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How do?


First, I’ll explain I’m fairly drunk as I type this. What? It’s not like theres owt better to do Of a Sunday!

But having been to pub, and scoffed a delightful Chinese meal, I’m now watching Predator. And that’s when it struck me. I’ve never not known what this film is about. I genuinely cannot recall not being aware of how it pans out.

I genuinely couldn’t tell you when I first saw this film. But for reference, I can recall not knowing there were three Star Wars films, and thinking Aliens was a TV series.

And it’s got me thinking. How has my enjoyment of certain films been compromised by osmotic spoilers? Why osmotic! It’s a weird word. And quite a wordy word. Not one we tend to use in everyday conversation. Well. I’ll tell you. Well. I’ll try. Predator left such an impact that it was referenced and that in TV shows and other films before I actually saw it.

Another (crap) example? WAAAASSSSSAAAAAAP? Yeah. First encountered that watching Scary Movie. It wasn’t until some months later that the ad being referenced hit UK airwaves. Suddenly, a ‘what? Huh?’ moment made sense.

From there, my Brian wandered into pondering sequels. And how wonderful it would be if we could selectively reset memories as Nerds.

Imagine being able to choose a movie, stick it up the spot, and blank your memories of all you know about it, however tengental.

To see Alien and Aliens again with fresh eyes. To potentially actually enjoy the prequel trilogy of Star Wars without rose tinted glasses of childhood memories of the original trilogy.

Experience, folks. It’s mostly awesome and helps stop us getting ded. But once in a while, I do wish I could clear out the old brain.

Starwars 1, 2 ,3 would have had far more impact without JarJar, but also without the audience already knowing what was going to happen to Anakin. We already knew the biggest spoilers in that series. That the Empire was going to arise, that the Jedi would fall, that Vader would rise from Anakin, that the twins would be hidden from him, that chances are everyone was going to wind up dead etc...

It removed a vast amount of suspense and mystery from those films that I don't think the writers ever managed to overcome. They could hold some things in surprise, such as the nature of the twists and turns, but ultimately the biggest twists were revealed. It was like Columbo where you already know the murderer, but without the charm of Peter Falk expertly bumbling his way to the conclusion.



And yes this is one reason why I try to avoid a LOT of pre-release info on films and games. I try to avoid as much as I can to avoid disappointment. Both from things spoilt in early information and reviews; through to the other (sometimes worse ) trap. That one where you take tiny bits of info and write your own epic story in your head. Sure its not fully fleshed out and its probably got more plot holes, but its very easy to wind up with an idea of what will happen which can lead to disappointment when what you think should be happening; doesn't happen.

But what we have made of the prequels with absolutely no knowledge at all of Star Wars?

Don't really agree. There was lots of suspense and mystery to the prequels. They had no real point or purpose, and their plotlines were gibberish that just rolled to a stop around the 2 hour mark and declared themselves finished. There wasn't any way to anticipate or deduce what the hell was going on.

The only thing that was guaranteed was there would be a Darth Vader and two babies at the end of the third one. 98% of the three films had jack/squat to do with that.


Even the 'Clone Wars' went off in an entirely different direction from what people expected.
If you just pay attention to the original film, you'd expect Anakin to be an adult shooting at clones in a space fighter of some description, and would bump into Obi in some bar or other.

Well, we’re not actually discussing prequels or sequels here.

Just how might we enjoy classic films if we could mindwipe all knowledge of them.

I was wondering if I should "spoiler" some of the events in Homer's Odyssey, then I thought that people have had 2,500 years to find out about it so probably not.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Well, we’re not actually discussing prequels or sequels here.

Just how might we enjoy classic films if we could mindwipe all knowledge of them.

Some we would and some we wouldn't. Seriously go watch something like Robocop today and whilst some themes are great, others appear very dated. Not just in visual technology, but in terms of how the actors act, the cinema style, the story line presentation etc.. There were a lot of cheesy and corny lines in those films that sometimes (not always of course )might fall flat on you now after 20 years since first seeing them.

So sometimes nostalgia is great and most people do forget more than they realise about a film or even book. The general gist of the story might be clear in your minds eye; but you'll be amazed how many bits you missed out and don't have any recollection of. Sometimes its a case that your realise things just as they are or are about to happen, other times its "hey I never saw this in the original I'm sure of it" .


Of course memory is funny and some people appear to or really do remember almost everything; others can hardly remember if they've seen a film or not (my mother is rather like that, then again she's also apt to fall asleep halfway through a film.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I was wondering if I should "spoiler" some of the events in Homer's Odyssey, then I thought that people have had 2,500 years to find out about it so probably not.

It just felt like a Ye Olde tymes knockoff of O Brother, Where Art Thou? to me

Spoilers are as avoidable as you want them to be, although film trailers are getting increasing sloppy in that regard

I'd wipe a good 80% of the terrible movies of my teens and early 20's, I'm sure that braindrive space could be better used

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I was wondering if I should "spoiler" some of the events in Homer's Odyssey, then I thought that people have had 2,500 years to find out about it so probably not.

I overheard someone who exclaimed out loud in the cinema after watching the Troy film, "that trojan horse is such a cliché". Also, I was discussing the Apollo 13 film in school with a friend not long after I'd seen it and someone else listening in complained I'd ruined the end.


Personally, I'd prefer to see something without knowing the end. However, if that knowledge "spoils" the story, then it was relying too much on a gimmick, I think. Does anyone watch The Sixth Sense more than once? The marketing epartments do their best to spoil films anyway, so I'm not going to worry too much if I read something on a forum; if you see a thread about a film, then anything you find out that you didn't want to is on you, I'm afraid.

I don't think the prequels would have even been as good (or otherwise) if they were without the foreknowledge. The structure of a prequel is designed around knowing how things turn out. There's a dramatic irony in the story of Anakin that wouldn't be present without first having seen The Empire Strikes Back. The prequel trilogy might have cocked it up, but that's a different argument. Would the flashback elements of The Godfather part 2 have worked as well if we hadn't already seen Marlon Brando in the original?

 Overread wrote:
Starwars 1, 2 ,3 would have had far more impact without JarJar, but also without the audience already knowing what was going to happen to Anakin. We already knew the biggest spoilers in that series. That the Empire was going to arise, that the Jedi would fall, that Vader would rise from Anakin, that the twins would be hidden from him, that chances are everyone was going to wind up dead etc...

It removed a vast amount of suspense and mystery from those films that I don't think the writers ever managed to overcome. They could hold some things in surprise, such as the nature of the twists and turns, but ultimately the biggest twists were revealed. It was like Columbo where you already know the murderer, but without the charm of Peter Falk expertly bumbling his way to the conclusion.

For me, the fun of the prequels was in finding out how all of that happened. OK, so that turned out to be slightly less fun than expected, but the point remains that it was the journey that was important, rather than the outcome.

I have always wished, though, that they had chosen to leave that shot of Darth Maul lighting up his second blade out of the trailer... because it would have been soooooo much cooler seeing that reveal for the first time on the big screen.



It's right up there with showing the Enterprise blowing up in the Star Trek 3 trailer as a top 'WTF were the marketing people thinking?' moment.