Marvel Cinematic Universe

People on twitter really really don't give a fuck about spoiling things do they? Best avoid for the next few days.

Wonder what increased % of people go to see these comic book films in the first week just to avoid "spoilers"? Marketing writes itself.

Just got home.

Spiderman was a film I enjoyed it very much. I reckon you will too! Go and watch it before spoilers are common place.

(It won't take long, my screening literally had 5 or 6 empty seats. So plenty of bellends will be watching it tonight).

It just seems par for the course now. Almost all of these big Marvel blockos have some twist/reveal whereby you have to see it in the opening week. I can't remember the last time someone recommended I go to the cinema to see a film based on merit rather than FOMO "spoilers".

It's just all a big machine, man.

I find the way movie spoiler culture has evolved over the last decade or so to be deeply weird. I don't spoil things for other people (I don't want to be a dick), but... the trailers already do that. Better watch the trailer before the trailer spoilers come out!

And then there's the casting news, the social media, hell even the posters.

If you've somehow managed to maintain a monk-like existence away from all of this before and after release, all power to you. But for the rest of us, maybe the best thing to do is to stop giving a shit about spoilers for this kind of thing.

I’m in two minds. There are clearly movies where knowing the twists can transform how you watch the entire thing, and while that as an effective technique is few and far between nowadays, it’s obviously a dick move to not use clear spoiler tags and so on, especially when it’s brand spanking new. Then there are people who use “spoiler” to mean “literally any detail they don’t know already” rather than something critical to the storytelling, where it really shouldn’t matter but the weird cult of spoilerdom has made it a thing. And then there are the people who are like the above but then actively participate in chats and threads about whatever it is they don’t want spoiled and then get outraged about it when the entire thread isn’t hidden behind spoiler tags. Or that it is and they decided to click anyway.

I think it's a bit different for TV. People get invested in the twists and turns of TV shows with longform narratives, talk about it with friends like some weekly ritual. I get that, I would have been annoyed if someone (for example) spoiled the season finale of Lost for me.

But even that is really hard with entire seasons dropping at once now. So you don't know what you can and can't fucking talk about because everyone is watching it at a different pace.

I don’t separate them that much, it’s all entertainment and with the Marvel stuff I’m just happy seeing masses of cash is being pumped in and actually make me forget for a bit life’s crap these last few years.

I tend to find the more relaxed and less I care about spoilers the easier they are to avoid, whereas when my vigilance is on high I see spoilers everywhere because I’m alert to them and my attention is drawn to them.

If I knew I was seeing Spiderman at the weekend I’d inevitably see something big because I’d be on the look out not to see it but if I was resigned to not seeing it until its available stream I’ll get away with it.

And the speculation and fan theories that build over the weeks are free marketing for a show.

I do try to just wait until whole series are up, it’s a bit harder with the Disney shows as so many are talking about them every week.

No Way Home was everything I'd hoped it would be. Absolutely loved it. Saw it at 9:30 this morning and have been thinking about it all day since.

Watching Hawkeye and No Way Home a couple of days apart has been a huge thrill. I can't wait for everyone to have seen them so I can talk about them. Especially Spider-Man, because all the best bits of that film are really super spoilery plot stuff.