The final publicity push for Iron Man 3 is in full swing right now. There are posters and pre-booking notices plastered all over the cinemas. All of the full length trailers have been released. New TV spots seem to be popping up all over the place with new footage and new character motivations. New armour designs are constantly being released, showing some of what will comprise the Iron Army. And most happily of all, the Press Screenings are due to start pretty soon.
There’s a lot of footage of the movie out in the world right now, and the one thing that is annoying me about it is how many people are jumping on the “we don’t need to see the movie now” bandwagon.
Pretty soon after I embarked upon Republic of Cinema, I made the decision that I wouldn’t watch any trailers or new footage for a movie in the month before a movie came out. I have a certain amount of control over that, I can choose what to watch or not to watch when I’m at home or messing around online, but when I’m at the cinema I have very little choice over what trailers are presented to me. Luckily there’s not a huge amount of variation in the trailers that the cinemas get.
It’s happened in the past that trailers have informed me about movies that I never knew existed, they’ve given me interest in movies that I would have previously dismissed, and on a couple of occasions, they have saved me from a terrible fate.
Sometime last year, around late January, an English movie magazine ran a feature about Star Trek: Into Darkness, and on the cover of the magazine they declared that Cumberbatch’s role was going to be Khan. There was of course a huge outcry on the Internet about how the movie had been ruined and how this (as yet still unproven) simple bit of casting news destroyed every bit of anticipation for the movie. Now maybe I’m dramatically underreacting here, or maybe it’s just that I have yet to be the slightest bit impressed by Cumberbatch, but I don’t see how finding out who the main antagonist in a movie is going to be ruins the movie. In the case of Liam Neeson’s true role in Batman Begins, it would have been a huge spoiler, but unless the role is a secret in the movie itself, then it ain’t a spoiler.
As I type this, I’m listening to the score for The Fellowship Of The Ring. Again. I find that score music is very easy to write to. I don’t listen to songs when I write, because words fight with words. The thing is though, I genuinely couldn’t count the amount of times that I’ve seen the actual movie; on general release, at special screenings, on DVD, on Blu Ray, theatrical cuts and Extended Editions. I’ve yet to get bored by it or be anything less than thrilled and heartbroken at various times every single time I watch it. Now, it’s not a spell from Saruman or some weird mindwipe technology that lets me enjoy the movie. I remember seeing the movie before and I know exactly what’s going to happen at every step of the Journey.
Hell, I saw Avengers eleven times in the cinema and loved it each time.
In what could well be a bit of confirmation bias, I stumbled upon this bit of research which indicates that a certain amount of knowledge about a movie or any other narrative ain’t the worstest thing in the world at all.
In the case of Iron Man 3, I’m betting here and now that the pictures and descriptions of the armours aren’t that important to the story at all. I’m betting that they will appear on the screen briefly or just in background shots as part of the overall effect. If I’m correct, only one of them will have any actual impact on the story at all as a lead in to another movie. Though I could very well be wrong.
In the case of Star Trek, I still don’t think that Cumberbatch is playing Khan and as I’ve said previously, a lot of the reason for that is to do with the fictional timeline that the two Treks shared pre-Kirk. It just doesn’t make sense. And isn’t it weird how nobody gave a shit when Cumberbatch’s role as “John Harrison” was announced? This movie might be the thing that leaves me impressed with Cumberbatch and turns me into a Cumberbitch, but whether or not that happens, it won’t be because of what I know about the movie walking in to the cinema for the first time.
We live in the Information Age and while it is a true thing that information is power, information is at times very hard to avoid. But it’s not impossible. Even if you were to go to the cinema every single day and sit through every single trailer before each movie, you’d still only ever see a certain amount of footage. Yeah, you’d see it over and over and over again, but the number of different trailers shown in the cinema is limited. And as for the different features and ads and articles and interviews in magazines or on TV or online, you have the easy simple choice of turning the page or navigating away.
For the most part, spoilers are only as bad as you want them to be, and in my opinion they don’t have an overly deleterious effect on the movie. But having said that it is nice sometimes to walk in to a movie and experience everything about it for the first time unsullied. I’m all about the shades of grey, folks.
And just so you don’t think that I’m too forgiving about the Marketing Machine, the teaser-for-a-trailer trend that has started in the past year or so drives me fucking nuts!
Simon Says 