16 replies to this topic

[glidrose]

This is a spoiler-free topic. So let's not ruin things by dwelling on a certain motion picture company's hacking/leak. Okay?

 

HMSS blog has a great (spoiler-free) article on the subject https://hmssweblog.w...spoiler-debate/

 

Let's rate ourselves on the following scale:

 

10 - I hate spoilers, all spoilers. I still want to kill the Wikipedia editors who revealed that Eve was Moneypenny. Ruined the whole film for me. I throw a fit if I find out what's for dinner before I sit down to eat.

0 - I love spoilers. I'll read the leaked screenplay, listen to the soundtrack, look at production photos and set design blueprints AND use a time machine to read the review I post on this website. All of this *before* I see the film.

 

Using this scale, I'm a Zero. (I can imagine some unkind souls will say I've numbered myself accordingly!)

 

Here's why. I'm old. I've been through this too many times. SPECTRE is Bond number 24-27, depending on how you number them. Every two-to-four years there's yet another Bond film, so all this waiting gets to me. Just let me peak at my Christmas presents early so I don't have all that annoying suspense. That's right. I can't stand the suspense. It's like talking to somebody who can't get to the point and strings you along for an hour.

 

I also don't thrive on surprises. It's a Bond film. What possible surprise can these things hold any more? If surprises were so important none of us would be able to watch a film more than once.

 

I'm from the pre-internet era where there was little advance info. What news bits I got was from Entertainment Tonight in the 1980s and the occasional newspaper mention. Boy was that annoying. Don't want to go back to that!

 

How many of us read the books before we saw the '60s films? Other than YOLT and CR'67, we pretty much knew what we were getting when we saw the film for the first time.

 

Besides, even knowing virtually every little detail, I still have no idea how it will play out onscreen. Having read all the leaked SPECTRE stuff, I still don't know if it will work. I think it will be a good - perhaps even very good - but flawed film. Some great set-pieces, but not much else at the center - too many underdeveloped ideas. But I don't really know that for a fact. Something that works - or doesn't work - on page may play differently on screen.

 

And where does one draw the line on spoilers? This film's title is a spoiler!

 

I suspect that you young 'uns tend to hate spoilers. Anticipating a new Bond film is still a fairly fresh experience for you.

 

Remember, this is a spoiler-free discussion! That's right, NO SPOILERS!

[Major Tallon]

Comrade!  Zero for me as well.  (And I'm old too, so I relate to a lot of the rest of what you've written.)

[Napoleon Solo]

As it applies to fan sites, you're in a no-win situation when it comes to spoilers. For the extreme spoiler adverse, no matter the spoiler warnings, it's often never enough. ("Why are you even writing about that? A true fan wouldn't!") For others, you get a reaction like, "Oh, that's not a real spoiler."

[Hockey Mask]

ZERO!

[Call Billy Bob]

Big fat zero here. Sometimes, reading spoilers is my way of gauging interest and determining if I want to see/read/play something.

[DaveBond21]

7, I guess.

 

I read articles on the non-spoiler page of SPECTRE, I have seen a handful of on-set photos, I enjoy the teaser and the trailer, but I don't want to see a script or know what is going to happen. I avoid this site as soon as the movie is released in the UK until I have seen it in the cinema here in Australia.

 

I would only ever change if they decided to film a Bond movie here in Sydney because then I would be out with my phone taking photos of the shooting!

 

Otherwise, I love seeing it all for the first time on the screen with no idea about what is going to happen, and I would never change that experience. Finding out what happened at the end of Skyfall was both surprising and exhilirating.

[Vauxhall]

Practically sub-zero. For me, hunting down and piecing together the spoilers can almost be as much fun as the film itself. It's all part of the game.

[tdalton]

An 8 or a 9.  I don't mind popping my head into the spoiler section one in a long while to view some pictures of the production, but I don't want to know anything regarding the plot.  I remember people having a rather difficult time keeping spoilers out of the main section during Quantum of Solace and knowing far too much about the film heading into it, which diminished the experience a bit even though the film turned out very well.

[DaveBond21]

Practically sub-zero. For me, hunting down and piecing together the spoilers can almost be as much fun as the film itself. It's all part of the game.

 

I love reading the spoiler section after the film has been released. I recently read the entire spoiler section for Skyfall and thoroughly enjoyed your updates as well as Luigi's.

[Vauxhall]

Practically sub-zero. For me, hunting down and piecing together the spoilers can almost be as much fun as the film itself. It's all part of the game.

 
I love reading the spoiler section after the film has been released. I recently read the entire spoiler section for Skyfall and thoroughly enjoyed your updates as well as Luigi's.

Thanks Dave, very kind of you to say. I also envy you and others for being so spoiler-free going into the film, and really not knowing for respect. Maybe one day I'll manage it...

[univex]

Yep, sub-zero. Spoiler-lover here.

[stromberg]

This is the fifth Bond movie I follow this closely, and it was a bit different with each one.

 

With DAD, CBn and all that internet stuff was rather new to me. The first pic I saw was from shooting the PTS surf scene and from then, I followed the whole thing loosely. Joined CBn the day the first trailer came out and took part in the discussions. A Seven, I'd say, as I didn't want to know everything and spoil the movie for myself. After I saw the movie, I wished it would have been a Zero. Would have spared me some unpleasant surprises.

 

CR was a One. I read everything and looked at all the pics and videos, followed every rumor. Even travelled to Karlovy Vary when they were shooting there. It's not a Zero because I refused to read the leaked script. I was the new guy on the CBn team back then and was extremely motivated. Did lots of own research which resulted in one or the other scoop for CBn.

 

I didn't go to these extremes with QoS. I was keen on details around the production, such as locations, behind the scenes stuff, preparations and schedules. I wasn't actively looking for storyline details or spoilers, but I also didn't really try to avoid them. Also, it was my turn to do the production report in the old German Bond Klub's magazine (which came out before the movie back then). Impossible to do that when you know nothing, but it's easier to write a decent report with not too many spoilers  when you don't know everything. I'd say it was a Four, maybe even a Tree.

 

For SF I tried something different. I followed the production loosely but didn't want to know too many spoilers. Around the end of April, I stopped reading the spoiler forums completely. I tried to make it an Eight or Nine, but in order to achieve that, I should have stopped in early March. Guess it was a Five, maybe even a Four at the end.

 

With SPECTRE, the situation is different. We had lots of leaked material right from the start, which I won't look into before I've seen the movie. And I also try to avoid spoilers that origin from that source. I handle it that way because I want to find out things myself by reseraching and doing a bit of detective work, instead of having it all delivered on a silver plate. That's too easy and there's no fun in it. But I look at every picture and video and I try to get every bit of information that is the result of a proper and legal research. Learned quickly that avoiding the leakspoilers isn't that easy (there are media that tried to force-feed people with it, and I already know more of these things than I wanted to), which made me somewhat overcautious. Whenever I think that a discussion might be going too close towards leakspoiler territory, I stop reading and move on. The problem is, not knowing what's a leakspoiler and what isn't leads to heavy use of gut feeling. Not the best method, but I'm under the impression that it works more or less. Could be that I miss things which are widely known, but I have to live with that. Of course, with the movie's release coming closer, more and more information from that source is going to make it into the regular media coverage. I guess that around September, it'll be impossible to say which is which as certain media will doubtlessly let go every bit of restraint. That'll be the point when I give up and stop caring about spoiler or not or which source it comes from. But I won't go looking for them actively. I still have a bit of hope that I may keep it at a Three or Two, but it'll most likely be a One when the movie comes out.

[dtuba]

I go to 11 on this topic.

 

Hate spoilers, don't want to know what my Christmas presents are, etc. I gotta have something to look forward to. Although I question if it's really doing me any good. I mean, with SF and QOS, I avoided spoilers like the plague, didn't read a whole lot. And yet I was still vaguely dissatisfied in the theater for some reason. I think the long theatrical trailer ruined it a bit for me ( i.e. key pieces of dialogue and stunts like bond leaping from the digger and adjusting his cuffs.) So do I avoid the trailers this spring and summer? That will be tough. In the old days, pre-internetz, we probably saw a trailer once or twice and did not have the luxury of YouTube to watch it over and over.

So I suppose my question is, is it even possible to see a film completely spoiler free, in this day and age of multiple media platforms? Or should I just give up, and give in to the spoilers and leaks?

[When In Egypt]

10!

 

Surprise me!

[tdalton]

I go to 11 on this topic.

 

Hate spoilers, don't want to know what my Christmas presents are, etc. I gotta have something to look forward to. Although I question if it's really doing me any good. I mean, with SF and QOS, I avoided spoilers like the plague, didn't read a whole lot. And yet I was still vaguely dissatisfied in the theater for some reason. I think the long theatrical trailer ruined it a bit for me ( i.e. key pieces of dialogue and stunts like bond leaping from the digger and adjusting his cuffs.) So do I avoid the trailers this spring and summer? That will be tough. In the old days, pre-internetz, we probably saw a trailer once or twice and did not have the luxury of YouTube to watch it over and over.

So I suppose my question is, is it even possible to see a film completely spoiler free, in this day and age of multiple media platforms? Or should I just give up, and give in to the spoilers and leaks?

 

I wouldn't give in to the spoilers, leaks, and the like.  I had a similar experience to you with Skyfall.  I went in knowing absolutely nothing (aside from some jerk spoiling the Eve is Moneypenny bit) other than what was in the trailers and I, much like you, left disappointed.  I do think, though, I would have been even more disappointed had I known everything going.  There was at least some novelty, as disappointing as Skyfall was, with having the film unfold with hardly any knowledge of what was coming around the next corner.

[Goodnight]

I'm going to sit on the fence and say 5.

I enjoyed the current Empire magazine article.
I want to know a bit..but not too much.

Anybody get my drift?

[Napoleon Solo]

Here's a sequel to the post.
It originated after a complaint that mentioning a country where filming is taking place -- which was originally mentioned in the Dec. 4 press release -- amounted to a spoiler. 
https://hmssweblog.w...ate-the-sequel/