The Insider.com

With filming of The Dark Knight Rises well underway in Pittsburgh, the Internet has been flooded with YouTube videos of Batman's newest toy, the Batwing, hovering through the streets. Between that frenzy of footage, viral videos of Bane's big speech in Heinz Field, and the first official shot of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle on the Batpod, are there going to be any surprises left by the time the movie comes out?

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Underwhelmed fanboys immediately jumped on that first Catwoman pic released last week, prompting Hathaway to defend her look in the image, declaring that it shows only "a 10th of what that suit can do." She added that those who approved of the photo "have excellent taste." Clearly, to me, it's a case of context.

We live in an age of few surprises. Go online, and there are weekly spoilers available for upcoming event films, from grainy images and shaky spy videos to detailed plot points and even entire leaked screenplays. I suppose it can be argued that the flood of images and information can be seen as simple excitement surrounding The Dark Knight Rises or any given project, like The Avengers. Sure, you can say that if you don't want to see 'em, don't click on 'em. But call me old fashioned. I miss the days when there was a sense of mystery surrounding a big film in the works, when the only clues available were those released by studio publicity as part of a carefully crafted marketing strategy. Now, pretty much every up-and-coming website wants to be first to get an exclusive by posting a juicy spoiler, regardless of whether or not the studio has been trying to keep it a secret. Decorum is dead in the press.

I'm not a cinema curmudgeon. Really. I'm as excited as the next person to get a sneak peek at what's coming soon to a theater near me. But I still want a fresh experience once the lights go dark in the theater. I want to be surprised.

Guess I'll just have to close my eyes, plug my ears and go "la la la la la la" until The Dark Knight Rises in July 2012.