Spelling Out The Plot

I saw the World War Z movie with my mom. Without making this post into a movie review, I want to mention one thing it did. Movies in general have the awesome power to achieve the most classic advice: "show, don't tell". World War Z had a several great scenes where they did just that; something important happened, but you only knew it was important because you were paying attention to what had been said and done and shown earlier.

What annoyed me to no end was that as soon as they showed, they had an immediate scene where they told. Nothing was subtle. Nothing was cerebral. You simply do not need to see the movie twice because there is nothing new to pick up on a second viewing. Anything you didn't catch right away would be explained again very clearly in the next two minutes.

Is spelling out the plot like that a bad thing? Most people would say yes. It dumbs down the story, wastes time, and disrupts the pacing. But people who say that tend to be high brow critics. Summer blockbusters aren't high brow art, though. It isn't meant to be philosophical change lives. It's meant to entertain you, which you pay money to experience.

A movie that can't be understood by its intended audience is a bad movie. So when your intended audience isn't high brow art critics, maybe it isn't such a bad thing to spell out the plot.

This really goes to show how important it is to know which people you want reading or watching your story. It can deeply change how you tell that story. And to authors that don't like changing how they tell their stories, know that your style will attract some and turn others away. It is simply human nature.