There are plenty of storylines out there that could have been concluded very easily and quickly if people just took five minutes and used some logic before charging head-on at a problem. But where would be the fun in that for us, the audience? Some movie fans, however, are calling out the films where the main problem would have been easily avoided if some straightforward thinking had been applied.
Sometimes these lapses in judgment are necessary for the story to exist at all and the saying goes, to err is human, and these characters are human, for the most part. There are points though, where the decisions made are so ridiculous that they actually throw us out of the story as we wonder “who on earth would do that?” or “why didn’t they just take a second there?”
For story plots to work, they need to be believable, and that is the difference between a character having a realistic lapse in judgment and feeling like a mistake was forced into the script simply in order to move the plot along. In a thread on Reddit, fans discussed the worst offenders of this. The OP began with the film Spider-Man: No Way Home, which, though beloved by the masses, does seem to struggle with this problem. You would think that a man like Doctor Strange, who worked as a surgeon and must have had to discuss every surgery with patients before doing anything, would apply the same logic to casting the spell for Peter Parker, and actually explain just how it would work and go over all the options and outcomes… but no.
Major action blockbuster movies seem to be the prime target here as the heroes find themselves in increasingly messed up situations that could have been easily avoided.
Though this user admits Jurassic World is entertaining as hell, it really is just one idiotic thing after another.
Thrillers can often fall into this when people don’t just go to the relevant authorities and instead try to figure things out by themselves or speak to someone wholly unqualified to help them.
Horror films in general are famous for this trope, as the protagonists feel compelled to do anything but the sensible thing which is get the hell out of there right now!
Every Home Alone film could have been solved if Kevin had just used a phone, but we will let this guy off the hook as he was just a kid who wanted some time to himself.
In Harry Potter, Harry and his friends seem to feel they must accomplish everything themselves. To be fair to Harry, they did try to warn teachers in The Sorcerer’s Stone and they didn’t pay attention to him, so maybe this is on them.
In Coco, why on earth didn’t he speak to his ancestors about his belief that he was related to Ernesto se la Cruz? It would have cleared things up so quickly!
Granted, we wouldn’t have been as well entertained if a lot of the above characters did actually have some common sense, but in some instances, you just want to face-palm over the stupidity of their decisions and lack of logic.