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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 12, 2006 19:42:02 GMT -5
To me, this is something that I wanted to ask ever since I joined and started doing reviews, and it's something for all of you folks:
What do you consider as a spoiler in a movie review?
To me, a spoiler, as I've done horror films, consists of:
1. Telling a plot twist.
2. Naming a character's death method, but naming a type of death isn't. That is, naming a girl is decapitated, but saying a decapitation is in the movie isn't a spoiler.
3. Revealing the killer when it should be a mystery who it is.
4. Telling the final out-come.
I know that you people may agree on 1 and 4, and the others apply to mine, but tell me, what do you consider a spoiler in a movie review? Nearly every single review of a film is a spoiler in a sense to certain people, so I want to know.
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Post by Quorthon on Mar 13, 2006 9:48:07 GMT -5
I'm not sure this needs to be stickied. It's just a conversation. One that might better work in Off the Chest, and then applied to the "rules" I originally wrote up in the "Dictator Dictates" thread with the movies list.
(Yeah, I'll get right on updating that ASAP)
So, no offense, man, but I'm thinking this could be unstickied.
A spoiler is simply: Giving away a plot point that is essential to the film's overall strength.
Like finding out Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father. That revelation is part of why Empire Strikes Back is such a strong movie. In a movie where there is guaranteed to be a high body-count, revealing who lives, who dies, and who kills are spoilers. This isn't just for horror films, either. Thrillers and, boy do I love these more and more, war movies and even drama and Sci-Fi films have this. Like telling you that Tom Hanks ends up all dead at the end of Saving Private Ryan. That's a spoiler. Or revealing that Dingle-Dorf died in the latest Harry Potter... or... whatever...
Simple as that.
Non-spoilers:
*Commenting on how the cinematography made you nauseous because it so severly lacked artistic integrity or vision, a la "Saw."
*Letting us know just how badly Keanu Reeves behaved attempting to convince us he's "human."
*Mentioning how the music made you cringe as to just how over-the-top and needless it was a la "Cold Creek Manor."
*Commenting on how the story was laden down with plot holes and unexplained phenomena a la "Saw" once again. But, in this one, point out examples not specifics, like saying, "evidence against the killer is found in highly unbelievable and unrealistic manners;" instead of, say, "Danny Glover manages to isolate and listen to a single audio track, by virtue of pure magic, from a VCR." Granted, in Saw, this doesn't hurt anything because that movie sucks worse than a toothless whore with canker sores.
*Telling us how the costumes were so uninspired and pathetic that they appeared to be little more than old carpet and Halloween masks thrown haphazardly over unwilling, slow-moving midgets a la "Troll 2." Don't, for the love of Goat, tell us details on how the creatures looked, like the aliens in "Signs" or the creatures in "The Village."
Stuff like that. Why, you could even be positive instead of negative. Just don't give away specifics.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 13, 2006 11:22:57 GMT -5
Well, this is our section, so if you feel that way, I'll move it over there. I was just wondering, as I always get that in a review that it is spoilrer heavy. I'll move it then.
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Post by Quorthon on Mar 13, 2006 12:51:21 GMT -5
When we have what we can consider a "definitive explanation" of a spoiler, which we can get through here, then I'll enter that definition into the original "rules of Review Hell."
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 13, 2006 13:00:25 GMT -5
I'm game. Let the others tell us this, for our own good. No bodies' ever said what is a spoiler, just that there can't be any.
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Post by Phoenix on Mar 13, 2006 13:19:51 GMT -5
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 13, 2006 13:31:29 GMT -5
I don't know what to say. That spoiled so many movies for me I'm at a loss for words.
Just kidding there. I already knew most of them. I'd like to think that revealing spoilers like that would be grounds for automatic dismissal of the site, though. Many of us know better to ruin surprises like those.
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Post by Phoenix on Mar 13, 2006 15:03:48 GMT -5
I don't know what to say. That spoiled so many movies for me I'm at a loss for words Just kidding there. I already knew most of them. I'd like to think that revealing spoilers like that would be grounds for automatic dismissal of the site, though. Many of us know better to ruin surprises like those. It was marked "Spoiler Examples" ...you were warned! |
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Post by Quorthon on Mar 13, 2006 15:05:08 GMT -5
That's why there's the rule to state them ahead of time. If a review suddenly thrusts out a nasty spoiler, I'll either edit it out, or post in the review that there are spoilers.
Or both.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 13, 2006 17:18:48 GMT -5
I don't know what to say. That spoiled so many movies for me I'm at a loss for words Just kidding there. I already knew most of them. I'd like to think that revealing spoilers like that would be grounds for automatic dismissal of the site, though. Many of us know better to ruin surprises like those. It was marked "Spoiler Examples" ...you were warned! I think the sarcasm of the bottom two sentences was lost, maybe. Joking around, Phoenix. |
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Post by Termination on Mar 13, 2006 17:22:46 GMT -5
Unfortunately anthing other than one's overall opinion of the film or rating is a spoiler. Some people (including myself) find that even a plot outline can ruin the person(s) "first" experience with said film.
Sinse I feel that way, I'll read reviews "after" I've seen said film.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 13, 2006 17:30:15 GMT -5
That's the reason why I came up with this question, Term, as you pointed out. To some, a plot outline is considered a spoier, so thank you for proving my point about this.
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Post by Quorthon on Mar 14, 2006 9:19:48 GMT -5
Unfortunately anthing other than one's overall opinion of the film or rating is a spoiler. Some people (including myself) find that even a plot outline can ruin the person(s) "first" experience with said film. Sinse I feel that way, I'll read reviews "after" I've seen said film. That's a good point. When running down a synopsis, I try to keep the description to little more than bare-bones. Usually I try to make the plot description only a little more clear than what a commercial gives you. For some movies, like The Village, I wouldn't say anything more than its "a movie where a frontier-American town must contend with mysteries in their town and the woods nearby." But, if a movie really sucks some major ass, I want to know why. |
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Post by spacer on Mar 16, 2006 4:28:40 GMT -5
I'll read reviews "after" I've seen .... film. The same with me. I just wanna add that most of the spoilers mentioned in the reviews are about things which are badly made so that very often spoilers are "what-sucked-in-the-flick" info. |
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Post by Heineken Skywalker on Mar 18, 2006 11:32:11 GMT -5
I feel that if you're a real film fan and a movie has been around long enough, 10 or more years, and you still haven't seen it, and it gets spoiled for you by someone, then you have no one but yourself to blame.
Something like MILLION DOLLAR BABY, which is still a fairly recent movie, I would definitely give a spoiler warning before babbling all the details.
If you're a frequent visitor to film sites, like this one, IMDB, AintItCoolNews, etc., innevitably, people will discuss some classic movies. Film fans owe it to themselves to seek out classic films, not just for their own enjoyment, but also so they'll be "in the know" about a movie's plot twists, secrets, etc. I'm all for putting "spoiler warnings" at the beginning of a review, or just before the part of a review that contains a spoiler, but if you're of a certain age and don't know certain spoilers by now, then really there's no reason for you to get pissed.
I even made a joke of the spoiler warning at the beginning of my review of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. That's got to be one of the worst kept secrets in film history by now. Especially after people have seen the STAR WARS prequels. If you watch them in order, Episodes I-VI, there is no longer any shock for the viewer at Vader's revelation in Episode V.
Without actually giving them away, here are some others with a plot twist or surprise ending that everyone on THE BOARD should know by now, and if you don't, shame on you for not having seen them or only having read about them:
CITIZEN KANE
PLANET OF THE APES (1968)
PSYCHO
THE SIXTH SENSE
THE USUAL SUSPECTS
FIGHT CLUB
THE CRYING GAME
SOYLENT GREEN
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