​Sometimes.

In some very specific cases, too much information is bad. With so much Information available on the internet there is almost no secrets or surprises. Especially when it comes to entertainment.

In my experience, the less I know about an IP the better. I like the mystery. I don't need to know everything. Most of life's mysteries go unanswered. I'm good with that. Live in the moment.

Children of Men is an amazing movie. The starting premises is that women stopped getting pregnant and the human race is dying out. There have not been any babies born for a couple of decades. But why? We don't know. It's never explained. Doesn't seem to affect animals, only people. But it doesn't matter. The beauty of the story is not in the past but what is happening in the present. The moment.

Less information keeps expectations in check. Expectations get me in trouble every time. For example: The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. I don’t think I’m the only one, but when The Force Awakens came out, the bar was set pretty low. And then I got to be pleasantly surprised when it actually was a decent movie. Expectations had been high for the Prequels and those were dashed long before credit rolled for Phantom Menace. (I wonder if Force Awakens would have done worse, had it not had the prequels before it.) High expectations certainly are more of an issue with sequels. I’m afraid to hope when it comes to the next Indiana Jones movie.

Two times I knew nothing about a movie going in were with the original Stargate movie and the first Matrix movie. I had not seen trailers for either of them. I think I knew who the leads were and they were scifi and that is about it. I walked out of the theater stunned. I had no expectations because I didn’t know anything about the films.

I’ve started watching Paper Girls and the only thing I know about that IP is that it’s source material is a comic. That’s it. I definitely did not expect the title to be so literal. But that’s fine. After only a few episodes in, I have no idea where the story is going. I was surprised by the time travel element. It’s a very understated title, Paper Girls, and maybe that’s the point. So far I’m enjoying it. Just like with my own writing, I like the discovery process of other people’s work too.
 
A lot of movies and shows at the moment give out too much information. One of my favorite parts of A New Hope is that we are dropped into the middle of this raid on ship. It is very obvious that George Lucas had an idea of what was happening just before the opening of the movie but we aren’t given that info until years later. I love Rogue One but I always liked that we weren’t force fed every tiny detail. There was something so intriguing about be dropped into a fully formed universe and figuring things out along the way as the story unfolded.
 
Leaving questions unanswered makes room for other people to engage in the story with their own theories and ideas. It becomes a collaborative work. A well thought out canon and developed world is important to have but the reader/watcher doesn’t need absolutely every tiny detail about everything. Leave some stuff to the imagination of the audience. It’s good for them.  

One of the best things about going to the movies on opening weekend is the audience interaction. In the case of Jurassic World there were gasps, squeals, cheering, and clapping. 

I LOVE THAT!

Sometimes I go see old movies at Castro Theater. When you are in a room full of people who have just paid $10 plus dollars for a movie that is 10-30 years old you know those people are fans and they show it.

The craziest audience I have sat in was for Breaking Dawn. I do not like those movies but the fans are amazing. In the final fight scene I was astounded and the cheers and booing that went on with each decapitation. It was a spectacle to be sure. 

Doctor Who fans at the 50th anniversary showing were the best. They are all so loyal and fun. Getting people to pay to watch TV in a movie theater is a pretty impressive feat. 

My favorite is when they did the re-release of the original Star Wars trilogy. Again, people paying full price for something they've seen dozens, if not hundreds or times. Luke telling the emperor that he was a Jedi, like his father before him, filled the room with cheers. It was awesome. I suspect that Star Wars VII will be an enthusiastic showing.

In case you missed my official Twitter review of Jurassic World it was: Jurassic World was AAAAAAAHHHHHsome! Not for the faint of heart.

I was on the fence with this one. Michael Bay has made me hate over the top, explosion fests. Vapid. BUT this is Guillermo del Toro we're talking about here. I LOVE HIS MONSTERS! Both Hellboy movies were great. Clash of the Titans reboot, not so much, but the monsters were cool. It's half the reason I own Pan's Labyrinth.

This movie is exactly what you think it is. I love that there was no pretending it's the movie of the year. The taglines touts with childlike enthusiasm- "Go big or go extinct" and "To fight monsters we created monsters." I chose this image to the right because it's a nod to Jaws, the first summer blockbuster. Summer blockbusters are meant to be fantastical and out of this world and I think that Pacific Rim does exactly that.

Have you ever thought:

That was the response I got when I asked PBG if she still had plans on being a mortician.

Somehow I get the feeling this line could be used in other situations. I wait for the day....

I’ve noticed that often after kids wake they sort of have this vacant stare. I’m talking about toddlers, mostly 2-5 years old. They don’t respond to you. They just rub their head and blink at you. Sure some adults are like that too, but I think kids are like that because they are trying to figure out where they are.

When you’re a kid you wake up in a different place than where you went to sleep all the time. That almost never happens as an adult and if it does it’s not a good thing. If you wake up in a different place than you were when you went to sleep it probably means you’re in the hospital, jail, or you were so out of if they you have memory loss. Think how disorienting that would be.

I don’t know a thing about cognitive development in children but I’m guessing they haven’t made the connection of traveling in a car with arriving at a new location, they can’t make that leap yet, so it must seem like magic to them. They were at home and now they are at the store, whoa.

Just saying.