Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates | Tagged: Guardians of the Galaxy 2, james gunn

James Gunn Leans Into The Internet By Re-Casting Spoilers As "Pre-Known Plot Points"

Published Mon, 01 May 2017 08:15:42 -0500

We have a good time with Guardians of the Galaxy 2 director James Gunn here at Bleeding Cool. Or… not with him, exactly, but with the world's reaction to his prolific use of social. There are entire sections of the internet built around expanding his every sentence into blog posts — a fact which my colleague Jude Terror delights in lampooning. And so it echoes on.

Gunn does get it though, and understands how it all works, as he demonstrates once again with this:

ON "SPOILERS" or PRE-KNOWN PLOT POINTS…

For a couple of years now the Marvel team and I have been careful not to let out any secrets contained within Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. We have held back drastically on our promotional materials, using almost all plot elements from the first twenty minutes of the film – which sometimes felt like hopping on one leg in a marathon – so that you, the fans, know as little about the surprises we have in store for you before going in. And now, here we are, a week before opening in the US and many other countries, and a handful of folks online who have already seen the movie are enjoying "spoiling" these plot elements for others by posting on message boards or Twitter or even writing entire online articles about these spoilers.

In fact, there are so many people spoiling things that, if you haven't seen the movie and choose not to know what happens beforehand, I would suggest you don't read the comments below this post, nor the comments on any of my posts, before you see the film in a theater. I do delete and permanently block people who spoil, but, at this point, I can't catch them all.

I don't get very angry over this stuff for a few reasons. Firstly, there are bigger things in the world today to get angry about than some poor sap who has the need to spoil movies online. Secondly,

I'm grateful not to BE that poor sap clambering for attention from the solitude of keyboard and screen by spoiling, which cannot be a particularly fulfilling venture for anyone.

And, finally, there are studies that show spoilers don't really spoil anything. In a good story, our brains feel just as much pleasure whether or not we know the plot point ahead of time – and a new sort of pleasure emerges when we're piecing together the story we know is leading to some already-known element.

So, if you've accidentally heard about a surprise in Vol. 2, worry not – you will still be able to heartily enjoy the film. Not only because spoilers don't matter, but because we've created a movie where the story, humor, visuals, music, and emotion don't rely on surprises even if they did, and that you'll have a blast whether or not you know a spoiler or two before going in.

But, since spoilers don't really spoil, going forward let's call them something more accurate. I'm going to go with "pre-known plot points" until someone posts a better term below.
Just don't read the options if you haven't seen the movie.

ONLY FIVE DAYS LEFT.

Love you all. Have a great day.

I will have a great day Mr. Gunn, even though it's Monday, and thank you.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!