Do You Get Upset By Illogical Details In Movies?

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I notice I seem to get more irritated by details that don´t "fit", in movies or TV, than most people. If the details don´t match up, I can´t believe the big picture, whereas I notice how readily other people disregard little things, in a desire to see the big picture.

For instance, I recently saw the "Rome" series- (a British series on HBO); I saw it on dvd, because so many people had raved about it- (and I tend to like movies with a historical background). Although there were some interesting parts to it, I got wrapped up in certain things that didn´t "fit". When Caesar was killed, it really upset me that he didn´t say "Et tu, Brute?" He could have said it in English, of course. I don´t know, but somehow I didn´t have a feeling of closure because he never uttered these very famous words on the series. Do they figure people just don´t know or care about things like that?

But what really irritated me, was that in the 2nd half, the teenager Octavian suddenly grew up and became a man- (i.e., he became a few years older only), but they got a new actor, so he "grew up" and became a new person altogether! Not only did the new Octavian not look anything like the old Octavian, but he had a totally different voice, speaking style and inflection than the old Octavian! Whereas, Vorenus´children- who were younger- didn´t grow up at all, they stayed the same age. (And younger children tend to grow and change more quickly than older children). Basically, this Octavian-discrepancy ruined the whole 2nd part for me. (Among other things, which I won´t get into).

Well...I have this problem a lot with entertainment. And people give me that look and say "relax. It´s only a MOVIE!"

Does anyone else have a bigger problem with these sorts of discrepancies than the average person seems to?

yeah! i do that all the time!! like i was watching some episodes of Freaks and Geeks last night and I got annoyed because the story takes place in 1980, and the one of the teenagers in the movie who was 18 was trying to get a fake id so that he could get in a bar.... but in 1980, the drinking age was 18!! !! !! !! it got me really annoyed..... and this happens everytime i watch a movie....

Well, seeing as how I enjoy some kinds of silly sci-fi, I can forgive some illogical details. However, I had a big problem with Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds. Mainly because there's no explanation whatsoever for the birds suddenly being able to rise up and launch coordinated assaults on the humans. They didn't even use the cheesy and cliched "nuclear testing screwed things up" explanation... maybe because that was indeed a cliche at the time, but I would've liked some kind of reason, other than "they're fed up with humans." Unlike so many other people, that movie failed to grip me.

There are other movies which I find ridiculous as well, like many of the James Bond films.

It is usually just a minor annoyance. But......... there was this one Katie Holmes movie that helped me understand why someone like Elvis would take out a gun and shoot his TV. It was about this disfunctional family that somehow, miraculously comes together at the very end as a perfectly happy family. Blech!
That remindes me of a Jessica Lang movie that was much along the same theme, so I guess it happens more often than I thought.

Yes, but I can't think of any examples at the moment.

[quote="Cyberman"] However, I had a big problem with Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds. Mainly because there's no explanation whatsoever for the birds suddenly being able to rise up and launch coordinated assaults on the humans. [quote]
Two words: The Happening
Wow, this is a bigger problem for me than I thought!

oh yeah i hate those "action" or "fighting" movies; theyre sooo fake, theyre stupid.. like prison break, 24, any james bonds, mission impossibles, the transporters etc......

Yes!! !

My mother tells me I ruin movies for everyone because I always freak out over everything illogical in them.

For instance, when someone in a scary movie could easily run away and be saved from everything but instead they just stand there screaming. So I ask "why?" and my mother always says if the actors did that then it wouldn't be a movie. Why have a movie in the first place when it makes no sense!?

YES!!

Like in the TV series of Merlin, it annoyed me that Merlin and Prince Arthur were both teenagers, when Merlin is supposed to be all old and Arthur is a little kid. It makes NO SENSE!!

I can actually often solve the problems that characters have, LOL. Like on Friends, when a woman said that Monica had to let her have the last wedding dress in their size or else she'd book the band on the day of the wedding, I worked out that logically, there's one of the band and multiple dresses, so it would be better to give the woman the dress, keep the band, and find the same dress online (which would probably be cheaper too). That's what I would have done, anyway.

I tend to be quite cynical about how things just HAPPEN to work out a certain way in movies. Like on Back To The Future, you travel in time, and BAM, right next to you a newspaper with today's date suddenly becomes available, every time! Way too coincidental.

Personally- I don't care at all. It's fictional, they can do whatever they want. I heard people didn't like 10,000 BC (the movie) because it was historically inaccurate, but I didn't care. I really liked it.

I haven't seen that movie, and I doubt I ever will... the title alone is an insult to the audience's intelligence. It's like "OMG, this movie has something HAPPENING in it!"

As I read these posts I can see my children's and friends' eyes rolling. I ruin movies for everyone. I don't mean to, but it just drives me crazy when they take such liberties and think that I am dumb enough to look past it.

I also hate when people use incorrect grammar, especially in songs. You and I where it would be grammatically correct to say You and Me. I watch the news and read the papers, correcting grammar as I go. I have learned, though, thanks to a wonderful mentor in college, that you don't correct someone's grammar when they are talking to you. That is one of my rules and usually I can stick with it. Sometimes I forget though.

I am the one who watches the movie and am constantly pointing out how illogical things are. I usually get told to shut up. LOL

I also tend to explain to folks the scientific or philosophical theories behind their favorite movies (Matrix - Descartes' brain in a vat theory, Butterfly Effect - chaos theory, etc.). Talk about clear a room in a very short time...

I could never enjoy The Matrix or its sequels because of the odd premise that machines would get more energy out of humans than they would waste trying to keep all the humans alive.

Yeah, I didn't believe that part either. There are much greater sources of energy that the machines could have tapped into, and they would've seen the human race as completely redundant and wouldn't have bothered keeping ANYONE alive.

Yeah, that movie didn´t grip me either. Not only was there no explanation (I hate that), but as I recall, at one point someone walked into a room (where it was clear there were going to be birds), CLOSED the DOOR, and then got attacked by birds. Well...duh! Why do people do stupid things in movies? I don´t feel sorry for them at all, I figure "you asked for it".

Another movie that just didn´t scare me, though it scared other people, was "Poltergeist". It was just way too far fetched and illogical. What grips me more is subtlety.

Yes, I particularly hate anachronisms in movies; they stick out like a sore thumb to me, though other people don´t seem to notice them. I can´t think of many examples at the moment; well, one that I can think of. I notice that whenever I see a movie about ancient Egypt, the pyramids look blank and brown, like they do nowadays; whereas, in the ancient world, they would have been covered in limestone and would have had hieroglyphs and pictures painted on them. But I guess because most people don´t know this, they don´t bother. I think they should research it- if they´re going to make a movie about ancient Egypt, why don´t they bother to research it? Because someone out there will know. I also really hate it when I´m watching a movie about ancient times, like old Jerusalem or something, and the people have modern day haircuts.

Another pet peeve: it´s clear that people want to make their movies "spicy" and "sizzling", and get viewers. Nowadays, it´s common to use sex in movies as a "thriller", and we live in a culture that is somewhat obsessed by sex (I think), especially quick sex, which is acceptable in our culture. So I hate it when I watch a movie from another time period, where quick sex was supposedly looked down upon, and the characters still have sex, because that´s what people like to see NOWADAYS. There were times when the social mores were different, and people who had sex too quickly would have been considered bad marriage material, and would not have been respected. Yet they do it anyway, as if the customs of our time applied to their time. This really bothers me, it´s just so unrealistic. Yes, there are loads of anachronisms in movies, all the time....