James Gunn
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The director of the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ franchise, James Gunn, has never been particularly shy on social media and has been praised many times for openly sharing his opinions on a myriad of issues and topics relating to movies, fans, criticism, comic books, etc. In his latest bold statement, (though to be fair, one that he has made previously, stating similarly before the release of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2’ came out) Gunn takes aim at the notion that accidentally or intentionally seeing “spoilers” before the release of a film can ruin the whole thing. He even cites studies done by UCSD to help prove his point, which is basically that a good film is more about the journey and the ride than the conclusion. So even knowing where everything is heading should not detract from a film’s enjoyment, IF it is actually a good movie.

Check out his Tweets on the subject below:

Oddly, because I myself have always tried to avoid spoilers whenever possible so I can be surprised by a film, but I do think the man has a point. Even when I am spoiled ahead of time (which happens all too often as someone who writes entertainment articles), if a movie is solid enough, it really doesn’t matter what I find out. I saw a lot of clips from ‘Black Panther’ ahead of time and that did little to detract from my enjoyment of that movie. Same with ‘Wonder Woman‘ and more recently, ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp.’ I actually read the ‘Infinity War’ comic and kind of knew what was coming at the end of the film, but that did little to take away my genuine enjoyment and amazement for much of ‘Avengers: Infinity War.’

I think the bigger problem is that when a mediocre to BAD movie is spoiled, it tends to illuminate all the other issues in the movie because you know how it is going to end. You try to enjoy the ride and realize that mediocrity is not enough to enjoy a film (looking at you ‘Batman v Superman,‘ and, more of a throw-back, ‘Thor: The Dark World.’) As Screen Rant points out, one of the biggest hits of all time was 1997’s ‘Titanic,’ and just about everyone knew the ending to that movie as it was a “historical” drama.

What are your thoughts on spoilers and movies? Is there a line where a spoiler or two isn’t that bad, but seeing and hearing too much of it ahead of time ruins it? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!