Apparently a spoiler got out about Eternals and fans are starting to get into it about the media spoiling the movie when they write their reviews. And one stupid tweet about non-disclosure agreements for journalists and critics that they pay a million dollar fine if they break. Seriously, that is a thing someone tweeted.
And, like, relax. Everyone has a different bar for what constitutes a spoiler. My deal with spoilers is that if you find it in the plot description or the first thirty minutes, it is not a spoiler. How else would you be interested in the movie if you didn't have some idea of what you were getting?
Now, specifically for comic book movies and the people that love them: check yourself. I know you want to go in as fresh as you can, but just because you found a spoiler does not mean you get to vilify someone or an outlet for publishing it. It's a plot detail.
Of course there are exceptions to this. There are some movies that thrive on the secrecy of a big twist, like Psycho or The Sixth Sense. And there are some movies, like Karyn Kusama's The Invitation, that you should be as clean as you possibly can. That's when I listen to the critics I trust when they say go in as clean as you can and put my trust in that. But that is not true of every movie that gets made, especially for all of these franchises. Sometimes you find things out before you see it and it's not a big deal. Sometimes finding a thing out increases your interest in a project. I've definitely had experiences of finding out a plot detail and thinking "oh I need to see that play out".
And for television these days, we wall watch shows at our own pace now, so just don't be an asshole about something. If you know someone doesn't know a big piece of information that comes later in a show's run, don't tell them, unless they are the kind of person where spoilers don't matter to them. But if it's a big zeitgeist show like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones were, where people are watching and freaking out about developments as it airs each week, give time to catch up but don't stop yourself from joining in on the water cooler talk. Again, just don't be an asshole.
