BY MAX MCAULIFF, STAFF WRITER
The newest Marvel movie, “Eternals,’’ premiered last week in Los Angeles. Like all Marvel movies nowadays, it is receiving good initial reviews. The people who have the opportunity to attend premieres are the cast, family members of the cast, crew and members of the media.
Members of the media will normally attend premieres to prepare and write reviews for these movies before the public has seen them. Once the review embargo for a movie lifts, media members are allowed to release their reviews for movies.
One thing not included in movie reviews is the plot and, or most important moments in the film. Movie reviews are supposed to be unbiased and leave out any important details from the movie’s plot. Therefore, it is preposterous that major media outlets are spoiling the movie.
While I have done my best to avoid all things spoiler-related, my brother was not so lucky and had the movie (or at least the post-credits scenes) spoiled for him by CNN. CNN! A major media outlet such as CNN should know better than post spoilers for movies that have not come out yet.
Spoiling a movie for others can ruin the movie-going experience for them. Before “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was released in theaters in December 2015, one of my friends spoiled the movie for me. While I was hoping what he divulged was false, it, unfortunately, was not, and the most important moments of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” were spoiled for me.
Watching “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was still one of the best experiences I have had in a movie theater, second only to “Avengers: Endgame.” But the feeling that it would have been that much better if I had known absolutely nothing still bothers me.
A lot of people invest too much time into movies to have the experience spoiled by an internet troll. But in this situation, internet trolls are not the problem.
Journalists are held to a high standard to write stories fairly and ethically, whether those stories be about sports, politics, or entertainment. Major media outlets writing stories about the jaw-dropping post-credits scene and then proceeding to spoil the post-credits scene in that very article are not abiding by proper journalism.
It is one thing to write articles containing spoilers after the movie is released to the public. The people who truly care about spoilers will likely see the movie within a few days and know to avoid social media before seeing it. However, CNN spoiling what is a highly-anticipated addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is ridiculous and disappointing.
Do not be an internet troll and ruin the experience for people who truly care. As movies return to the big screen, may the avoiding of spoilers be with you.
