There's something innately conflicted about catching a plot hole in a popular movie that is both annoying and cathartic in equal measure. On one hand, you've beat the writers at their own game; you managed to spot an error, a flaw, a gaping lapse in narrative judgement (whatever you want to call it) that they clearly didn't. On the other hand, you've usurped the internal logic of the film and there's a chance that it might have been spoiled for you as a result; it's never really "fun" when that happens. No genre of films tends to represent this dual love/hate relationship with plot holes than that of the comic book film - as a society, we're seemingly obsessed with trying to find the worst offenders in motion pictures of this particular make-up. It's not that we want to spoil the movies necessarily, but it's more to do with an in-built desire - a very human one - to pick holes in something that so very desperately wants to appear logical. Given that comic books films (especially those of the superhero variety) are usually based in twisted versions of our own reality, they have made themselves ripe for plot holes. There's usually an attempt on the part of the writers to create a world with aspects that are both real and fantastical... and that's a really hard combination to get right. Some plot holes - of the middling kind - can usually be forgiven because meh, who cares? But sometimes a plot hole really does feel like a huge oversight, with the power to unravel the very fabric of the film in question: you know, those of the unforgivable kind...
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
