Fantasy movies run by their set of established rules that are applicable only to their world. They intend to flush out our common sense of logic, so it’s easier to float wherever the story takes us. That’s how we convince our minds to believe in flying-wizards and visiting-aliens. But things get challenging when cinemas betray their own rules. It is natural for a single writer to get carried away with her/his thoughts and not ponder on the rules. Perhaps, they don’t expect the audience to pour much thought into any error or dubious element. Here are the 10 rules in movies that make no sense to fans.
X-Men
The X-Men franchise is popular for many reasons- Wolverine, Magneto, Quicksilver, and timeline continuity errors. The internet is brimming with memes on their ageing goof ups. In a franchise full of complicated science fiction, mutants, and telekinesis, the makers screwed up with the most basic concept, i.e., ageing. Michael Fassbender’s Magneto and James McAvoy’s Professor X didn’t age at all 30 years after the events of ‘First Class’. But then, they were suddenly slammed with old-age to look like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in a few years.
Harry Potter Franchise
Everything in the Wizarding World managed to make sense to us. It was well-explained with logic despite its dreamy nature. But the greatest sports of Wizards- Quidditch, left us perplexed with its meaningless rules. Catching a snitch would earn the team 150 points and end the game. But it will not necessarily make them win if the opponent already has points higher than 150. So, the team with lesser scores will never dare to go after the snitch even if they are exhausted and washed up.
Looper
Despite having a team of genius writers, sci-fi movies tend to leave a plot hole in the concept of time-travel. That’s exactly what happened in ‘Looper’ which confidently acknowledged its complicated screw-ups. Some scenes hilariously capture the maker’s lack of understanding of time-travel. Why did old Seth’s body jump in pain when young Seth’s limbs pulled apart? The wounds should have already existed in the old Seth’s body.
Gremlins
Living with the cute little Gremlins is not a difficult task as long as you follow the three basic rules. The first two don’t allow the gremlins to get wet or be exposed to direct sunlight. But the third rule is kind of blurry as it states that the creatures shouldn’t be fed after midnight. Who knows when midnight ends, and what happens in the case of international travelling?
Signs
So, ‘Signs’ was supposed to be a fancy SciFi based on an alien invasion. And the best weapon against these aliens was…. ‘Drumrolls’…… water. This intelligent species of aliens was fatally allergic to water. Anyone who has ever watched this film has been perplexed by this plot twist. It makes no sense why an advanced group of aliens would invade a planet whose 71% of the surface is covered in water.
Aliens
Fans have been confused about the gestation period of the Xenomorph explained by the franchise. According to the first film, it took a few hours before the young alien exploded out of someone’s chest. But the franchise kept changing the logic in whichever way it suited the plot. While Ripley took a few days before her chest burst open in Alien 3, the grim fate consumed one of the characters in a few minutes in Alien Vs Predator: Requiem.
Star Wars
Long ago, the Star Wars universe used to stand on the strict Rule of Two that only allowed two Sith Lords to exist at the same time. But with new movies arriving, these rules have been bent to serve different directors and scriptwriters.
Star Trek
The fundamentals enforced by the Prime Directive prohibit the Star Fleet members to intrude into the natural advancement of the alien civilization. In fact, crew members are severely punished for breaking any law. Its significance has been questioned lately because of the inconsistency in the different versions of Star Trek. The way Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard holds the principles and the way Chris Pine‘s Captain Kirk disobeys them are strikingly in contrast.
Superhero Movies
Targeting the younger audience has compelled superhero movies to refrain from killing or extreme violence. Many heroes, especially Superman and Batman have indicated at some point in time that they were against taking any villain’s life. But this ideology is too hard to follow when you are surrounded by merciless bad guys who would stop at no cost. The grounded element in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight made it impossible to follow the benchmarks set by other heroes. In the end, Batman had the blood of Ra’s al Ghul, Talia al Ghul and Two-Face in his hands.
Double Jeopardy
As the name suggests, this crime-thriller highlights the Double Jeopardy Clause. Unlike other movies that violated their own rules, this one failed to comprehend an existing law from the real world. The story follows the arrest of a woman who is falsely accused of killing her husband. On finding out that her husband is still alive and deliberately framed her for his murder, she devises a revenge plan. The wife steps out on parole and uses the opportunity to kill him for real. In order to protect herself, she invokes the Double Jeopardy Clause. It prohibits a person from getting convicted twice for the same particular offence. But that’s not what happened. The fact that she never committed the said crime before will nullify her previous prosecution.
contrastingstrikingly different; tending to contrastMore (Definitions, Synonyms, Translation)
