Best of the Worst: Movie Mistakes #1

This is the first post of what I hope to be regular posts here on this blog where i highlight the biggest movie mistakes I know. Like they say in the YouTube channel CinemaSins, "No movie is without sin". It's definitely true. Here is a list of a few of the biggest mistakes I've noticed in my favorite movies.

1. INDIANA JONES and the TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984)
This movie is just FULL of mistakes to begin with... the amount of audio/visual unsynchronizations alone is pretty laughable, but the biggest mistake that stands out to me is during the fight between Indy and the big thug before the crusher scene. When the thug picks Indy up and tosses him into the minecart, Indy's arm flops backwards as it hits the rim of the cart, revealing that Indy is a dummy. Not only that, but his hand makes it worse, because since it's a dummy, the hand remains in one position whereas if your arm really hit the side like that, your fingers would be splayed in pain.
It's also worth noting that the mine cart itself in the same shot is being towed by a cable which is very visible in the shot.

2. JURASSIC PARK (1993)
Everybody knows and loves the scene where the T-Rex breaks out of its pen, but it creates a HUGE problem continuity-wise. The problem is when Grant and Lex escape the jeeps but are pushed back in towards the pen. Suddenly, it's revealed that the edge of the wall is the top of a steep drop. Since this is the exact same spot that the T-Rex simply walked out of earlier, it is impossible that the drop should be right there, or else the T-Rex would have had to climb out (impossible in and of itself).

3. HARRY POTTER and the DEATHLY HALLOWS part 1 (2010)
It's not really a big deal that the Harry Potter movies take place in the 2000s instead of the 1990s like the books. Its excusable, as exact dates as to when the books take place weren't even given until after the movies were already being made. What IS a problem, however, is that in the movie Deathly Hallows part 1, where the year is supposed to be 1997 in the book but 2007 in the movie, they include the dates of Harry's parents' deaths on their graves. These dates are directly from the book, which means that in the movie, they are off by ten years. Following this logic as well, this makes Harry 27 years old instead of 17.

4. THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY (2012)
This really can pertain to any of the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit films, but it is established in this film that elven blades, like Bilbo's sword Sting, will glow when orcs are nearby. It is also established that Gandalf's sword Glamdring and Thorin's sword Orcrist (forgive me if these are misspelled) are elven blades. However, neither of them glow in the movies (and Gandalf's doesn't glow in LOTR either). It can be noted that in the book The Hobbit and in the Lord of the Rings book series, Glamdring was said to glow white. There is also a moment in An Unexpected Journey where Orcs are close by, but Sting does not glow.

5. STAR WARS episode V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)
As much as I love Empire Strikes Back, I have to say this one is just REALLY contradictory. While fighting the AT-ATs on Hoth, Luke clearly tells his fellow snowspeeder gunners "That armor's too strong for blasters!" However, after tying up the legs of an AT-AT and causing it to fall, they blow it up using... BLASTERS.

Are there any more big movie mistakes you can think of that deserve to be mentioned in a future blog post? Let me know in the comments!

Star Wars Episode VII?

George Lucas, famous for creating the beloved movie series "Star Wars" as well as "Indiana Jones" (aka my favorite movies ever) has sold LucasArts to Disney. Promptly, Disney has announced Star Wars Episode 7 to be in production for 2015.

I love Star Wars. It was my favorite movie series growing up, and I still love them as much as I did way back when, but as much of a fan as I am, I can see that there is a line that shouldn't be crossed. I'm not exactly looking forward to there being an Episode 7, because the story of the series was about Anakin Skywalker's journey becoming Darth Vader (the argument can be made that the Original Trilogy is about Luke, but big picture is about Vader) and the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire. Both Darth Vader and the Empire were defeated, so is there really any further story to tag onto this movie series? The established story arc was brought to a close.

another thing that bugs me is that the visual difference between the Original and Prequel trilogies are like night and day. The prequel trilogy is probably like 80% computer-generated (a good deal of Episode 1 was shot practically) as opposed to the Original Trilogy, which was probably 25% or less computer-generated. Adding another 80% or more computer-generated trilogy could potentially decrease the magic of the Original Trilogy. This pains me greatly.

All this being said, I'm still a fan of Star Wars. All I'm really trying to say is that while I will be interested to see the movie, I'm not jumping up in down in my seat for it.