It's a problem that we all have to deal with. Whenever a major movie comes out, there's the possibility of spoilers. What's the best way to deal with it? In the case of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, James Gunn actually says it's not really a problem. Now that the film has been released in several countries, the opportunity for spoilers is much higher, leading James Gunn to take to social media to address the issue. While he says that he does everything he can to prevent spoilers from happening, in the end, he feels it shouldn't bother us.
There are studies that show spoilers don't really spoil anything. In a good story, our brains feel just as much pleasure whether or not we know the plot point ahead of time - and a new sort of pleasure emerges when we're piecing together the story we know is leading to some already-known element.
According to James Gunn's Facebook post, when we know where a story is going it simply changes the way we approach the story. While we might spend our time in a good story wondering where it's going to go, if we already know where it's headed, our brains get equally engaged in trying to figure out how it's going to get to that point, and we enjoy the experience either way. Gunn includes a story that discusses his point, that our brains don't care about spoilers, to support his own argument.
Ultimately, it still all comes back to the story. If a movie doesn't really have much going for it beyond the mystery of where the story will go, then spoilers are a problem. If, however, a story is well told, if it has strong characters and great dialogue and real humor, then we can still enjoy all that even if we know what's going to happen next, we can even get excited and anticipate those moments. James Gunn believes that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is one of those films, so if you accidently learn something you wish you didn't know over the next five days, it won't impact your overall enjoyment of the film.
So, if you've accidentally heard about a surprise in Vol. 2, worry not - you will still be able to heartily enjoy the film. Not only because spoilers don't matter, but because we've created a movie where the story, humor, visuals, music, and emotion don't rely on surprises even if they did, and that you'll have a blast whether or not you know a spoiler or two before going in. But, since spoilers don't really spoil, going forward let's call them something more accurate. I'm going to go with "pre-known plot points" until someone posts a better term below.
As somebody whose job description requires knowing many spoilers, or pre-known plot points, I can say that overall good movies are still good, even knowing a lot of what takes place. However, I can also say that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has done a remarkably good job at keeping those plot points under wraps. If you want to reduce the odds of being spoiled, check out the new film as soon as it opens May 5. If, however, you actually want to know everything that we do about the new film, we have that covered as well.
