A brief rant on spoilers.

Most of us try not to spoil surprises in new movies when we're talking about them with people.

But.

When can we finally say, "The coast is clear" and openly discuss what "Rosebud" turned out to be in "Citizen Kane"? How much time has to elapse before you can proceed without spoiler warnings? Weeks? Months? Years?

I still hear from people who say they want to see "The Avengers," and they're having a hard time avoiding the spoilers online and in conversation.

Yes, because IT OPENED MORE THAN TWO MONTHS AGO!

At some point, don't you either need to go see it or shaddup already and resign yourself to hearing about it second-hand?

Some people wait for movies to come to the secondary markets, like Netflix, PPV or DVD, or some even wait for free TV movie channels like FX.

Not everyone goes to the theater for every movie.

I just saw Transformers Darkside of the Moon for the first time on Netflix last weekend. And I would've never seen a Harry Potter film, except for ABC Family marathons.

What exactly is there to spoil about the Avengers movie? All the official trailers feature the content of the last twenty minutes, because pretty much nothing happens until then. Then it's not hard to guess how all the beats go after that.

The only semi-surprise was the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent (who I'm sure viewers only vaguely remember from the other movies) having a man-crush on Cap. His getting killed after that was pretty predictable, too.

Thanos? Doubtful anyone knows who that is.

So your input here is basically, Allen thinks the movie sucked, so why should anyone care? And toss in couple of spoilers for fun.

You're an ass.

This is news?


Your taste in movies and TV shows is probably more in line with people about forty years younger than you, sorry to have to tell you.

Said the guy who was texting live from the theater!

Forgive me if I've mentioned this story on here before:

Some years ago when my girlfriend was still with her ex, she and a group of friends were discussing the movie King Kong. Naturally the ending got mentioned, which anyone who's ever been born is aware of, and the ex apparently got quite irate. He was either unaware, or had forgotten the ending and was genuinely upset that everyone in their group had spoiled King Kong for him.

After a certain point it's up to the individual to avoid spoilers. I play video games, but I usually don't buy them as soon as they're realized. Even when I do play them right away it usually takes me longer to finish them than most people. The endings and cool moments get discussed online and I figure it's my job to avoid them.

Now if someone *knows* you haven't seen something and are keen, then they tell you the ending anyway, that's just them being a jerk or inconsiderate. Or both. In most cases though, it's your problem and yours alone.

You have to decide which is more important to you, the destination or the journey. For me it's the journey. If an experience can be spoiled with a simple recap, it's not a valuable experience to begin with. If it were, to "spoil" it would take more time for the description of it than just experiencing it firsthand.

I agree. But when is that point?

If a movie is still in theaters I think it's a safe bet not everyone has seen it. Especially today, with home theaters and so many secondary market choices.

I think it's probably safe to slip a spoiler on a movie that's been out for a few years, especially if you are talking with a group of people you are familiar with, but can you reasonably expect a twenty year old to have seen Citizen Kane yet? What about Casablanca, The Third Man, Man of La Mancha, Lawrence of Arabia, or even King Kong? I'm in my forties and I see a lot of movies and read a lot of books and I know I haven't seen every movie or read every book yet.

I think both the spoilee and the spoiler need to share the responsibility. Give a guy a heads up if you feel a spoiler coming on OR warn everybody you haven't seen something if the title comes up, so you can duck out of the conversation.

A perfectly reasonable choice to make. For yourself. Why do you make it for others by posting spoilers without any warnings? Maybe others might like both?

Plus, you are still not taking into account most M.Night Shyamalan films, dreadfully boring movies with O. Henry endings, that very often, have no value beyond their gimmick. Like The Village or The Sixth Sense, SPOILER ALERT, when you know Bruce Willis is dead the whole time, the movie sucks.