Sometimes I envy the people who walk into a theater with little to no knowledge of what they’re about to see. Then I hear them complain about how they didn’t know that ‘Sweeney Todd’ was a musical, which quickly transforms my envy into rage.

The Internet is a hell of a thing. It’s simultaneously the greatest and worst advancement in technology during the course of our young lives.

It is a haven for useful knowledge and information, as well as a seedy den of debauchery and nonsense. For every IMDb, there’s a site where you can give your credit card information to the deposed prince of Nigeria. For every Wikipedia (yes, a legitimate source for quasi-facts), there’s the BME Pain Olympics (kids, don’t look that one up on ma and pa’s computer).

For me, the Internet has evolved into nothing more than a factory for cinematic hype. Sometimes I blame this on the studios that shove the stuff down our throats for years. Other times, I can only point the finger at myself.

The first type of hype is the product of an infernal machine that begins years before a film is released and continues on well after the double-dip extra special DVD hits shelves.

For instance, as soon as the fourth “Indiana Jones” film was announced, fanboys everywhere began clamoring for every nugget of information that they could get their pudgy little fingers on. As soon as a shot of the movie is released, they begin dissecting it with a fine-toothed comb in an attempt to extract some minute plot point.

The second type of hype is a much more personal kind. This is the type that can either renew your faith in film, or shatter your dreams into a million jagged pieces.

For me, this occurs when I get so excited about a movie for reasons that are pretty much unknown to me. 2007 was home to two specific films that garnered this type of hype in me, both yielding completely different results.

As soon as I heard about a film being made surrounding the different aspects of Bob Dylan’s life, each one played by a different actor, the personal hype immediately began to boil.

With some of the greatest songs of all time, a visually interesting director like Todd Haynes and a solid group of actors, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I would completely fall in love with the thing.

Sadly, when the house lights came on and I left the theater after sitting through “I’m Not There,” I felt like I had just been punched in the jaw by Tyson in his prime. To say I was disappointed would be a bit of an understatement.

Without the hype, I might not have felt like this. Regardless, I ate my dinner that night with a side of sad sauce.

On the polar opposite side of the spectrum was the personal hype that I created for “There Will Be Blood.” Considering that Daniel Day-Lewis appears in roughly one film every hundred millennia, each of his flicks is worth getting excited for. As soon as a leaked trailer appeared online a year or so ago, I was preparing myself for a cinematic masterpiece.

Sometimes I envy the people who walk into a theater with little to no knowledge of what they’re about to see. Then I hear them complain about how they didn’t know that “Sweeney Todd” was a musical, which quickly transforms my envy into rage.

In the case of “There Will Be Blood,” I entered the theater with about as much knowledge of the film that anyone could have had without actually seeing it. Considering that I had already memorized the trailers, listened to the entire soundtrack numerous times and read through the screenplay, I kind of had an idea about what I was in for. Yet somehow, the film not only lived up to my enormous expectations, but actually surpassed them in every possible way.

I think the lesson here is that I should stop wasting my time on various movie Web sites. But since that will never happen, I’ll just continue drinking my cocktail of hype and tears.

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