We now live in an age where potentially huge moments in films are leaked months in advance. It's good fun finding out who's cast in which role and who will direct, but I'm left wondering.. do you really want to know specifics about the film's plot, too? It's a tricky subject. There's a strong desire to be in on the latest information, but at the same rate, not many of us want movies to be spoiled for us. Now, I'll try my best to not sound like an old guy complaining about how the times are changing and all that... but truthfully, that's kind of how I feel.
When I first saw Iron Man in theaters I went into the film pretty much oblivious to what I had in store for me. In fact, I think I only viewed a few trailers and interviews during the time. I'm grateful for that because the end result was an unparalleled viewing experience. The first rotating shot of Tony stepping into the armor had me in awe. But the real treat was the post-credits scene. I had no clue whatsoever about what would come next and the result blew me away.
Back then, I had a super busy schedule in college, but now I do spend most of my time in front of my computer, trying to bring Comic Vine the latest developments on everything we care about. That said, I have a strongly mixed opinion on it. On one hand, we are indeed a business and we need to stay on top of the game. If we don't cover these huge scoops, other sites still will. This means you -- our super awesome readers -- will migrate to those other locations and, in turn, give them your traffic instead of us (your traffic gives us +5 happiness). Naturally, that's something we don't want to see. But on the other hand, I feel as though these big rumors (despite not always turning out to be true) do indeed reduce the excitement we could experience in the theater or even when the first official teaser is released. Yes, we're still beyond stoked for these things and these scoops certainly keep interest levels at an all time high, but are you okay with knowing key points before buying your ticket?
The most significant recent example revolves around a scoop about Iron Man 3 by Latino Review. They made a huge discovery -- in fact, it was so big that Marvel has recently attempted to take action against them. If Marvel sat back and didn't respond then we could be left wondering if the scoop (which reveals the post-credits scene) is actually true. Although, seeing as Marvel responded, it makes it quite clear Latino Review struck gold with this one. So now, if you want to, you can know what Iron Man 3's post-credits scene is. I'm sure this is appealing to many and absolutely helps build excitement, but again, for me, it takes away the full effect this scene could deliver.
== TEASER ==Another huge issue we face is the legitimacy behind these massive rumors. We always do our best to only cover newsworthy leaks from sites with a positive track record, but that of course doesn't guarantee any of these will pan out. We're in an era where individuals will blatantly lie about their roles and more for the sake of avoiding spoilers (Talia al Ghul , for example) and that makes this matter even more complex.
During the Super Bowl a ginormous rumor was announced. The Avengers 2 would lead into Planet Hulk and eventually World War Hulk. A thrilling concept, sure, but now AICN, Joss Whedon and Mark Ruffalo are shooting the idea down. Whedon called it "nonsense" and Ruffalo said there's currently no plans for a Hulk standalone film. Are they lying to help save the excitement for an official announcement, or are they really not even spitballing the idea around behind the curtains? Again, this is something we won't know for a long time. In the end, this means updating said articles when rumors are denied, but even then there's no way of confirming that the deny is 100% truthful. It could be a play on words or a loophole. Remember when we were told Skrulls weren't in Avengers? Yeah, that's technically correct, but come on, it was the ultimate universe version of the aliens... they just go under a different name. So yes, we did have "Skrulls," but not ones inspired by the 616 universe. It's a rather deceptive game being played in attempt to discover or protect the latest tidbits of info surrounding these upcoming movies.
At the end of the day, all of us love hearing about these new comic book movies. It's beyond exciting to live in a time where we not only have good comic book movies, but the genre is also flourishing. We all want to be in the know about the things franchises we love, but to what extent? Viners, are you cool with knowing pivotal things about films well in advance, or do you want to save that full excitement level until you're in the theater's seat? I'll of course continue to cover the big scoops, but I'm curious to see how you all feel about the subject.
Gregg Katzman is a freelance writer for Comic Vine and IGN Entertainment. This is the part where he shamelessly plugs his Twitter page in hopes of getting a new follower or two.