Continuity

[The Movie Whore]

Nothing makes me twitch more than movies with no continuity. The biggest offender of this is sequels. I am not talking just about story but also about actors. Brandon Lee died making The Crow. Your star is no longer available so don't make a sequel. You only end up losing your audience.

If you are going to reference a past endeavor than get it right. Have some one keep track of your history. Kevin Smith has a historian and does not screw up his referencing. He also keeps his actors.

I am sure you are waiting for a Star Wars rant but I am not going to give one. I once read some where that Star Wars fans hate Star Wars and love what they think it should have been. Well guess what, you did not make the movie so it does not matter what you would have done with it. It really doesn't. It was George's vision and he made it the way he wanted. Love it or hate it he did it his way because it was his story to tell not ours. Next.

There are even times where continuity can get lost within a single movie. Movies are rarely shot in sequence. They shoot the scenes based on a schedule and take the what they get and piece it together. In other words whoever is doing the editing needs to be able to catch anything that does not fit and is responsible for the flow of the movie. It is in the editing process that continuity can get lost.

Sometimes you get in a rush because shooting took longer than expected but the studio still wants you to meet a release date. In that case you are under pressure to just get it done and you may miss something in effort to meet your release date. Other times the studio just wants you to make cuts to bring down the running time of the flick. This can kill your story telling but you get a chance to make up for it with a directors cut DVD release. There have been some films that have been helped by seeing the directors original vision Vs what the studio let the director release. There was always something that had bothered me with the original Highlander (One of my all time favorites) and that is the scene with his secretary where he says "It's a kind of magic."

In the theatrical release there was no back story to explain what he meant and left you having to make assumptions. In the directors cut of the movie they include a seen where he rescues her as a little girl and is shot. She thinks he is dead and ask him how he is still alive and he says "It's a kind of magic."

Continuity has been restored and the scene now makes sense. Can you think of any other movies that have had this problem and saw it fixed in a directors cut?

[Tyler Lovemark]

Well, in the director's cut of Alien it's made clear that there really isn't an alien queen and each alien can lay their own eggs.  So I guess that kinda ruined the continuity for the entire series.  But, I'm more of a fan of the theatrical cut, mainly because the pacing is more consistent and the buildup just a tad better.  And in the second film, the theatrical cut out Bill Paxton's rant about the "beehive" theory, effectively tossing any foreshadowing of the queen out the window.  But, once again, I prefer the different cut of the film that this flaw is in.

I've heard that Kingdom of Heaven has a lot of this kind of thing in it.  Granted I've only seen the theatrical cut which I only felt lukewarm about.  Then again, if you happen to be a Ridley Scott film (which I know many of us are...) then odds are there are good differences between yourself and the theatrical cut.  Look at poor old Blade Runner.

[The Movie Whore]

and that directors cut of Alien shows it was meant to be a singular movie not the franchise it was turned into.  I think it would have added to the continuity of the mythology had it been a stand alone film.  With the films that followed that Scott had nothing to with would were given the opportunity to build on the mythology because of the way the original was cut.  Granted I am really looking forward to the possibilities of Scott taking the franchise back and working with Cameron on it.