Fairy Tale Spotlight: Movie Boycotts and Credits

I've struggled with the concept of the boycott of movies. It is the idea of refusing to see a movie because some actor said something bad or some other controversy occurred surrounding the film. For a lot of my friends, I've ended up being a sort of guinea pig for movies they have not really wanted to touch. And I've seen them and even sometimes enjoyed the films.

Often times, I have entirely become uninterested in a movie because of the controversy surrounding it. But if I still have a peaked interest, I start to feel bad if I don't go see it. A lot of this is because I just have to know if the movie rises above the stuff being said about it. This bring me to another beef I've had with films: crediting.

Sometimes I just don't want to know about what work goes into a movie. I am not particularly interested in the actors and other crew. I don't go to a movie because a certain actor was in it. I am trying to experience a work of fiction and see if I enjoy it. But a lot of movies go through a lot of trouble nowadays to tell you everything about everything involving the film.

I yearn for a world where movies stand entirely on their own without us needing to know anything about who is playing what, and what person made coffee for who on the set. I don't care. All that stuff could easily be made available online if I had the sudden interest to look. I am tired of movies being all about the people making it. I'd rather it just be about the story they are trying to tell. That's my beef really.

It annoys the crap out of my friends, but I have this odd habit of, not only watching movies in order, but avoiding the trailers. I'll keep track of text descriptions and listen to things people may say about it, but I generally just like to put myself in an isolation chamber. A lot of the times when I finally do see a movie, I am seeing it entirely for what it is without any of the pre-hype that often comes with it. I dare say I do this far more than my friends even know. I get a lot of weird gazes when I refuse to look at a clip or a trailer. I know... Sorry, guys. I'm a weirdo. I'm just a fan of watching movies completely free of spin.

Back to boycotts: I still can't avoid the controversy about certain movies because my friends will talk. I won't ignore my friends, and so there is nothing I can do about that. But that curiosity can still get very strong. I know it isn't a movie, but I avoided playing Halo 4 for years before I broke and tried it out. It really wasn't even close to as bad as I had been told. And really I think the series is still very good.

I've gotten to the point that I don't really believe in boycotts. I don't really care about the actors and crew. I don't care if they get my money. I am only really paying to see something that I want to see. And if I end up hating it, I'll tell the world how I feel about it. If I love it, I do so despite the controversy. I love it on its merits as a movie--a work of fiction.

Now, understand that this way of thinking still prevents me from seeing something if it just makes me feel sick thinking about it. The new Bond movie has me reeling so bad that I just can't be bothered to get off my ass to go see it. I just got way too worn down from hearing what was happening back stage and about the future plans for the franchise. It killed my interest. But that's my point. I only go if I have an interest. And sometimes, the movie ends up being good as it is presented all by itself.

On one final bizarre note, I absolutely loved Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. As a standalone movie it was extremely good. Later on I found out that parts of the plot were canonized into a random video game called Fortnite. This ruined a lot of the movie for me, but the movie itself without all the outside stuff was wonderful. I am basically using this as an example why I usually seclude myself and act in this way. I can't trust the world to get things right, but maybe the movie is fine on its own.

I'm not interest in boycotts anymore. I'm a lover of fiction and I want to see it for what it is... untouched. Don't care about actors. Don't care about directors. Don't care about controversy. Just give me a story I can sink into, and for goodness sake, do a good job at it or I'm going to bash the shit out of it.

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