Suspense--tion of Disbelief (by Brian Katcher)

 

Now when one enjoys entertainment media, one must occasionally ignore the odd anachronism, logical fallacy, or other unrealistic happening. After all, no one wants to be the guy who shouts 'But there's no way a cat could survive that kind of cranial trauma! Tom would be dead! Dead!' in a crowded theater. (and excuse me, Ms. 'You Ruined My Child's Birthday Movie').

Still, there comes times when we not only have to suspend our disbelief, we have to beat it savagely and leave it unconscious in an alley. I mean, how many times would John McClane have died of massive blood loss? Why has James Bond never blown a tire driving like that? Why don't women in just about every Adam Sandler movie slap him in his annoying, idiot man-child face?

I guess you just have to learn to deal with it. Miss Congeniality was a great movie, but we have to believe that 2000 Sandra Bullock wouldn't have been asked out by every cop in that precinct, even though she was--gasp!--slightly socially awkward.

We believe that a couple of Hobbits can defeat a necromancer demi-god without asking 'Why didn't they just ride the eagles to Mt. Doom?'

We can believe that thirteen people sacrificed their lives for years, just to catch their nemesis as he boarded The Orient Express, as opposed to simply hiring a hitman or something.

Batman is both physically and mentally perfect, we get it. But he's never even been tempted to run off with Catwoman?

The point is, sometimes you just have to go along for the ride. It's more fun that way.

Except for The Village. That movie was bullshit.