Top 4 CBM Plot Holes of 2014

Top 4 CBM Plot Holes of 2014

Happy New Year! 2014 just ended but it gave us a pretty cool collection of CBMs. So let's take a look back as I cover four of my favorite senseless characters, scenes and plot threads from comic book movies of 2014. Join Dr. Joshua Sweet (M.D. pending) after the jump.

Feature Opinion
By DrSweet - Jan 04, 2015 01:01 PM EST
Filed Under: Marvel Comics
Source: ComicBookMovie.com

A Plot Hole is a completely implausible occurrence or series of events that contradicts logic or previously established events in the story. These include such things as illogical or impossible events, and statements, character actions, or events that contradict earlier events in the storyline. (because I know I’m going to get sh*t for something in this later).
 

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s jump right in.


#4: The Amazing Spider Man 2 - Richard Parker’s Sacrifice

The Movie:
Peter Parker’s guilt for Capt Stacy’s death threatens his relationship with Gwen Stacy. Also, he finds out why his parents abandoned him. Also, he has to fight three villains: Neon Sign Man, Gingivitis Boy, and Ivan Drago’s creepy uncle… or something, I wasn’t paying attention.


The-Amazing-Spider-Man-2-Paul-Giamatti-as-The-Rhino.jpg

I just know that he’s the most intimidating bad guy I’ve ever seen

 

The Plot Hole:

Okay, join me on this journey and maybe you can help me out.

Out of frustration, Peter chucks his daddy’s old calculator at the wall, because when your father’s stuff is the only remnants of him you have left, destroy them like they’re horcruxes.

 

spidermanflame.jpg

Although, I kind of feel like the REAL Spider-Man would’ve been a bit more creative with his destruction

(visit Instructables.com for instructions on how to build that bad boy)

 

Inside, he finds REGULAR old subway tokens, so Richard Parker wins the Most Unnecessary Hiding Place Ever award. Peter is able, however, to connect these random subway tokens to a specific secret train station, where he discovers his father’s workshop. So far, this is just random coincidence and REEAALLLY bad planning, but here’s the Hole.

Curt_Connors_TASM.jpg
asmcap12.jpg

Quick question: Does every Oscorp employee keep a secret underground  lair?

 

Richard Parker has left a video will of sorts, and here’s the best part, it’s addressed to his son! He somehow foresaw 10 year old Peter Parker accidentally shattering the calculator, finding subway tokens, correctly identifying the correct abandoned subway tunnel to use them in and find his secret lab in an abandoned subway car.


The video reveals that Mama and Daddy Parker are going on the run in order to keep their research from being abused, and Peter will be left with Aunt May and Uncle Ben for his own safety. On top of that, Richard Parker used his own DNA in the experiments and his research is worthless without it. But how is leaving Peter behind protecting him? If Richard and his wife had succeeded in escaping, what would have kept Oscorp from holding Peter, Ben or May hostage as bargaining chips? And if you need Richard’s DNA to utilize the spiders, why did he take his wife (no DNA shared between them) but leave his son (his DNA is all up in Peter… which.. sounds terrible but you catch my drift). For a super smart scientist/ engineer/ construction worker, that’s either a very dumb thing to do, or a very asshole-ish thing to do Richard…
 

Richard_Parker.jpg

Hey, my name’s Dick, what did you expect?

Bonus Question(s): W hen did Richard Parker have time to become an engineer and build this complicated system? Why did he build this? It couldn’t be because he found out his research could be used for evil, because a project of that scale being built by less than a team of professionals would take months or years and a load of money the Parkers ain’t got. It’s also rigged with its own power source that still works even though it takes 27 years to find it!
 

#3: X-Men: DoFP - Wolverine’s Future Self Doesn’t Pass


The Movie:

I’m not saying that DoFP wasn’t a great film, and perhaps, my third favorite X-men film despite its flaws. What I am saying, is that in a movie of this scale, you’re going to leave the door open for questions that need to be answered, and FOX did not disappoint. DoFP follows older Wolverine as his consciousness is sent back to the 70s in order to prevent the events that lead to an apocalyptic future for all mutants. By the end of the film, he “succeeds” (although, technically speaking, he doesn’t actually do ANYTHING the whole film), but is drowned by Magneto after being impaled with metal rods. In the comics, Magneto nearly kills Logan by doing the exact opposite, ripping the adamantium from his bones.

228px-Wolverine_drowning.png
adamantium.jpg

Is this a sex thing? ...because I’m totally into it

Wolverine’s older consciousness then goes back to the future where we’re treated to an awesome scene where we see everyone we know and love is alive and well.
 

x-men-days-of-future-past-wolverine-jean-grey-cyclops-116739.jpg

Except Cyclops, that cockblock….


The Plot Hole:

So.. Wolverine was saved from drowning in the 70s, lived for the next forty years, became a teacher and then… suddenly… is lobotomized and replaced with some other Logan? If Wolverine was successful and prevented the events of the future from ever happening, then that consciousness should cease to exist. It makes no sense for the Logan that everyone has grown to know is now effectively dead. This is no different from murdering a beloved character and saying, “Well, we’ve got this clone that looks just like  him. None of his memories, but it’s pretty much the same thing.” This new Logan has no memory of the last forty years and needs to suddenly get spun up on four decades worth of conversations and life experiences.

 

Obviously, this was done because Wolverine is the audience surrogate. We get to share his surprise and joy when seeing everything back to normal and it wouldn’t have operated the same way if we just saw some other Wolverine experiencing another normal day in his life. Maybe the next few X-Men movies will be flashbacks with Professor X explaining what Logan has missed since his mind slept dormant that day Magneto straight up tried to kill his ass.

Wolverine_prof x.png

You’re telling me that I STILL haven’t banged Jean?
 

Bonus Question: Why send Logan back to the 70s when Magneto is in jail, Mystique is on the run, and Prof X has given up on being a mutant instead of say… the 60s? When Prof X, Mags, and Mystique were all hanging out under the same roof and were best buddies and say, “Hey, Mystique, don’t kill this midget named Trask in 10 years. Okay bye!”



#2: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Splinter/Shredder conundrum

 

The Movie:

There are few things to be confused about when it comes to the aptly named Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They are teens, they are mutants, they are ninjas and they are turtles. Nothing confusing here. They’re trained by a rat named Splinter, in the ancient art of ninjitsu and their enemies are The Foot Clan led by the evil/mad samurai, Shredder.

hand-paper-shredder-4-lg.jpg

Seen here, at his most vicious

 

The Plot Hole:
This new film changes some of the history, namely, that April O’Neil and her father used to own the turtles, named them after Renaissaince painters, and conducted experiments on them. After growing up in the sewers, the Turtles become vigilantes against Splinter’s wishes and their activities have gotten them noticed by the Foot Clan and Shredder himself, who’s clouded in mystery. Shredder is the bad guy everyone knows that right? Well, no, they don’t.

 

I mean, sure, WE know that Splinter and Shredder are mortal enemies, but how does Splinter know that? Shredder wasn’t one of the scientists that worked in the lab with our heroes, and they’ve never met before their showdown in the sewers.


teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-2014-screenshot-splinter-and-shredder.jpg

Which, btw, was pretty damn enjoyable

 

Splinter himself never left the sewers to discover that there was some scarred Japanese robot samurai that he’d have to fight one day so there’s no way he could recognize him.

Bonus Question:  Why exactly did Shredder leave the rat for dead? You’re in the sewers trying to find the turtles that you know exist and are surprised by a talking, skilled rat. Just take him too. It’s not even as though they didn’t have the room. They came for four turtles and left with three due to Raphael being lost in rubble somewhere. You could easily just grab the defeated rat who is clearly just as full of the mutagen as your original targets. Instead, Shredder takes his time to use his new suit to beat the dog sh*t out of Splinter and then leave him for dead.

cheesegrater.jpg

Shredder’s new suit, pictured above






 

#1: Amazing Spider Man 2 - Electro..like...everything about him

 

The Movie:

We’ve been over this already, no one wants to spend more time than necessary talking about TASM 2.
 

a91ed320415b366834331af0125f192b.jpg

Now, that’s just unnecessary
 

The Plot Hole:

Electro, in and of himself, seems like a huge collection of ideas spitballed at the wall and instead of using the good ideas that stuck, they used the ones that fell. His story is non-sensical. What in the damn were electric eels doing in Oscorp, much less without a cover to their tank? Are they using electric eels to power their company (has to be eco-friendly, no?) Okay, I’ll buy it, what’s next?

 

Oh, Spidey saves people every day and suddenly he forgets your name when everything about you has literally changed? I’m from NYC as well, and sometimes, I don’t even remember my own friends and families names (I’m a terrible person, but my point still stands), it’s a city with over eight million people. So he goes from complete pushover to evil electric god because someone forgot his name? He now has the power to be anything he wants to be, including a friend to his idol, Spider-Man, but instead turns into a murderer and villain THAT quick. There aren’t even scenes in which Electro learns to abuse his powers, he just goes from 0-60 in a second. I suppose it’s easy to say that he’s disturbed, but the movie paints him as a (unrealistically) rejected social pariah, not someone with delusions of grandeur. Goes against all logic, but whatever.

I don’t even remember how he beat Electro the first time, but I can’t imagine what his weaknesses are. There are no learning curves for his character, he just IS an electric god now. Seeing as how he gets zapped by your standard electrical source AND electric eels so water can’t even be a weakness. I’m sorry, what’s that?

 

spidermanfirehose.jpg

I’m not sure why I’m surprised by this movie at this point

 

That’s without mentioning the fact that his powers aren’t clearly defined. He just does whatever the plot needs him to do at any given time. Things just happen while he’s on screen and the audience is expected to just accept it, despite it going against the rules of the universe that the film itself set. Also, electricity fixes tooth gaps? Why even give him a gap in the first place then? We would’ve been able to follow the character just fine without the tooth gap. All in all, the movie should’ve skipped the Richard Parker prequel (we all know he died, we didn’t need to see him use WiFi technology that didn’t exist yet) and use those precious few minutes to develop real character motivation and development for Electro.

 

Bonus Question: Where exactly did he somehow find/design/build a suit that perfectly adapts to his powers?
 

jorel.jpg

See, now that makes sense

 

Those are my favorite Plot Holes from 2014, but I’m sure I’ve missed some. What did I get wrong? What did I miss? Leave your thoughts and comments below, and don’t forget to hit the Thumbs up button

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huckfinnisher
huckfinnisher - 1/4/2015, 3:04 PM
Great article man i laughed when i saw your shredder pics your Pretty funny keep it up!
Darkknight2149
Darkknight2149 - 1/4/2015, 3:37 PM
"What in the damn were electric eels doing in Oscorp, much less without a cover to their tank"

Oscorp is a scientific research company, so it is NOT farfetched for them to own genetically modified electric eels in a laboratory (especially considering they were doing cross species genetics research in the previous film).

As far as to why there was no covering on the tank, I am under the impression that the Electro accident was intentional. We know Oscorp is a corrupt corporation that has been behind such conspiracies as the framing of Spider-Man's parents, their secret surveillance of Peter Parker, ETC.

I am pretty sure Alistair Smythe (an Oscorp manager) intentionally singled out the 'nobody' Max Dillon to specifically fix the exact electric hazard that he did and the company orchestrated Max Dillon's fall into the vat of eels. I also found it convenient that the guy on the intercom decided not to turn off the electricity when Max asked him to, which would've avoided the whole 'accident.' What I don't believe is that Oscorp knew the exact effect the eels would have on Dillon and I don't believe all of the higher ups at Oscorp were in on the conspiracy (namely the ones were planning on over throwing Norman Osborn, like Donald Menken).

"So he goes from complete pushover to evil electric god because someone forgot his name?"

Electro's hatred of Spider-Man has little to nothing to do with Spider-Man forgetting his name. Electro's insanity (seemingly Schizophrenia, judging from the symptoms he shows throughout the film) and the situation (which slowly escalated) as a whole are what caused Electro to hate Spider-Man. A huge part of it was also misunderstanding between Spidey and Electro. Let me know if you want me to further elaborate.

"There aren’t even scenes in which Electro learns to abuse his powers"

Not to sound rude, but did you watch the movie? That was the whole point of the scene of him coming out of the Times Square projector.

"I suppose it’s easy to say that he’s disturbed, but the movie paints him as a (unrealistically) rejected social pariah, not someone with delusions of grandeur. Goes against all logic, but whatever."

I thought the film portrayed mental illness pretty realistically, especially compared to other movies. What I did have a problem with was Jamie Foxx's poor acting. While Foxx is an excellent actor, this incarnation of Max Dillon was not the role for him. It's not so bad after the transformation into Electro as it is before.

"I don’t even remember how he beat Electro the first time, but I can’t imagine what his weaknesses are. There are no learning curves for his character, he just IS an electric god now."

Spider-Man defeated Electro with a water hose from a fireman the first time. The film show's Electro's weakness to be water, just like in the comics. In the Times Square fight, Spider-Man takes him by surprise with a water hose which short circuits him. At the Ravencroft Asylum, his holding cell is under water, until whenever Dr. Kafka decides to study him (he then takes Electro out of the water). In the final battle at the power plant, Spider-Man tries to shoot water at Electro but Electro learned from his mistake, as he is able to avoid the water, saying and I quote "Not this time."

"That’s without mentioning the fact that his powers aren’t clearly defined. He just does whatever the plot needs him to do at any given time."

I disagree. He never does anything in the film that he can't do in the comics. His abilities are that he is a being made of electricity, which allows him to move through electric currents (which is why he can 'float', move through electric outlets and cords, and move in and out of humanoid/pure electrical form). He can also control electricity with his will, which is self explanatory).

"Also, electricity fixes tooth gaps?"

Electric eels have naturally straight teeth, so the fixing of Max Dillon's teeth was most likely the product of cross species genetics.

"All in all, the movie should’ve skipped the Richard Parker prequel (we all know he died, we didn’t need to see him use WiFi technology that didn’t exist yet) and use those precious few minutes to develop real character motivation and development for Electro."

No they couldn't skip the parent story. Not only did they need to answer most of the questions raised in the previous film but it's an integral part of the story. Otherwise, where did the Spider Venom come from, why is Oscorp doing what they are doing, ETC?
Abary
Abary - 1/4/2015, 4:16 PM
Is it just me or is this a Cracked article? ;P
Kyos
Kyos - 1/4/2015, 4:27 PM
@darkknight2149

"At the Ravencroft Asylum, his holding cell is under water, until whenever Dr. Kafka decides to study him (he then takes Electro out of the water)."

My biggest wish concerning the TASM franchise is an explanation as to why Ravencroft was equipped with such a holding cell. Who was it built for? Who used to be held there before Electro came to be?
DrSweet
DrSweet - 1/4/2015, 4:50 PM
@TheAbaryMan369

Darkknight2149
Darkknight2149 - 1/4/2015, 4:54 PM
@ABetterTomorrow
"I too have no problem that there would be genetically engineered eels, especially since they look like they seem to be powering OsCorp(although an actual explanation to this would have been wonderful), how did you get the impression that Smythe or even Menken wanted Max Dillon to fall into that tank, and how exactly did they believe he would turn into what he turned into? Nothing is referenced, elaborated and even hinted. You would think even Menken would have mentioned this, just to get in Electro's good side when he and Harry went into Menken's (new) office, but nothing of the like is even stated as such."

I got the impression that it was a conspiracy just because of how the whole situation was set-up. I just found it convenient how Smythe told a 'nobody' in particular to go fix the powerlines and how the other Oscorp employee refused to turn the electricity off after Max asked him too (though the employee claimed it was simply because his shift was over and he was ready to leave. Speaking of which, the fact that Smythe asked Max to fix it when everyone was leaving is suspicious to me as well), and it looked to me like the vats containing the eels would normally have lids on them. I don't think Oscorp knew exactly what the eels would do to them so much as they just wanted to find out with an off-the-books experiment or 'accident'. Also, why were the powerlines broken to begin with? We aren't given an explanation on that, which also leads me to my conspiracy theory.

"Actually, Max's feelings towards Spider-Man has everything to do with going after Spider-Man. Max's newfound hatred over Spidey was just a trigger for his schizophrenia because it made that hatred only 100x worse. At the very root of Electro's motivations, is that of a child only added by his schizophrenia as well as what happened to him once he became Electro."

I didn't mean that Spider-Man had nothing to do with it, I just meant that the fact that Spider-Man forgot Electro's name at first wasn't the ONLY reason everything happened (as the article suggests). The whole Times Square incident was kind of a domino effect as far as to why Electro hates Spider-Man. One thing led to another and the situation escalated. Electro's feelings of Spider-Man in general and his mental illness also played big parts in this as well.

"Which is silly in itself because Max doesn't gain any abilities or any alter physical appearance from the cross species experiments done on the eels themselves; he only receives powers of electricity because of the combination between the cables and the genetically engineered eels. Whatever was done to the eels themselves shouldn't passed on to Max."

Good point. I'll have to agree.
Darkknight2149
Darkknight2149 - 1/4/2015, 4:57 PM
@Kyos
"My biggest wish concerning the TASM franchise is an explanation as to why Ravencroft was equipped with such a holding cell. Who was it built for? Who used to be held there before Electro came to be?"

That has crossed my mind before. If we get a sequel, hopefully they'll explain it because I'm not sure why they'd keep a holding cell just in case they ever got a prisoner that was MADE OF ELECTRICITY. Right now, we really don't know where the franchise is heading. I heard that the Spidey Summit is either January or February, so hopefully we'll hear something by then.
Darkknight2149
Darkknight2149 - 1/4/2015, 4:58 PM
*hear something regarding the future of the franchise, I mean.
DrKinsolving
DrKinsolving - 1/4/2015, 5:11 PM
Haha, nice article

TASM 2 was full of plot holes, underdeveloped characters, poorly written characters, and Sony Execs
DrSweet
DrSweet - 1/4/2015, 5:30 PM
@darkknight2149

You make some good points and present some interesting arguments, but the problem here is that it's YOU with the answers. The film itself makes no attempt to address these issues, and as such, they are plot holes.

Additionally, Max Dillon wasn't sent down there because he was a nobody, he was sent down there because he was the expert. He designed the power grid, he was the electricity guy. No one cared that he was busy, or that it was his birthday, but I don't believe they intentionally fried the electricity expert. And if they had had planned his incident, why weren't they equipped to get his body from the morgue and erase trace of his employment BEFORE his rampage?

Lastly, SONY attempts to make him sympathetic by giving him a mental illness that turns him into a homicidal maniac when disappointed? Seems like a dark angle to me with a twisted message. I'm of the opinion that Dillon is supposed to just be a loser who is granted power in the same vein as Akira and (ironically) Dane Dehaan in Chronicle, but it's executed much sloppier than its predecessors by hiding behind "he was a little crazy already".

An improvement would've been if Electro WAS created intentionally, caught and experimented on. This would actually give Electro a motive for evil actions (being used and abused/destroying Oscorp). Teaming up with Harry Osborne, who's just been usurped by Smythe, they are now our villains. When he shows up in Times Square, we can all agree that he's scary as hell and everyone's distrust is understandable, even if it isn't fair. If he was captured and hurt first, then he's someone we can understand and respect, and his arc makes more sense.
unsocial
unsocial - 1/4/2015, 5:50 PM
Okay so did anyone else notice in ASM2 that before the revelation that Parker DNA was the key to making the Spider Venom stuff work everyone kept saying that none of Parker's experimental spiders existed anymore but yet in ASM1 there was a room named BIOCABLE that had thousands of them?
Darkknight2149
Darkknight2149 - 1/4/2015, 5:54 PM
@DrSweet
I get what your saying. As far as why they didn't retrieve Dillon's body, there was a deleted scene (that's on the internet, if you want to check it out) where the "Man in the black suit" (as he is listed in the credits) who works at Oscorp pays the guy working at the morgue to burn Electro's body and make no record that Dillon was there. However, the scene was...well...deleted. I see what you mean about the mental illness, though I think it would've more believable if it didn't come off so silly with Jamie Foxx's acting and poorly written dialogue (in the scene where he fantasises about strangling Alistair Smythe, he says he'll rip his "nicely groomed head off." Did it take the writers all night to come up with that?). I think it needed a more suitable actor and better dialogue and better execution.

Here's the deleted scene (skip to the 9:12 mark)
DrSweet
DrSweet - 1/4/2015, 5:56 PM
@unsocial

Yes... yes we did.
When they mention that there's no more of them, they explain that they destroyed them after the first movie ended because one of their scientists went nuts and tried to turn everyone on Manhattan Island into a lizard. So... a lot of stuff went "missing" after that.
unsocial
unsocial - 1/4/2015, 7:01 PM
@ Dr Sweet & Pending

Ahh.. Thanks... I must have missed that bit of dialogue due to my constant eye rolling.. Still seems kind of whack IMO.. You could punch some really great holes in that explanation..
unsocial
unsocial - 1/4/2015, 11:31 PM
Plots are stupid? Someone doesn't like mystery novels...
unsocial
unsocial - 1/5/2015, 12:01 AM
I picked up a comic book once that had a plot.. It started out with some retired superheroes that went out to find out who murdered their former colleague who went by the alter ego of The Comedian. Real stupid stuff...
unsocial
unsocial - 1/5/2015, 3:57 PM
@ dethpillow

I dig what your saying. Plot isn't the be all and end all.. It's an element to storytelling and how you use it is relative to what story you're trying to tell. For me ASM2's major problems overall weren't something you could peg on plotholes or bad characaterization. IMO ASM2 suffered from the same problems that Spider-Man 3 and Iron Man 2 had. Basically too much was going on for 1 movie and it spent too much time worrying about future movies in the franchise. The notion of a powerplant with an eel tank left uncovered is not any more or less absurd than flying aircraft carriers or talking racoons or time travelling mutants ultimalty. The big diference is ASM2 didn't really give any real credence to what it was presenting. It basically through a lot elements around and hoped they'd stick.
DrSweet
DrSweet - 1/5/2015, 6:06 PM
@dethpillow & @unsocial

When I hear "plot", I interpret that to mean the story. Not JUST the story, as in, "What's this about?" but the entire story as in "What happens?" The events that make up the story are all part of the plot. Watching "the plot unfold" is watching characters go out and make things happen that influence the direction of the story. So all of the good things that you say make a story enjoyable are actually included or are directly related to the plot itself.

These plot holes aren't to say that this movie sucked because there are plot holes, just merely poking fun at the anomalies created by the films that the production team either missed or just ignored. Hope that somehow makes my use of the term 'plot hole' easier to stomach. lol

Let me just add that I appreciate the intelligent and respectful discussions being had here
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