FTMN Poll: Spoilers
With the Avengers out in the UK and reviews pouring in, how do you feel about spoilers? Do they ruin the movie, or just make you more excited to see it. If you hear a big spoiler like the death of a character, do you get mad? Does it make you enjoy the movie more, or less knowing what happens. A study shows that knowing the ending actually improves your enjoyment. What do you think? Leave a comment, share, and tomorrow I’ll give my whole feelings on the subject.
Posted on April 30, 2012, in Polls and tagged movies, poll, spoilers, Superhero. Bookmark the permalink. 16 Comments.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 
I think that study is incorrect for me, at least on initial viewings. OK, on one level I know the general tone of the ending before I see the movie. The good guys almost always win, the hero almost always gets the girl, etc. I know that’s usually the case, that’s not much of a spoiler. An aversion of that is a spoiler, though, and I’d prefer to be surprised. A twist that is told — not foreshadowed, but told by another viewer — lacks the impact due to the lack of surprise.
I hold this to be true even for old films. I know I know, it was his sleigh, soylent green is people, and so forth. But, when possible, I think people should avoid spilling big twists. Sometimes in really old films the cat’s out of the bag, but there’s a palpable difference watching something like The Usual Suspects knowing or not knowing. It changes the film, and even though the film is several years old at this point, people deserve the chance to see the film “pure” the first time.
I know it’s not an easy thing to do while reviewing. Heck, with my favorite films review of The Matrix, I felt the only responsible thing for me to do was to tell people who still haven’t seen it to not read my review, because there was no way for me to talk about why it was great without discussing some huge spoilers. In my normal reviews, I struggle sometimes with how much to say and how much to withhold when talking about the plot. Ultimately, though, I think if something was meant to be a surprise the first time you watch it, then people should let it be a surprise the first time you watch it.
There have been a couple big films that have been spoiled for me. The Sixth Sense was spoiled for me while it was still in theaters before I saw it a week or so later, but I still enjoyed it. I’ve also had The Usual Suspects spoiled for me but have yet to see it (I know, I know, it’s on my list).
Personally I try to avoid revealing surprises (like the one in Super), but I imagine I either have or will spoil revelations that are at the core of understanding the movie as a whole, like in Fight Club or the Sixth Sense.
I’ve seen and reviewed it but tried to avoid spoilers as I knew it wasn’t out in the states yet. All I will say is that when the Hulk and Captain America announced they were an item and adopting I was completely blown away!
Oh I could totally see that. You can tell they’re giving each other the eye in one of the trailers.
I HATE spoilers. To me, knowing things for certain movies completely changes the experience that I think the filmmaker has in mind. I rather go into movies completely blind with no preconceived notions. I pretty much avoid reading or seeing any pre-release material that I think may spoil plot points. But I am one of those who, if I really want to see something, I see it opening weekend, so that helps since I don’t have to avoid stuff for long. That being said though, I don’t get too mad at people for giving away things in reviews, online or even in conversation. People are excited and usually just want to talk about it if they loved it or thought it was interesting (since I see things early, I have to make it a special point to try and keep my mouth shut; it’s hard to do!). I just make it a point to avoid things. I think the only real time I had something spoiled for me by a friend was for “The Village”, a movie I didn’t see until it was on DVD, which of course changed my whole experience with the film.
I too don’t understand the results of the survey that says spoilers are beneficial. I would totally think it was the opposite.
I think it largely depends on how you feel about the concept of spoilers in the first place. If you’re watching a movie and spend the whole time angrily complaining about the person or site that spoiled the movie for you instead of enjoying the movie then I imagine it will affect your viewing experience. But if you don’t care about spoilers, then the only thing you’re really losing out on is the surprise factor. But surprise doesn’t always equal enjoyment.
Surprise doesn’t always equal enjoyment, but one of the big joys of movies in general is watching a story unfold for the first time.
The worst thing for me is when a trailer spoils either a specific part of a movie, or the whole thing. Some trailers just show the whole damn movie, so there’s no point in seeing it after you’ve watched the trailer. Aside from that, if we’re talking about a discussion on a blog or site, the people there should be able to talk about a movie without fear of spoiling something. I like it when someone tells you they’re about to give something away. But if it’s something like an Ebert review for a movie that just hit theaters, I don’t want it to give anything away that can be avoided.
One thing that often surprises me is going back to some trailers and seeing a moment from the end of the movie, but it’s so brief or out of context that you can’t tell from the trailer that it’s the final scene. And I’m pretty sure it happens quite a bit, moreso than the recent complaints of spoilers being in trailers.
Another weird thing about trailers is when they use something that’s totally not in the movie. I understand why they do it, but it’s just weird sometimes.
The exception to that is for most Pixar movies, I really enjoy their teasers which are made completely separate of the movie, like the teaser for the Incredibles is hilarious even though it has little to do with the actual movie.
I think it’s cool for stuff like that. Viral videos are like that. Elysium, for example, has a viral video that’s a commercial by the fake company in the movie. I really like that kind of stuff. The original Total Recall did the same thing.
I guess for me, less is always more, therefore I always try and steer clear of spoliers if I can. This seems to be a hot topic at the moment and one of the issues raised elsewhere (by I think Ryan over at The Matinee) is that should there be a time limit after which it is ok to include spoilers, so essentially saying if you haven’t seen it by now then its all on you. Personally I disagree with that as I often find some of the best film recommendations have come from the back editions of podcasts or posts and I want to see these films as spoiler free as possible. It doesn’t matter when the film was realeased if you are seeing it for the first time.
Yea, that argument is crap. So, I haven’t seen _____ yet, and it came out 20 years ago. Everyone doesn’t watch every movie right when it comes out, so I appreciate when a blogger/reviewer/whatever at least gives me some advance warning, such as
****spoiler***
something like that. It’s true, I get a lot of recommendations from podcasts, but sometimes I have to skip ahead after they mention it because they start talking about it. There’s nothing wrong with that, again, as long as they mention the fact they’ll be talking about it.
I think it depends on both the age of the movie, and the impact of the spoiler. Something like many of the spoilers listed in the picture are pretty big spoilers, although the second half of the Harry Potter one should be “for the right reasons”.
I have been holding off reading any Avengers reviews. T minus 3hrs till showtime.
Old movies, depends on how big a spoiler,