the nature of spoiler culture is actually to spoil the enjoyment of the experience through anxiety

[tielan]

Spoiler paranoia is ruining pop culture.
(No specific spoilers were made in the production of this article.)

36 hours and I hope to be done. The only way that I won't be is pretty much if they flip it all around; which...I really can't see them doing. (Just imagine the fanbois screaming. Just imagine the fangirls of all the guys screaming. JUST IMAGINE THE SCREAMING.) But yeah, they have one chance to turn this fan around and...ahahahaha...no. The chances of it happening are pretty much 0.00000005%.

Comments

[kore]

Hunh, I remember "Don't ruin the ending!" articles for CRYING GAME, which came out in 1992. I also remember my boss spoiling me for Sixth Sense NOT on opening weekend ("I knew all the time he was dead!" "AWW, PAT"). And when Fatal Attraction came out, people protested what they thought was an anti-gay film by revealing the ending on signs they held up outside the theatre, in 1987. (Sadly the film was so confusing it was not clear if they were right.) But also, the trailers for films like Terminator 2 and old horror movies and original movie trailers from the forties and fifties basically give away the movie. They were like, "Come to the movie and you will see these scenes! Don't they look neat?!" But there were also actual filmed campaigns for "don't spoil the twist" that were sometimes trailers themselves -- Hitchcock did at least one that I remember.

(While looking I found the original Psycho trailer, which is hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps8H3rg5GfM ) (which SAYS "Nobody will be seated after the opening," because of Janet Leigh's surprise death)

....IDEFK, I'm just scattered and babbling b/c basically I'm waiting around for spoilers to maybe drop after the LA premiere, and the reviews embargo lifts tomorrow. If Steve or Nat dies I'm not seeing this thing in the theatre. I JUST NEED TO KNOW, MARVEL.


ALTHO, did you see your girl in the latest Spiderling promo?

https://i.redd.it/btsonkiku1t21.jpg

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsrB-1sHn8P/

[tielan]

I haven't. I'm kind of avoiding anything MCU right now, tbh. And I'm kind of tired of Maria 'appearing' in everything but not actually being acknowledged by anyone. One more reason I'd like to be shot of the MCU and the fandom.

[kore]

Further thoughts.... One of the first real "You can't find out about the ending before you see the movie" warnings I remember was Usual Suspects, and that was 1995. IDK, I think one thing that guy was missing was a lot more people used to go to the movies, the movies cost less and there weren't as many of them, and people weren't hooked up to news 24/7 via phones, laptops or even cable TV. You could just skip the review in the paper (and I remember a lot of TV critics, including the famous Siskel and Ebert, got lambasted when they started because they were basically "Yes go see this movie," or "No don't go see it," without a lot of analysis). For a long time you didn't see trailers unless you were in the theatre, or they ran maybe a few times a night on TV. But now, you can read full reviews online, you can see all the trailers online repeatedly, read speculation, even see bootlegs, all at once....and movies cost a lot more, and there's a lot more to see on TV, and you can also see movies for months and months on streaming pretty soon after the release date. (Being ancient, I remember when you had to wait years to maybe see some pan-and-scan censored version on TV, and once it was gone, forget it.) People feel like they have less free time and are more frazzled by marketing, and the studios are desperate to keep people from waiting for streaming or bootlegging, so they freak out re spoilers. The more money they expect to make, the more insane the security is. It's not about protecting the story, it's about making a profit. If most people were really that spoilerphobic who would ever reread a book, or see a movie twice?


OMG WHATEVER, THIS HAS BEEN MY ~DEEP THOUGHTS VOX THINKPIECE, ONLY I WAS NOT PAID FOR IT AND IT DID NOT APPEAR IN VOX. Jesus I may just take a Benadryl and knock myself out for a nap until there's possible news, waiting is driving me nuts

....and boy, judging from reddit, if Tony dies, the internet will EXPLODE. People will be pissed/grieving if Cap dies, but some of the entitled reddit Tony stanbros are freaky.

(I HATE THIS SPOILER EMBARGO, IT'S MAKING ME BEAT UP GRASS KEEP REFRESHING REDDIT SUBS FFS)

[kore]

Aww. Yeah, I can see that, I'm sorry if it really didn't help.

[tielan]

It's the long-running fannish exhaustion of "but Maria appears in this!"

Frankly, I'd rather she died meaningfully and significantly saving the world in Endgame.

[tielan]

Which is to say, be excited, by all means! I'm just unable to enthuse with you.

[kore]

I will settle for Maria punching Thanos!

[tielan]

But even that isn't going to happen. As in, not in a million years would she ever be given even that much agency in fandom (outside of my stories), let alone the movies.

[deird1]

And it’s not until you show up that you get your pages for the day. But you only get your part. So it was like a scene that was completely black redacted, and then just my one line.

That's really an awful way to direct actors. How are they supposed to put any emotion into their character if they don't know anything about the character arc?

[tielan]

Possibly why the more recent movies have been losing a lot of the soul of the movie.

[deird1]

Honestly, the last couple I saw (a while ago) were very soulless, commericial product. They hit all the right story beats – but I didn't care about anything that was happening.

[tielan]

I think that's mentioned in the article: without the actor knowing their character's storyline for the movie, they can't hit the emotional beat.

[tielan]

At this point, I want the Avengers to die in the first fifteen minutes, and some complete unknown[*] to come in and save the day. Just to watch everything meltdown.

[*] Kamala Khan would be perfect.