# Lurking Heavy Plot: When Nice Movies Go Stupid **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 13, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lurking-heavy-plot-when-nice-movies-go-stupid/612727 "2012-02-13T18:01:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lurking-heavy-plot-when-nice-movies-go-stupid/612727/21 "2012-02-14T01:03:06Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > How much sense does a regular superhero film make? They had to explain the powers from somewhere… Why? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lurking-heavy-plot-when-nice-movies-go-stupid/612727/22 "2012-02-14T01:09:05Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > …dude just watch a porno. Good point, no extraneous plot there. But pornos have precious little characterization as well. They are quite limited in their appeal, if you know what I mean. I did not watch Birthday Girl in hopes I would be able to fap to it. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lurking-heavy-plot-when-nice-movies-go-stupid/612727/23 "2012-02-14T01:13:43Z")
If you’ll allow me to suggest a TV example, _Joan of Arcadia_ was a goofy show about a girl who talks with (not to) God, her family, and friends. And it was also a very gritty police procedural, shot with a heavy blue filter. The two sides just never managed to work as a whole, and if they just canned the entire police drama, it would (a) never have been missed, and (b) would have massively improved the show. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lurking-heavy-plot-when-nice-movies-go-stupid/612727/24 "2012-02-15T08:42:41Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Why? For the same reason that no other superhero movie doesn’t explain the powers, unless you are assumed to already know the reason. People want an explanation for things in movies that couldn’t happen in real life. It’s why “a wizard did it” is such a frustrating answer to anything. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lurking-heavy-plot-when-nice-movies-go-stupid/612727/25 "2012-02-15T08:57:32Z")
> [@Skara\_Brae](#): > > IIRC, there really was no budding romance in Birthday Girl because Kidman’s character was in on it from the start. It was more like a slow con movie, then a plot switch… Isn’t that mentioned in the trailer? I know it’s included in the summary on the DVD box. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lurking-heavy-plot-when-nice-movies-go-stupid/612727/26 "2012-02-15T18:22:37Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Isn’t that mentioned in the trailer? I know it’s included in the summary on the DVD box. Doesn’t help when you watch the movie on cable. I had the same experience with **Birthday Girl**. To me it not so much the plot change itself as the tone change – the brutality of the Russian guys is really jarring after the relatively sweet and tender first half of the film. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lurking-heavy-plot-when-nice-movies-go-stupid/612727/27 "2012-02-15T18:56:46Z")
I know the original poster specified movies, but Charles Dickens often did the same thing in his books. “Well, now that I’ve developed a bunch of humourous characters and showed them in various funny, satirical vignettes, it’s time for the fun to stop and get back to the real plot which is a bunch of half-baked malarkey about long-lost grandsons, inheritances, murder mysteries and what have you.” ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lurking-heavy-plot-when-nice-movies-go-stupid/612727/28 "2012-02-15T19:03:53Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > For the same reason that no other superhero movie doesn’t explain the powers, unless you are assumed to already know the reason. People want an explanation for things in movies that couldn’t happen in real life. > > It’s why “a wizard did it” is such a frustrating answer to anything. Yeah, but the source of the superhero’s powers isn’t that interesting. Yes, the audience should know the sorts of things the superhero can do, otherwise he can just pull out his Bat Shark Repellent when he meets a shark. But who cares whether Hyperman can fly and cut guns in half with his mind because he found a mystical scarab on an archeological dig, or was bitten by a radioactive wombat, or was hit by a glowing meteor? Spending more than five minutes on the phlebotinum is a mistake, because the phlebotinum isn’t interesting, the character (hopefully) is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lurking-heavy-plot-when-nice-movies-go-stupid/612727/29 "2012-02-15T20:25:49Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > _Star Wars_ does this. It starts out interestingly enough with two simultaneous plot lines. > > A.) a romantic comedy as old as stories themselves. Boy chases girl, boy catches girl, boy blows up girl’s planet. Will Leia fall for the tall dark stranger who rocked her world (literally), or will she play hard to get? > > B.) A story of surviving in the dust bowl reminiscent of _The Grapes of Wrath_. We follow the trials of Owen and his wife carving a hard won a living out of the unforgiving soil while simultaneously raising a special needs child. A family who wanted a son so badly that they adopted a girl and raised her as a boy. Will Owen bring in enough bales of moisture to pay off the bank loan? Will the couple tell Luke why “he” is menstruating? > > But then Luke sees a blue Princess in the family’s espresso machine and the movie goes downhill from there. Do you have a blog with reviews like this? Cause I’d totally click on that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lurking-heavy-plot-when-nice-movies-go-stupid/612727.md?page=1)