It’s all about story—or it should be. When books and movies fall apart it’s often because the story gets pushed to the background. It becomes secondary to other concerns, like action sequences, special effects, pushing an agenda, or…insert reason here.
It’s only story that can save a book or movie. Story is the key to saving any writing project. Forget the widgets. Forget the marketing polls or advertisers’ advice. Stick with story. Always.
Pixar knows this. Disney, not so much, I am sorry to say. They used to know it, but lately their movies have shown a shift toward image over content. If you doubt this, look at some of the recent films by my old employer. They stray from story in favor of a host of other concerns that don’t really make sense when you think about it. The logic falls flat.
Now I am not going to critique these films because there are way too many videos and blogs doing a great job of this. I highly recommend watching/reading them. Seek out the rants because no matter their complaint, it comes back to story failures. Characters aren’t acting in character. Plots don’t make sense. There are too many plot holes. The story goes against earlier stories creating paradoxes or inconsistencies. The stories aren’t logical. They go against canon. The list goes on.
Worse, the characters are flat and unrealistic, sometimes even bland. It’s hard to connect with them or get behind them. A perfect character is not empathetic. A pure villain without any redeeming qualities is disappointing.
Characters need flaws. Villains need something that makes them human and relatable. When you don’t include those flaws or virtues, they are a flat as paper dolls and about as engaging.
Story needs logic.
One of the best ways to learn how plots can fall apart is to watch and read those rants mentioned above. Take a look at commentary on popular movies that didn’t do so well at the box office or that were panned by fans. There are plenty of titles on the list you can pick.