As a kid, with no internet, movie news came from magazines (ala Empire etc) and the newspapers. Being a kid, like most kids, you don’t exactly peruse the local deaths, births and escaped cattle notices in the hope of finding some titbits direct from the set or even a few sneaky, handheld photos of some big Hollywood blockbuster . The first glimpse of the movie you got was either on the TV, a dedicated magazine or more than likely it was at the local cinema.
Now (still a kid mentally at least) I can get the latest photos and videos from the set of The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers or even the Amazing Spiderman. And in the current age of all things high def, most of the time it’s of decent quality. We even publish these stories on this here website. In the last few months, the web has been overloaded with videos of Batwings, Thor and Captain America fighting, Spiderman jumping over cars, Chris Evans running down streets, even the final Harry Potter movie had a bunch of leaks. And that's all just in the last 12 or so months.
I’ll be honest, the leaked footage of the Dark Knight Rises has dampened my enthusiasm for the movie big time. Take the Batwing (or so called Batwing) footage. The actual vehicle shaky and not at all smooth and bad ass, as no doubt it will be in the final product. And of course, there’s the snow on a sunny day, trickling down as Batman “steers” his contraption down a street and so forth. Obviously, with post production techniques from colour correction and visual fx the whole thing will look like so spectacular, Batman's piloting skills will put Maverick’s to shame. Or lets take the footage of Captain America and Thor taking on some bad guys on the street, from next years Avengers. It looks brutal, and not in the violent sense. But sure enough the magicians will ply their trade and those scenes will look epic. In particular though, the Dark Knight rises has really surprised me, given that Christopher Nolan has being incredibly secret with has last number of projects. Surely he must be pissed off? Surely the studio must be pissed? Or does it all add to the hype? Is it the 15 seconds of fame for the youtuber’s that capture the footage? Afterall, when we watch the footage, the next thing we check out is who put it up there. I love telling people about sacredmonkeyshagger15’s videos. You know the one, where he videoed someone changing a flat tyre on the Bat-milk van.
For me, these leaks detract from the movie just a wee bit. And while they are not representative of the final product they always instill a little bit of, here comes that famous internet word, “MEH”. Do I really want to see how strung together the Batwing looks? Absolutely I do, but I’ll watch that on the making of in the Blu-Ray. I guess it’s like a one night stand. You get back to their place and while you struggle to get your shoes off (let alone something to mask the smelly socks with) they “slip” into something more comfortable. That’s all well and good and your all excited with anticipation for them to leap from the bathroom wearing a Super-whore outfit. But they don’t close the door and you get a little sneak peek. You see the cellulite, the long scratching session and even the shit stained underwear. And while the end product may blow your mind (literally), you still can’t get the shit stained underwear out of your thoughts. Play that scene out again in your head, but this time the bathroom door is fully closed. When it opens again all you see is the finished product. The Super-whore outfit is in full effect, and as for the shit stained underwear and cellulite? You can get that on the extra’s disc, if you want to watch it!
Ultimately though, these “leaks” have been a problem for quite some time. Rumour has it that David Prowse (the actor who bodied Darth Vader) leaked the death of Vader to the press and Mr. Lucas was none too impressed, as you could imagine. And when the leaks have a history that’s linked to the Dark side, what hope is there at all. Cue an Obi-Wan joke.
Finally as mentioned before, I contemplated not publishing any articles with leaked set footage (pirated footage we don’t do and have zero interest in publishing it). But then again, this website, isn’t for me. It’s for you! You decide to hit the play button on the video. Hit it carefully, and with caution!!! You don’t want any shit stained underwear now, do you?
