Thursday, February 7, 2008

Previewing the previews

I don't like to know anything about a movie going in. Nothing Nada. Zip. The less I know, the happier I am.
I expect the movie to take me off to places I have never been, and make me see things I have never seen and make me think about ideas I have never considered. If I have already been exposed to all that stuff before I even sit down and my feet stick to the floor, why bother?
I don't want to know about the plot -- you only get one chance for it to surprise you.
I don't want to know what other people think about it. I'm a sheep hopelessly following the flock sometimes. I am so easily influenced that if I read a negative review, it will play in my mind while I am watching the movie, and that's all I'll think about. In fact, I have been to known to go into a movie based solely on the fact that I know nothing about it.
Some movies are judged by the studios to be so awful, they don't let the press in to review them. I'd almost rather go see one of these awful movies than to pay money to see what I know is coming.
I don't even like to watch previews very much. If it's a movie I want to see, I immediately want to close my eyes and plug my ears. I'd appreciate it if previews in movie theaters were able to tease me enough to make me want to see future movies without letting me know the whole story, or, for that matter, giving me enough information to guess the rest.
(I also hate comedy previews that show all the funny parts, but that's a whole 'nuther story.)
I was so excited about Spider-Man 3 this past summer. Then, I saw the preview something like 12 times, and by the time I watched the movie, I already knew what was going to happen.
I wasn't even that cranked up about the Harry Potter movies, because I had read all the books. The only saving grace is that the books all run together, so I had no clue what happened in book three by the time book five came out.
The bottom line: I don't want to see the previews for "The Dark Knight," the new Indiana Jones movie or the new Star Trek movie. I'll probably be subjected to them anyway.

(Just for the record, all the stuff I have been forced to see accidentally and then looked at anyway makes all three of those movies look really cool. As a result, I don't want to know anything else about them until i have a chance to see them!)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you know what a book or movie is about and still want to watch it or re-watch it, it is a good movie or book.
I like previews. Previews that give a movie away usally designate a poor movie.

Jefferson Wolfe said...

That's a very good point. How many good movies have long previews that tell you the whole boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl
girl-dies-in-a-tragic-blimp-accident-
over-the-Orange-Bowl-on-New Year's-Day story?

originalslugboy said...

Hey, when people stop watching boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl
girl-dies-in-a-tragic-blimp-accident-
over-the-Orange-Bowl-on-New Year's-Day movies, they'll stop making boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl
girl-dies-in-a-tragic-blimp-accident-
over-the-Orange-Bowl-on-New Year's-Day movies.