Star Wars and anti-spoiler culture. Why?

[JKtheMac]

Well, on a random story about the new Bridget Jones movie someone named Victoria commented wondering if Patrick Dempsey is supposed to be Hugh Grant and someone named Nate Turner posted a pic with spoilers about Han, Luke and Kylo:
https://www.facebook.com/entertainme...53872166284701
If you click the "view more replies" on Victoria Miller's comment you can see it.

I've never seen people act that way with other new movies.

I don't use Facebook so I can't. And that in itself may be one of the culture changing factors. Facebook has very few filters. Why people put up with the mess that is modern Facebook is beyond me, rewards just outweigh negatives I guess.

Oh actually I could. Yes that is very weird behavior, did you see this kind of thing a lot?

Also within the first third of the movie you kind of know 80% of this or suspect it.

[JKtheMac]

Anti-Spoiler culture? I see what you're getting at, but I think it's way simpler than you're making it out to be. Some people enjoy going into a movie as blind as possible, and it being the internet age and all, sometimes it's very hard to do that.

Well the "blind as possible" thing is what I think has changed. I don't remember that ever being a consideration. Sure, not told the overall plot is fair enough, not told the twists that contribute to the enjoyment of the movie.

I guess what this question really boils down to is when did everyone start fussing about details of the premise.

I think I am beginning to see this is an issue with non-professional reviews, semi-professional blogs, click-bait blogs and social media ubiquity. For example I wouldn't for one minute have chosen to follow a Star Wars focused Tumblr, but I do follow a number of comic ones and a couple of Doctor Who ones. If I start getting a couple of spoilers I don't mind, if I get too many I stop following, but the difference for me is, if I get totally spoiled about something major I am pragmatic. I don't worry too much because the spoiler is often untrue, skewed through media ignorance, or otherwise open to interpretation.

Now that I have seen the film I have looked at a few click-bait articles and they are mostly awful. They are sensationalist, grossly simplified and skewed.

I am trying to imagine how I would have reacted if the biggest reveal in Star Wars had been told to me beforehand. I don't think it would have made a lot of difference. That element was not the main reason I liked or disliked the film. It wasn't a key part of the enjoyment of the film, it wasn't one of the elements I considered flawed.

[JKtheMac]

Movies like THE CRYING GAME and THE SIXTH SENSE

Amongst some great points you mention these two key twist films. And it is interesting to me because I was spoiled for both of them.

For The Crying Game it wasn't really an issue because I didn't watch it but it seemed to me everybody knew the ending of that film within a couple of weeks. There were jokes about it, references in the media, and generally the public latched onto the ending. Indeed that reveal in itself seemed to drive people to the cinema.

Sixth Sense has more resonance to my experience because I was intending to see it and it was deliberately spoiled in a "let's be edgy and spoil six films in 10 seconds before you have a chance to turn off" joke on TV. That for me was annoying and definitely not funny. However in the long run the only difference it made to my enjoyment of the film was I didn't get that 'now I want to watch it all over again to see why I missed it' feeling. Sure that is a personal response and I know my wife was much more annoyed about it. Ironically we delayed watching it and she forgot the twist by the time we did so she was both annoyed and then still delighted.

[JKtheMac]

In the end, as with most things relating to our digital evolution and globalization, though, I think it boils down to simply exercising good judgment and respecting others, two traits which are sadly in lack of abundance these days.

I would like to think things are not quite as bad as you hint here. Judgement can come with age, and the more vocal and strident parts of the Internet seem to have a lower average age. But I am often astounded by how well some very young reviewers are able to critically assess the media these days. Respect is double edged, when people feel their views are marginalized or disregarded it often leads to anger and resentment, and you see some of that in the fear of spoilers and also the backlash from people who see the whole Star Wars phenomenon to be over hyped and excluding them.

[David Walton]

Well, I seem to recall seeing some interviews about how Lucas had to take measures to protect plot points in ESB, and that fans were trying to camp outside the studio and take photographs of actors on set.

You could argue that Star Wars created the spoiler culture. I'm sure someone could point me to earlier examples, but it really seems like SW was the franchise that got the mainstream viewing public more interested in the behind the scenes stuff.

[abysslord]

It's like presents. Some kids can wait until Christmas to open the present, some can't control themselves and MUST know what's in there. Then some have to even know what's in another person's present and tell them to make themselves feel important. The "I know something that you don't" feeling is too powerful for a lot of people to contain.

[Jim Kelly]

I used to read reviews in the paper quite often and it bothered me that some reviewers would spoil important elements of the plot. These were professional reviewers so I believed they were breaking some kind of code. And that's what really bothered me--not the spoiler itself, but the lapse in standards.

I got to the point where I would just read the opening sentence and closing sentence--whch usually told me if the reviewer thought the movie was worth seeing.

So I don't think this is a new thing or a difference in standards between pros and the public. But on screens it's so much easier to hide spoilers--surely that's the great advantage of online resources. I can see why someone truly interested in cinema as an art would want to get into the details of the movie to discuss it on a higher level--rather than just whether the reviewer recommends the movie or not. And now professional reviewers can do that safely, simply by hiding the spoilers so they're not immediately visible.

I've also heard about some new app that works like predictive software to tell you if something is a potential spoiler before you read it. So I'm sure the technology will resolve this problem soon, in our high-tech world. That won't stop spoilers in the low-tech world, where they have always been with us.

[MyriVerse]

So far I've had no problem avoiding Star Wars spoilers, but I'm using my common sense.

Until I saw the film yesterday, I knew literally nothing about the story beyond the commercials.