May, 2009. I’m sitting in a crowded movie theater watching my old friends Captain Kirk and Spock shooting aliens, covered in grease. The kind of grease John McClane always seems to be covered in at the end of those cool “Die Hard” movies. The theater is packed. There are girls there. Girls.
The audience “ooohs” and “ahhhs”. While having “Star Trek”, the thinking man’s science fiction franchise, turned into a wham bam action flick stings, it doesn’t even matter. “Star Trek” is cool. A girl I know saw it twice. Twice. Girl. Star Trek. Cool.
But I realize I may be in the minority here. I'm weird about continuity in that I'm all for a reboot or remake that starts fresh, but absolutely abhor anything that sweeps a dangling plot-point under the rug, or has me going "Hey, what about...?" for an entire season.
What are your most hated continuity problems, in wrestling, movies, and TV? What are your favorite ret-cons?
The earliest one I remember being confused by was the Made-for-TV movie "Not Quite Human" where Alan Thicke builds a robot son. The sequels had him building his son again, and the technology they used for robo-heart kept changing. Of course I was a kid so maybe I missed some detail that explained it, but it was the first time I got a sense that sometimes movies and TV shows forget important details until its too late.
Regarding 'Star Trek', I'm of two minds. While it sucks we'll likely never see Kirk or Picard or Data or Sisko or Odo again, it was probably for the best. TV and Film is a business and intellectual, high-minded, 'lets sit down and talk about this' kind of entertainment isn't really financially viable anymore, especially in a Sci-Fi setting where audiences would tend to expect action pew-pew and space battles.
The Plinkett "Star Trek 09" review explains it well.
When it comes to comic books, I've avoided diving in due to the sheer amount of bone crushing continuity* in the main universes, so I've stuck to side-stories and collected pieces like "The Long Halloween" and such. I will say there was something *really* cool about picking up the first 100 issues or so of "Ultimate Spider-Man" and discovering the ultimate universe for the first time.
Regarding ret-cons, one of my favorite little details in recent years was the quip that "The Avengers" kept talking to each-other despite not having any ear-pieces. In Iron Man 3, and then in "Agents of Shield" they make a point to show these tiny little ear-buds that you can't see. It's a cute little detail I appreciate.
Also I think my favorite thing the WWE did, was when Foley got fired from being the commissioner, they shot footage of him signing like a huge stack of documents, in essence building in a backdoor to literally anything that happened in the next few years. I can't remember if they used it a lot or not, but it was a cool little way to get around pretty much anything that came up.
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Blog Otter Award: Your_Favourite_Loser for Dem Legs. DEM LEGS man.
*This is a phrase I read on this very blog, that I have used over and over again in many places. Sorry Scott!
First time I've ever seen anyone ever refer to 'Not Quite Human'. I think I only saw one of the movies but read all the books when I was a kid.
ReplyDeletehttp://fullhouse.perander.no/info/
ReplyDeleteGo here and click Full House Chronology.
It is 284,000+ words. Not making that up
I would imagine that fans can be pretty annoying themselves.
ReplyDeleteMusic playing when a wrestler makes a "surprise" return or run-in.
ReplyDeletePretty much any "alternate reality" cop-outs in books/comics.
The Authority Figure in wrestling. Sometimes they have complete autonomy, sometimes they don't.
Yeah, even after like 16 years....who is Kane exactly?
ReplyDeleteHorror movies in general, even though continuity flaws are kind of part of the charm
ReplyDeleteI'm not huge into comics but from my understanding, yeah The Joker being the killer of Bruce's parents was just for the Burton movie. I guess it was done to make it all more personal for Batman and create more drama in the movie although I don't think it was needed.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, if you want to read a really good Batman comic that doesn't require knowing much about the continuity pick up The Dark Knight Returns. Really good stuff and it has a nice edge to it. They made a two part animated movie from it too recently. The movie is good but the comic is better in my opinion, probably due to Frank Millers style.
Also The Killing Joke is good as well, pretty dark and has a good story.
Spoilers for The Killing Joke:
ReplyDeleteSo does Batman kill The Joker in the end when thier both laughing? Or is that left ambiguous on purpose and for the reader to decide?
Michael fucking Cole every time someone makes a "surprise" return. Dude acts shocked....then tells us how much the guy weighs. "My god it's Brock Lesnar! 266 lbs!" The fuck?
ReplyDeletere: the last part....oh, this. This. This x 10000. I didn't think Freddy vs. Jason was bad, but when attention was called to this, I had to nod and say, "That's true." I know they had to give Jason some kind of fear for Freddy to play off of, but still...
ReplyDeleteHey, the other form of entertainment we are all here for does that to us ALL THE TIME. (Triple H: "I don't give a damn if you were offended by [Katie Vick]")
ReplyDeleteHahah that would be a straight-up omega-level kick to the dick, right there.
ReplyDeleteHaha I didn't see the "A" in there and just about lost my shit.
ReplyDeleteDammit, I forgot all about the Dominion War! I guess I was thinking more of just TOS. But the Dominion War was phenomenal, and spanned several seasons, including some awesome thinking person's episodes. One that always stuck with me were "In the Pale Moonlight", where Sisko has to justify his choices in getting the Romulans to join the war . . . and as I was looking up the other episode on Wikipedia, I saw about 15 other incredibly awesome episodes. Man, the last 3-4 seasons of DS9 were absolutely amazing.
ReplyDeleteI think im losing my mind then.
ReplyDeleteLost.
ReplyDeleteThe ending fucked everything.
I'm pretty sure he doesnt kill him. I like taking that ending on face value, that Batman and Joker are both genuinely sharing a supremely fucked-up moment of shared hysterical laughter.
ReplyDeleteThe "blood" in the closing panels is the reflection of the emergency service lights.
There's an episode of 30 Rock where Tracy is high and screams out "This is a television show! My real name is Tracy Morgan! "
ReplyDeleteWhat... "Hey when you come, bring some gas and some blunts?"
ReplyDeleteOh nooo.... Superman Secret Origin by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank was awesome.
ReplyDeleteSo maybe he was COBRA's Weapons trainer?
ReplyDeleteThat song does rule.
ReplyDeleteIt is in my library
Well I always chalk up him looking different as to being a mongoloid retard who gets fucked up.
ReplyDeleteBut what other continuity issues are there?
1-5 is pretty spot on in my book.
6- on is where is goes off the deep end.
In fairness, someone probably said "Marty can't use the old Delorean because he needs it to go back in time in the future!"
ReplyDeleteAnd then they never got passed that part.
Great. Now I have to listen to them.
ReplyDeleteWhy, baby, why?
I realize these low budget films aren't exactly sticklers for continuity, but even this topic's continuity is starting to bother me.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Jason Goes to Hell point forward, I consider the series as "concept films." They are taken on their own and have no lineage to the original story. Parts 1 - 8 tell a story. Hell, Parts 2, 3, & 4 take place on consecutive days!
That was definitely a thing, too. I remember her mom was played by Annette O'Toole, Marcia Cross, and... probably someone else that I don't remember.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely not. What I'm saying is that one is much better than the other even though I like both.
ReplyDeleteI must have misread "Of course after discovering Steven Erickson I wouldn't piss on asofai books to put out a fire"
ReplyDeleteProbably not the best approach if you want to get people interested in the other series.
They made those books (I liked when reading) look like shit because they were so much better. I don't expect anyone to read them because its ten books and a prequel trilogy but I was hoping someone would see this who already had.
ReplyDeleteI also did Red Son, and that one drawn like real people by Alex Ross.
ReplyDeleteI'm always looking for new series, so maybe I'll check them out (Ebook readers are a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it's easy to get books. A curse because it's easy to get books.)
ReplyDeleteIf you like epic fantasy series I swear on my life you will love this. Gardens on the moon is the first book. 9 more follow it. He just jumps you into the world so bear with it for awhile it will be more than worth it. After the series you gotta check out the prequel trilogy. Its lots of reading but you'll love it. At least check out a book review or something. Trust me on this one and you won't be let down
ReplyDeleteMongoloid who gets fucked up or not, he looks completely different from film to film. That's a pretty major continuity issue. Part 2 he has a full head of hair and a beard, Parts 3 and 4 he's completely bald, not in Part 5, don't really see his face in Part 6, Part 7 he no longer looks human, and Part 8 I don't even know how to describe that 'face'.
ReplyDeleteFor the record I love most of the movies so any continuity gaffes don't affect my enjoyment.
Parts 2, 3, 4 and 6 tell a cohesive story that holds up pretty well, especially compared to the rest of the series.
ReplyDeleteThe rest are very much singular tales with zero connection to any of the previous entries outside of Jason starting wherever he died.