aditya Vyas on Unsplash.