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Don't you hate spoilers? (Read 8330 times)

Mar 29^th, 2012 at 2:22pm

R_F_Fineman Offline
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Boston

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Contains no spoilers:

I haven't read "The Hunger Games" and have yet to see the movie, but already an article with no real association to the film has given away who kills who. What's the matter with them?

Maybe we should start a spoiler-free thread...a "Spoiler Hall of Shame", so that innocent readers don't stumble upon these literary land mines.

I just hope the trailer or some critic doesen't give away the ending of this film:

John Dies at the End (2012)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1783732/ Wink

21st Century Man

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Reply #1 - Mar 29^th, 2012 at 2:43pm

kirok Offline
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i submit myself for insertion into the spoiler hall of shame. back in 2003 or so i posted the ending to harry potter and the half blood prince. not the movie, the book. the book hype was unbelievable. and when i saw how easy it was to retrieve a synopsis i foolishly posted it here with no spoiler alert.

PANTS UP. DON'T LOOT.

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Reply #2 - Mar 29^th, 2012 at 6:09pm

R_F_Fineman Offline
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Quote:

i submit myself for insertion into the spoiler hall of shame...-Kirok

Quote:

"Let's not argue over who killed who" -Monty Python and the Holy Grail

You're in good company. We've all let a few things slip. The story goes that Stanley Kubrick, then living in England, was furious when he finally saw the original trailer for "Full Metal Jacket" that the studio had put together. One brief but clear shot gave away the climax of the first half of the movie and another gives away the major surprise in the second half! Shocked

(The "official" one on Youtube is not the old spoiler trailer which was shot MTV-style to a rock soundtrack.)

ps. "John Dies at the End" is a sci-fi movie, and sure enough, the plot synopsis gives something else away! Shocked

21st Century Man

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Reply #3 - Mar 29^th, 2012 at 8:19pm

L.A. Connection Offline
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I definitely am in the no spoiler camp. I hate critics who think just because they saw a movie at something like the Guam film festival 4 months ago, that it's fair game to discuss the closing scene. Grrr. We even have a Marathoner/Critic who falls in that category, and is even proud and boasts about it. Not to name any names but his initials are

D.K.

.

Folks, there are ways to discuss a film without detailing every crucial plot turn. Be clever. Code your language to express your thoughts to both those who have seen the movie, and those who haven't yet.

R_F_Fineman wrote on Mar 29^th, 2012 at 2:22pm:

I just hope the trailer or some critic doesen't give away the ending of this film:John Dies at the End (2012)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1783732/ Wink

My favorite example of that is the overlooked Arthur Penn film, PENN AND TELLER GET KILLED.

Spoiler alert

....at the end of the film, Penn and Teller get killed!

The characters sit there dead on screen for a few awkwards moments. The camera pulls away and Penn narrated, "Oh, yeah! We're dead!... I mean the movie is called 'Penn and Teller Get Killed'"

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Reply #4 - Mar 29^th, 2012 at 9:43pm

IamJacksUserID Offline
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I am continuously baffled by the unavailability of the hilarious and sometimes brilliant Penn & Teller Get Killed, especially considering their continued success and the fact that they haven't gone away as far as general public awareness goes.

On the subject of spoilers: there are a few movies upcoming that I am deliberately avoiding information about.
Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods is hitting theaters in just a couple weeks and is said to be a "game changer" of some sort and the less you know going in the better. Once I heard that from several sources, I stopped looking for any kind of information whatsoever. I haven't even watched the trailer, which I hear is unfortunately pretty spoilerific.

I caught the full-scene IMAX teaser for The Dark Knight Rises last December, and that was good enough for me. I'm stoked enough that I don't need to see any more until July. Nolan usually does a pretty good job handling the marketing, and I'm sure is smart enough to realize the movie's gonna make money without having to overload us with too much information.

The other big release I'm looking forward to that is doing a decent job of not leaking too much is Ridley Scott's Prometheus. I'm curious how close it's relationship to Alien is, but I don't need to know that until I see the movie.

There are some spoilers that are simply unavoidable because they are constantly "out there" like Citizen Kane, Soylent Green and The Sixth Sense. But I have also found that the best "twists" I have experienced historically were when I don't even know there is one, so I'm not even aware I am being manipulated or that there is something to "figure out." A great example of this would be Dexter's brilliant fourth season as compared to the most recent mediocre 6th season (well, except for the very last few seconds of the season, THAT was pretty good).

So sometimes even knowing there is a spoiler is a spoiler in and of itself. So uh...SPOILER ALERT! I guess, for those not caught up on Dexter who plan to.

Bread makes you fat?!?

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Reply #5 - Mar 30^th, 2012 at 7:41am

kirok Offline
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Posts: 692

penn and teller get killed made the rounds on cable and broadcast but went nowhere. as for the ending..
spoiler
spoiler
spoiler

they get killed in a hotel room but they also subsequently create a scenario wherein any one who enters the room will commit suicide.

PANTS UP. DON'T LOOT.

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Reply #6 - Mar 30^th, 2012 at 2:25pm

Jay Seaver Offline
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Somerville, MA

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Roger Ebert has gotten terrible about this lately; if he doesn't like a movie, he will drop something about the end of the movie in seemingly out of spite.

When I review stuff, I try not to talk about much outside the first act while still giving some impression of whether the story is something the reader would be interested in.

On the other hand, I sometimes think paranoia about "spoilers" goes too far; it's sometimes pretty much impossible to discuss a film without commenting on the last act or important twists. A movie review doesn't just have to be a buyer's guide, and some of the most satisfying (and popular!) movie blogging I've done has been from dissecting how the end works.

(Oh, and coincidentally, I saw JOHN DIES AT THE END last night, and, uh...)

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Reply #7 - Mar 30^th, 2012 at 8:14pm

L.A. Connection Offline
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Jay Seaver wrote on Mar 30^th, 2012 at 2:25pm:

...
On the other hand, I sometimes think paranoia about "spoilers" goes too far; it's sometimes pretty much impossible to discuss a film without commenting on the last act or important twists. A movie review doesn't just have to be a buyer's guide, and some of the most satisfying (and popular!) movie blogging I've done has been from dissecting how the end works.

(Oh, and coincidentally, I saw JOHN DIES AT THE END last night, and, uh...)

There are daily reviewers and there are more long-form critics and essayists. I think the average daily reviewer should really adhere to the non-spoiler range of things. Sometimes, it may be necessary to 'spoil' things, but an easy to avoid WARNING should always precede it. We have a local critic who also does a radio show and is just awful with spoilers. He'll babble on and on and then just blurt out the ending of a movie and then say, "oops, I guess I just gave it all away" - and, not, in a genuinely apologetic way.

But, I agree, there are more thoughtful film writers who have to be given more leeway considering they are doing a more detailed analysis of the film. Still, when they are writing anyway near the initial release of a movie, they should take care not to be too cavalier with the most crucial plot details. I know that folks like the aforementioned

D.K.

say, "Hey, I'VE seen the movie! I'm gonna write what I feel like, so too bad!"

That kind of attitude (and the diarrhea-mouthed radio critic) just turns off folks even more to critics in general.

(and what is your Non-Spoiler review of JOHN?)

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Reply #8 - Apr 14^th, 2012 at 9:30am

R_F_Fineman Offline
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Boston

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This just had to happen given the spoiler-fest that online movie news has become.

Your Spoiler Forecast 2012

http://io9.com/5878518/your-spoiler-forecast-for-20-movies-and-tv-shows
(contains no spoilers itself, except to occasionally say: does/doesen't depart from the book or original film in the case of the many remakes.)

I for one, am going to hide under my bed until I can see Josh Wheddon's "Cabin in the Woods". It seems the forces of evil are all around me and are on a mission to reveal some major plot twist! Shocked

21st Century Man

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