Note: I will be ruining some plots in this node. When you see a film/book name you don't want ruined, skip to the next paragraph.
Note 2 : The note was in "small" before, but I got complaints from people who didn't read it, and got plots ruined, so I've enlarged it. Then again, those people won't read this note, so what's the point of writing it? Moving on...
If you want to read a new book or go see a new film, but don't know what it's about, what do you do? That's right, you read the back cover or a review. Oh, boy, what a mistake!
I used to do that. I remember the first time a whole movie got ruined for me. It was Thelma and Louise. The film reviewer wrote that they kill themselves in the end. Did that suck!
Then I read The Fly. I could just tell it could have been a real thriller if I hadn't read the review, and didn't know the end. (Didn't ruin that one).
Then came The Usual Suspect. That's a movie you really DON'T want ruined if you want to enjoy it. My enjoyment of it was actually ruined by reading the review for Seven, in which it was written that the killer is the same one as in 'The Usual Suspect'. I guess that slightly annoyed people who saw Seven, but it killed 'The Usual Suspect' for me.
So I stopped reading reviews, and stopped looking at backs of book covers. And it finally paid off, big time! I saw Cube yesterday. What an awesome movie! It's really scary, and creepy, and maked you claustrophobic for a few hours. One person who came with me had seen the preview (oh, I forgot about them - NEVER watch previews either. I personally close my eyes and hum or talk to the person next to me during previews.) Anyway, he saw that "Only one survives the cube". Oh my, does that annihilate the movie! All the movie, I didn't know whether anyone would survive. At one point, you're sure there is no way out. And near the end you're sure two will make it. Needless to say, out of five friends, he was the only one who didn't enjoy the movie.
And today I read the review of Cube in the paper. Thank God I didn't read it yesterday. It tells of the cop's freaking out and that the autist survives.
I wonder if there's anything to do about it. I am just so pissed off. That review murdered the movie for anyone who read even half of it. I wrote an email to the newspaper, but I doubt it will do any good. So all I can do is dish out this advice, never to read reviews or book covers or even watch previews.