Monday, April 14, 2014

How Should a Critic Handle Spoilers?


Recently, I wrote about The Raid 2 and mentioned that the main character's brother dies. This happens in the first minute of the film. And yet, a commenter fumed, "Ugh. What the f***. Thanks for the spoiler(s?) - stopped reading after the finding out his brother was dead." Readers care a lot about spoilers, which is why this week's Criticwire survey was of particular interest. The question: How should critics treat plot spoilers in their reviews? My response, as well as my colleagues', is here.