So, what do you people think? If a surprise comes in the first few minutes, how bad is it to know that ahead of time?

Think of how the series premiere of Buffy would have played if someone had told you "this schoolgirl vamps out and kills her date in the first three minutes!"

I dunno; is that scene valueless now because you know what's going to happen?

I understand that it's fun to be surprised by something, but sometimes people act as if "surprise" is the only pleasure one can get from a story. I have thought, "Gee, it would have been interesting to watch Psycho (or Alien, or any of 100 other movies) without any idea about what was coming." And it would have. But even knowing quite a lot about them, they were entertaining. And even surprising, because knowing what happens is not the same as experiencing it yourself.

People in the comments were like, "Thanks for ruining the movie! Now I won't even bother seeing it! How about a spoiler warning, jackass???"

With this sort of thing I feel like, if you don't want to know anything at all about a movie before seeing it, maybe you shouldn't read reviews of it?

With this sort of thing I feel like, if you don't want to know anything at all about a movie before seeing it, maybe you shouldn't read reviews of it?

Bing! Bing! Bing! Bing! Bing!

if you don't want to know anything at all

I bet "anything at all" is an overgeneralisation. They just differ on what's important. I didn't care about knowing that Bruce Willis's character was dead in The Sixth Sense, but I'm not going to harsh on someone else because they'd rather not know up front.

Think of how the series premiere of Buffy would have played if someone had told you "this schoolgirl vamps out and kills her date in the first three minutes!"

I watched S1 long after I knew Darla was a vampire, and it's still a good scene. And it sets the tone for the entire series - I can see value in describing it for a potential viewer.

I don't know... I credit that scene with making me fall in love with the series before the opening credits finished rolling, so I think it was pretty important to be taken off guard.

With the exception of Farscape most series that I've been really invested in have pulled me in with a "wow!" moment at the very beginning. (And I suppose my first sight of Ben Browder all sweaty in a wifebeater could qualify as the initial "wow!" moment for that series, though it wasn't the doing of the writers...)

I bet "anything at all" is an overgeneralisation. They just differ on what's important.

Well, sure, but having different definitions for "spoiler" is kind of the point -- the writer cannot know and cater to every reader individually. So if the reader has particularly broad definitions, it's on him to be cautious about reviews, or only read critics with a similar sensibility.

I don't think telling people that Bruce Willis is a ghost is comparable to describing the opening scene of a movie. "Bruce Willis gets shot in first few minutes" might be comparable. And that was mentioned in some reviews.

But "anything at all" certainly includes saying he's a ghost.

My main thing is--if it's a surprise, why take that away from a potential viewer? Is what you had to say that important?

I want to see this so very badly [link]

My main thing is--if it's a surprise, why take that away from a potential viewer? Is what you had to say that important?

Exactly. I try to be as non-spoilery as I can in my reviews, especially when I went into a movie or TV show or book knowing very little and appreciated the little surprises that could have been ruined by reading other reviews. Sometimes it's almost unavoidable. With my little mini-reviews of the Discworld Watch books, for instance, I went into pretty much every single one of those books not even knowing what the basic premise was, so discovering what the book was about was part of the reading experience. But as Jessica mentioned earlier, it's kind of hard to talk about something without mentioning the basic premise, especially if you're trying to recommend it to a potential audience. Although I think I've come close to managing it once or twice. Normally, I only try to "spoil" as much as the blurb would give away.