With every movie and TV show relying on plot twists that have no foreshadowing to speak of, the fear of a story being spoiled is greater than ever before. We all need to go watch the film or episode this very instant or it will forever be ruined by the internet chatter that is bound to follow.
Movies today make almost all of their revenues in the first weekend. The concept of a silver jubilee run, 25 weeks at the box office, sounds like an urban legend now.
But, one thing I’ve seen happening more and more, is that movies where the risk of spoilers are the highest are also the ones with the most unsatisfying stories. The most recent example is Avengers Endgame.
The movie was a total disappointment for me. And that wasn’t a surprise either. I had known to expect a poor finale, and yet I watched it the day it released. Not because I’m afraid of spoilers either, I just wanted to be clued in to the conversations that were bound to follow. It wasn’t that I valued the twist, but that I wanted to be part of the conversation.
So what does this mean for filmmakers? Very simply that word-of-mouth and reviews no longer have the power to affect your film because they’ve roused the audiences to a frenzy with the whole secrecy act. No longer can I watch a movie and tell someone else that it wasn’t good, because they’ve watched it already.
And that just makes us all a bunch of suckers. The filmmakers have said to us that this movie relies on a lot of jump scares and irrational twists, not on engaging and vivid storytelling.
And, we’ve responded by saying we don’t mind that because we’re not looking for a story that stands on its own but rather on a collective cult-like observation of a vow of silence and intimidation.
Even among superhero movies, think of ‘Batman Returns’ (an underrated classic), ‘The Dark Knight’, or the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies. Spoilers didn’t undercut those movies, because the experience wasn’t that of a dim joke with a corny punchline.
These movies aren’t meant to be mystery thrillers, so why the secrecy? Perhaps, because instead of good storytelling like the earlier films, the recent ones have all fallen prey to the ever-grandstanding spectacles, and to keep topping it we need to be kept in a state of nervous anticipation.
I for one do not like being treated like a child who is not allowed to go to the bathroom. Spoiler-centric movies are not giving me my money’s worth. They are scamming me like any limited time offer.