Did you guys miss me? Or did the fact that I haven’t posted anything for two days (which is unusual for me) just never crossed your mind? Either way, I’m back in action, at least I have that feeling of massive motivation and writing jitters – better hope it doesn’t go away any time soon because me has a lot to write this week! First time over a long time, I’m starting the week with a ramble post on a topic that is not very new to me at all. It is something that I have mentioned a lot in reviews over the past few months and now I thought about writing even more about it.
Some of you might know this already but for those who have stumbled here over the past few weeks or just today, a short introduction would be needed. The title of the post “Living in a bubble” doesn’t really mean that I live in a bubble, no need for a giant plastic bubble for me even when a massive flu virus going around in Estonia could get me (apparently I’m still healthy after living with an infected person for 5 days). The title is just a metaphor describing the way I feel about movies that I love before I even see them. More clearly, when something is announced to be released soon(ish), I stay away from everything revolving around that movie – teasers, production news and movie summaries, and most importantly, the trailer! I’m creating my own imaginary bubble around myself when it comes to those specific movies I’ve decided to protect myself from – now this is all because I want to experience the movies in a best way possible.
We are all very well aware of those horrible trailers that give the entire movie away in 2,5 minutes, including all the jokes and best scenes. Action movies feature the best explosions in the trailers, action hero movies tell the whole plot, comedies tend to use all the best lines in the trailers – everything is for the purpose of getting more people to buy the tickets and go see the movie. But the problems appear when the movie doesn’t bring anything new to the table because it has exhausted its elements in the promotional part of its release. This is a problem not only for the bad movies but also for good movies as well, for some reason, trailers have become mini-movies that in most cases give away all the important things and best lines – therefore for the obvious reasons, I don’t like it when that happens!
For me the point of no return took place about two years ago when I saw Easy A’s trailer – I loved it. I even watched the small promotional clips the movie had released. Turned out, all the great jokes were pretty much showed before the movie even hit the big screens. It was still funny, of course, but it could have been so much more if I had not known all the scenes beforehand! So I decided, that despite the fact that the marketing is releasing all these jokes in the trailer and extra clips to attract more ticket sales, I can choose to avoid it. So around that time, not as extensively as I am doing it now, I started to avoid trailers of movies I knew I wanted to see. Currently, I’m avoiding 95% of the trailers that are released and only look at those that might attract me to watch the movie in the first place. I’m living in a bubble while protecting myself from movies that haven’t been released yet as a movie blogger!
I know it sounds a bit weird but I’m a supporter of genuine experiences when it comes to watching a movie for the first time. For instance, I watched The Avengers while being in a total bubble before I went to see it, I knew nothing, not a thing and it was amazing. I think I even acted surprised at one point and my friend told me that it was in the trailer or something. Basically, I had all kinds of emotions and only because I stopped myself falling into the promotional materials pit of “let’s spoil the following plot elements and jokes”. Same goes now for almost every movie I see, I’m just totally unaware what is going to happen or even what the movie is about – and I like that about my experiences. I get to have a totally fresh look at something I’ve never seen, I get to be surprised and shocked, I get to laugh at ALL the jokes and I don’t see anything wrong with that.
Currently I’m staying far-far away from Star Trek Into Darkness, so far away that I haven’t even looked at the promotional images – the only thing I have seen is the poster! Can you imagine? I mean, if you’re a fan of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek and you haven’t seen the trailer for the new one? Can you imagine the feeling of waiting for something so bad, and not knowing anything about it and then getting to the cinema and seeing everything for the first time!? Well, I can soon let you know how that feels but I’m pretty sure beforehand that it will feel fucking amazing! And for movies like that, movies that I love so much even before they are in production, and all the other movies that I will end up loving after I see them, for those I live in the bubble in order to create a different kind of experience in a world where information and promotion is so overwhelming.
I get what you’re saying, I’ve been doing it for years! I’m usually the one that picks the films we see around here, so when we’re about to watch them, sometimes those who I’m with ask me what the movie’s about. “I don’t know…!” is usually the answer. This to say that I go to the extreme of not even knowing the premise. All I need to know is the director and the actors. And if the title is cool, that helps too.
So I agree that it is much better this way — that said, I think trailers nowadays are shit. Completely predictable, apart from few exceptions. Yesterday I was showing some to my mother because otherwise there’s a serious risk of her not liking what I choose. I saw stuff like Killer Joe, Killing Them Softly, The Master…. I was bored out of my mind – didn’t even get what The Master is about. If anything they made me less excited about watching the films.
I know! I’ve stayed away from trailers so much that I’ve gotten angry at the ones I do watch because they are so predictable and all from the same mold!
Thanks for the comment!
I try to stay away from trailers but it never works. Sometimes it’s okay if I only see it like once because then I forget about it by the time I see the movie. I think if it’s a good enough movie then seeing the trailer won’t hurt too much though. That happened to me with Silver Linings Playbook, I had seen the trailer a bazillion times so I could basically quote the whole thing, and I still loved the film. I honestly have never been able to stay completely away from a trailer before I see a movie in theaters at least, but I should try because there is something to be said for being surprised.
Well I can’t forget anything. My brain is like a trashcan, I will always know if I’d seen the movie, remember the trailer and so on. Stupid memory. On the other hand, I can’t seem to remember lyrics or quotes.. The visual things I will always remember and the general point.
Silver Linings Playbook was amazing!
I absolutely get that! I have been avoiding trailers for years now and it’s fantastic to go see a movie like that – my first movie of 2012 was 50/50 and all I knew was that there’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt and it was one of my fav movie experiences ever. After that, I’ve watched very few trailers and almost never read what the movie’s about. And I can say that I’ve never been disappointed. Never. So good luck to you on avoiding that stuff and may all your future movie experiences be awesome.
Same to you! Let’s avoid every trailer of every movie that you might think you would end up loving!