Take Paul Feig’s highly-scrutinized Ghostbusters reboot for example – think of how fun it’d be to have no idea that the original proton-packers are making an appearance. Peter Venkman’s arrival would be a nostalgic blast of ectoplasm instead of an expected necessity. Or what about David Ayer’s Suicide Squad – a film that saw revealing pictures leak almost every single day during filming. I feel like I’ve seen the whole damn movie already, without all the glitzy post-production magic that dresses up a superhero extravaganza.
You can also argue all you want about how Jared Leto will/won’t be the best Joker in Batman history, but to dismiss Suicide Squad in Heath Ledger’s name is absolute insanity. People once thought Ledger’s casting would be a slap to Jack Nicholson’s face, but who’s the Joker we talk about most now? Yet, people have been complaining about the new super-tatted-hipster Joker that Leto seems to be playing, who physically exists as more of a cartoon character than Gotham villain.
These are the people who refuse to entertain the slightest suggestion that Leto could be better than Ledger, and to ensure such, they’ll walk into Suicide Squad with an arsenal of bright-green-haired Leto jokes ready to be unleashed upon their Twitter followers after the credits roll. Every actor deserves a chance, which is made evident by the numerous actors who have proved the doubters wrong (Keanu as John Wick most recently?). This is another way that proves bias can be a killer.
The hype train is a double-edged sword that often skews expectations, as final products should be left to do all the talking. Film is not meant to be seen and spoiled in an unfinished state, because it’s the magic of Hollywood that’s supposed to capture us – not costumed stuntmen throwing punches for a grainy iPhone camera lens. Where’s the magic in that?
Furthermore, we’ve become a whiny generation who refuse to comment on what we’ve been gifted, and only what we don’t have. We’re the very trolls that we avoid on a daily basis, complaining about things a movie DIDN’T do in an attempt to sound intelligent, or holier than thou. “PSH – Guillermo del Toro didn’t scare me ONCE during Crimson Peak! What a load of garbage!” Yes you chucklehead, he didn’t scare me either, because he didn’t WANT to. What about everything del Toro DID do, like construct a Victorian mansion that (literally) oozes the creepy, sinister essence of its masters? To call Crimson Peak a failure of a horror movie misses the point of moviewatching, in that we’re supposed to live the film as it plays out. But no, we’d rather just troll a director because that’s the shitty, negative mindset we’ve let the internet’s instantaneous access build.