Longing for Less Information.

I kinda miss the days when people wouldn't know a movie was getting made until the actual trailer came out in theaters. Ever since the Internet became a household tool, I've been filling my head with information about every movie in every possible stage of development. I don't even know why I do it. It's one of the first things I ever naturally found myself doing online. I mean, it's because I love movies. But I'm also robbing myself of a certain measure of joy. A joy that maybe doesn't even exist anymore thanks to the virus-like proliferation of entertainment news all over the place.

One of my most vivid childhood memories is of one night when I was in my living room and a commercial for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze came on the TV. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were of course my entire life in elementary school, and the first movie was basically my primary object of worship. So when this commercial came on out of nowhere, I very clearly remember being beside myself with euphoria. And I also very clearly remember having no idea what had just happened on the commercial I saw. Like, as soon as it was over, I had a vision of Leonardo or someone in a giant room doing something, and I couldn't tell you what. I hadn't been able to retain anything concrete from the commercial because of how happy I was to see it. The pure thrill of seeing an unexpected movie trailer for the first time is quite simply unmatched by the mundane experience of reading about a pending deal on a movie news website.

I still find myself overwhelmed by certain trailers. The teasers for Superman Returns and The Dark Knight, for example, took my breath away despite the fact that I had long already known those movies existed. But there is nothing like a trailer for something you love taking you completely by surprise. I think the last time a movie caught me by surprise was in 2003, when I went to see Bad Boys II and they showed a trailer for Once Upon a Time in Mexico. As I slowly realized that I was seeing a trailer for a sequel to Desperado, I was shocked. I love Desperado! How the hell did this get made without my knowing about it? I've been looking at movie news on the Internet since the mid-90's.

I don't know if that will ever happen to me again. But I hope so.

Cheers,
Diego