Why I won't watch the trailers for 'The Last Jedi'

I don't want to know anything more about this movie than what this poster tells me. 

Earlier this week, I had a dream that it was the day of the premiere of Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. I spent the whole of the dream frantically running around, trying to avoid the spoilers that were coming at me from seemingly every direction. Nowhere was safe. Eventually, I simply hid in the theater where I would eventually see the movie and waited for the premiere. (Incidentally, this dream strongly resembles what I did in advance of The Force Awakens.) And last night, I mentioned this dream to a friend. In the resultant discussion, we both decided that we would avoid not only spoilers for The Last Jedi, but even the trailers. We would go into the movie completely fresh, and every frame, every word of dialogue would surprise us.

Lo and behold, the very day after this conversation, and only two days after my dream (and this tweet), a trailer for The Last Jedi has come out. I will leave others to speculate what this says about my ability either to predict events or to bend reality to my will (or both?). But because I spend too much time on the Internet (and follow movie news very closely), it was impossible for me to avoid the news of this trailer's release. And because the Internet today functions as a shallow, impoverished, and conformist form of mass culture (albeit one of the few forms of mass culture we have left), it was even harder for me to resist the temptation to watch the trailer. All it would take is a click, I thought. And how much would it really reveal (the overly-revelatory nature of many modern trailers notwithstanding)? Nevertheless, I resisted. And here are the three reasons why.

First, as mentioned above, I genuinely do wish to experience this movie with as little advance information, and as much surprise, as possible. Thanks in large part to the Internet, movies today are so thoroughly reported on, pre-sold, pre-advertised, pre-marketed, discussed, speculated on, cross-promoted, overexposed...in short, it's hard to avoid learning almost everything about a movie before its release. Spoilers leap out at you uncontrollably, in clickbait headlines, in ostensibly unrelated comments, in the social media feeds of friends and family, and from people who want to ruin things for everyone else. On the other hand, if you want to spoil a movie for yourself in advance, it's never been easier. We are long removed from the days when blockbusters consistently, truly surprised people. The original Star Wars might have been one of the last such movies, although its success simultaneously destroyed that template forever. We had gone so long without even knowing the name of Episode VIII, and, until today, even a trailer, that I had begun to hope that Disney/Lucasfilm had planned to give us no official information about the movie other than its title and the date of its release. It would have been a fascinating experiment in brand power, a revealing study of consumer behavior, and, above all, a refreshingly retro return to an era when blockbusters could surprise you. Alas, it was not t to be. But I am still going to do my best to simulate the experience for myself.

Imagine if this had remained all we knew about the movie. 

Second, I wish to protest the conformist, in my own small and surely insignificant way, the mass culture of the Internet. You might think that I created this blog, in part, to comment on things that become things on the Internet. And yes, looking at this blog's history, you would be partially correct. Yet lately, the oppressiveness of the Internet's social apparatus has begun to weigh more heavily on me. From nowhere, in unpredictable intervals and with unpredictable durations, there emerges a sudden, compelling necessity to have an opinion on whatever happens to be "trending." Why? Why does one of our only remaining forms of mass culture have to be simultaneously so arbitrary and so demanding? I'm not sure. It's not that I'm opposed to having an opinion per se. I'm sure I'll review The Last Jedi on this blog eventually, despite my growing loathing of Star Wars-based takes (of which I, of course, have produced plenty). I suppose it's simply that I dislike the idea of having a view of something simply because one is expected to have a view of it. I bristle and chafe at such an obligatory culture. And if not watching the trailer for The Last Jedi can postpone my inevitable participation in this culture's rituals, well, I think that's a good thing.

Finally, I'm not going to watch the trailer because I already made every prediction I wish to make about The Last Jedi in a September 2016 blogpost titled "My prediction for 'Star Wars Episode VIII': Rey turns to the Dark Side." You should read it. If you don't feel like reading it, here's a quick summary: Rey turns to the Dark Side, Snoke abandons Ren and takes up Rey as his new pupil, and Ren storms off on his own in a tantrum as a result. I have no idea if I'll be right, or even if the new trailer possibly refutes my speculation. But I am content to say nothing about The Last Jedi until after I've seen it regardless.

For these reasons, then, I shall avoid all manner of spoilers for The Last Jedi, even trailers. It will be hard; I expect to fail in some way(s), even if it isn't my fault (such as being stuck with a trailer before a theatrical movie I see before The Last Jedi). But I would rather fail in trying to adhere to this standard than let the potential magic of this movie all but disappear before I sit down to watch it in theaters.