I remember my first experience with MAAS. I was a youngster back in the very early 1980's going to my local theatre to see some movie that I think had Muppets in it, I'm not quite sure. Regardless, as I walked towards the theatre I saw the most beautiful movie poster I had ever seen. It was a poster for my favourite movie of all time, Superman! But this one was different. It had the Superman title on it in those classic glass letters but for some strange reason it had the Roman numeral two inset underneath it. The wheels in my tiny little brain slowly turned as I sipped on my large root beer staring at the poster. Then like a lightning bolt it hit me! They made another one! Hooray! At the time I didn't know they could even do that. The real burning question in my mind though was when? When is this coming out? I have to know! After more careful examination of the poster my feverous question was answered in three simple words…COMING THIS SUMMER. Summer? But school's not even finished yet! Summer is a long, long, long time away! From what little I remember of this experience, it could have only been a month later before I saw it in the theatre, but needless to say the small amount of time I had to wait before seeing it was probably one of the most agonizing and torturous experiences of my young life.

Do you remember what it was like to wait for a movie to come out in the theatre before the Internet? It was a hell of a lot easier let me tell you. The only information you received that any film was coming out was either through trailers, television commercials or posters posted in the theatre. So you would see the trailer, it would tell you when it was coming out and you would know how long you had to suffer before you would see the movie. Did I just type 'suffer?' Yes, I did. Truth be told, I suffer from a disorder typically known as Movie Anticipation Anxiety Syndrome or MAAS. It's quite common among movie fans. It's a feeling of physical pain a person feels while counting the days they have left before they can see a particular movie in the theatre. Primarily, highly touted blockbuster movies are usually the causes of this pain. Your Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, Batman or Spiderman's etc, etc. The only cure for this problem is to finally be able to watch the particular film in the theatre.

Well now thanks to the Internet my MAAS problem has been turned up about 1000% percent. Thanks to the Internet I can get the initial buzz on a film before they even begin casting. Thanks to the Internet I can look at the script before they even begin shooting. Thanks to the Internet my health and well-being can be put into jeopardy for months at a time! Take for example when the news that "Spiderman - The Motion Picture" was going to start production soon. The movie rumour sites were going nuts! The first big buzz was "Who's going to play Spiderman?" Stomach rumbles. "I heard it was going to be Charlie Sheen!" Sharp pain. "No way man! I heard Freddie Prinze Jr. was a lock!" Feeling feverish. Room spinning. "It's confirmed, it's Tobey Maguire." Ahh, pain subsiding. "Hey have you heard about the costume?! I hear it's all black!" Aigh! Pain returning! It becomes a vicious circle. So now instead of biting my nails waiting to see the film a few weeks after the release announcement, now I have the distinct privilege of driving myself nuts during the entire production of the film.

In this case the Internet is a double-edged sword. As much as I hate hearing about bad things going on in the a production of a movie I have a particular interest in seeing, for some inexplicable reason I can't help but want to read more and more about it. It's a sickness I know. I usually read the movie scoops sites with one eye closed, that way if I accidentally come across a spoiler only one of my eyes will have seen it, so the other eye will still be surprised in the theatre. What am I supposed to do? Stop reading the Internet?! Ha! Impossible at this point. It's just something I'm going to have to live with. Of course god help me if a Star Wars film, Superman Movie, Tarantino movie and a Spiderman movie were to start shooting at the exact same time. I don't think I could ever recover.

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