How easily do movies get spoiled for you? What does it take?

MattinSTL

MattinSTL

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I can't read a single review... or the synopsis. Even if it's a one line blurb on the poster I usually know the plot. The worst thing somebody can say to me is "you'll never guess the ending"... and then I look at the least likely suspect the whole time... waiting for the inevitable.

I was looking forward to Shutter Island... then I see "someone is missing" on the movie poster... next to Dicaprio's "distrustful, inquisitive" gaze... damn... I'm pretty sure I know the whole plot now.


Does anybody else have this problem? Has the recipe for a particular genre gotten THAT predictable?
 
The marketing machines are also to blame. A single modern trailer will tell you the whole film or reveal the funniest joke punchlines. So then something magnificent or hilarious is reduced to dejavu nausea.

As a society, I think we are also more aware, and thus not only are trailers revealing more and more, but we have become more keen on figuring out more with less. I'm just saying we, as a people I think have been conditioned by commercials and other medium to see where a film is heading way before it gets there. Smarter audiences.

I'm with you Mattin. I like going into a film knowing absolutely NOTHING. I boycott trailers these days.
 
Impossible for me. I can read the entire plot in every detail and not lose the effect. I like to have a twist at the end I didn't see coming sometimes, but most of the time I'm more concerned with how the film gets there than where it's going.
 
I remember some douche on a morning show giving away the ending of the Sixth Sense for me - not happy about that.

I should also add my best mate, who is a movie fanatic, just can't help himself. He's forever giving away endings/big plot points not matter how often I ask him to shut the %^^^ up about it.
 
Bart Simpson gave away the ending of "the crying game" on an episode many years ago.
The little *$^$&.%

I couldn't believe they would do that, but all through the movie I could tell he was right and so the surprise wasn't.
 
It also gives it away that the character not only has large hands but a penis too.
 
I've seen many "reviews" in reputable publications that just tell the story-line without any sort of critique. What's that all about? How can they get paid to do that? Is this what the general public wants?
 
Yesterday I watched an old Simpsons episode where Homer goes to india as chief manager of a nuclear power station. When his family go to rescue him the trip is the same as in Apocalypse now, and we get to know that he was corrupted and created like a small kingdom for himself.....you know the rest.
 
Unlike you guys, I love trailers and reviews. I don't read all reviews, but I go on rotten tomatoes and check the rating, then a few for and against the movie and judge on my own. That's it.g

Trailers, well I need them to know if the movie is worth watching, even if some of them lie about what the plot is because the producers don't think the real story is something they can sell.

What ruins it for me is when people just blatantly give something away. For example on forums when people don't write "spoilers" before giving it away. I like to check out what people on these boards think of a film before going to see if it's worth the time, but once in a while people will give it away. "Oh I knew he was..."

Then there's when a film gets so much hype, and so many people saying 'it's soooo amazing, you HAVE to see it!" and you keep hearing this from several people. You go in expecting the most amazing film in the world, and if it doesn't reach that level than I get disappointed. I always try to go in with low expectations.
 
Trailers, reviews, heck I can read the whole plot and it doesn't bother me.

Idiots in the theater talking, someone next to me bothering me the whole time, anything taking my focus off the movie and not allowing myself to get lost in it... THAT is what spoils movies for me.
 
Mike Harvey said:
Trailers, reviews, heck I can read the whole plot and it doesn't bother me.

Idiots in the theater talking, someone next to me bothering me the whole time, anything taking my focus off the movie and not allowing myself to get lost in it... THAT is what spoils movies for me.
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Exactly! I still remember going to watch Titanic back in the 98.... You couldn't even hear leonardo or kate....
 
Trailers are okay because I know they can be misleading as hell. A movie that really sucks is when the trailer is better than the movie. But other than that I try to keep in a cave when I know a certain Director is putting out a movie soon. It's hard to not see anything about the movie especially if you are on these forums a lot. So on Avatar I did a great job refusing to watch any behind the scenes stuff or reading a single thing about it other than it was supposed to be unbelievable 3D. Then somebody on this forum posted a link with no explanation and it was a behind the scenes video. I told my Wife "Okay that is it... we are watching this movie tonight because this is just going to keep happening." After watching it I was pleased that I did well keeping in the dark.
 
Nitsuj said:
Trailers are okay because I know they can be misleading as hell.
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This is my point as it relates to "thrillers".

What they give you is a reasonable process of elimination... because of that fact, "intentional misleading".

(Everything I want to type after the above sentence will turn out to be a spoiler, I'll bet... if we did a thread called "speculative spoilers" I think I can guess any thriller twist based only on the movie poster and a trailer.)

If you say "so what, I can do that also" then congratulations... it sucks. I think the trailers and movie posters for certain genres (especially thrillers) give away too much... :happy:
 
I agree many films are giving away too much in the trailers. I think it is because the motive behind it comes down to money. They just want to make their money back and hoping for a profit. If it means showing the best parts of the movie or giving away too much just to get seats filled then they do it. So I think there is tremendous pressure to show more. In my eyes I think a good trailer is more of a montage of music from the film married with the visual style. Just a glimpse into what you are about to see. A moving picture with no words. But then again I haven't made a feature yet so I may have an opinion based on inexperience but I stick behind my ideals anyway.
 
Problem from a writer's point of view is you see the structure:

reluctant hero
near death experience
catalysis moment to throw main character into second act
love interest
"expected" twist coming

The map is the map is the map is the map. But just because we all use about the same map doesn't mean that
aspects within the story can't be original and interesting.

The problem is finding something like "Momento" that strays from the map, hard to find.
 
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Sometimes having a twist ending spoiled for me is what made me want to see the movie. Like Fight Club. I always thought the movie was just a pointless movie about fighting, based on the trailers. MY sister saw it and raved about it, and desperately wanted to tell me about the ending, which blew her mind. I told her to tell me anyway. "Whatever. I'll probably never see it." Then she told me the big twist, which actually intrigued me and made me want to see it. I still love Fight Club to this day. Not necessarily because the ending is mind-blowing, for lots of other reasons now. I'm not necessarily interested in being surprised. I'm with whoever already said in this thread that they're more interested in how a story gets there, rather than where it goes.
 
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