So it's finally coming to our screens, with the first showing in the original English next Monday. Sigh...
After soaking it in a couple days,I've concluded that Guardians is by far the best Marvel movie. Not only that , it's the best movie I've seen in a long time. I loved the Avengers and I loved Days of Futures Past, hell, I like all of the Marvel movies, but this one takes the cake. Yep, I'm trying to come up with a reason to not put it at the top of the list, I can't do it. The only thing I don't like about it is that it's not out on Blueray and not sitting in my playstation right now.
Saw it yesterday, it was good. Was it it totally awesome and amazing, not really. I liked it, but I wasn't mesmerized or nursing a woody.
So. Finally. Awesome. I can see why people call it the Star Wars of our generation, especially with the casual world-building going on all around the main protagonists in every shot. What I hadn't expected was how throughly French the movie was. The aesthetics are Moebius from A to Z, the style is what 5th Element tried but failed to do, and the plot is mainly an onion of style around an empty seed, and what meaning there is is pure existentialism. Camus in space. Also, awesome. Easily the best of the Marvel movies, though the comparison is almost unfair, as it's so completely different.
What sense both the narration and the protagonists' interpretations make stem from a will to press sense into stuff that doesn't bring meaning along on its own. Lots of great imagination going into bodies and shapes and movements and not least sounds that are perfectly chosen to fit, but not to signify anything specific. The use of music is pretty much directly from the last pages of La nausée: Overriding lots of distressing and incomprehensible stuff to pull those impressions together in what is more an emotional movement than an intelligible proposition, and ostentatiously aware of being just that.
Ladies and gentlemen, talk like this is why we can't have nice things and Germans are always ruining everything with their strudel, and lederhosen, and holocausts, and things.
Ok then. I propose that GotG is highly recognizable and unique in style and humour. If you agree, let's hear how you'd describe what exactly makes it different.
It marries an era of pop culture that many harken back to, and which keeps getting revived, so different generations can connect to it, with humour - much needed after he recent economic turmoil and political bitterness, action which isn't just dumb, and sprinkling otherworldliness to the mundane (the Nova Corps and Kyln vs police and prison) to manage to ground to viewer whilst letting them escape at the same time?
So, I'm watching the Avengers again and I noticed something. When Pepper and Tony are talking and Agent Coulson shows up, they are talking about twelve percent of something (I can't find the clip) Then I remembered this: Coincidince or Easter egg?
Right, and that's clearly the first thing that strikes you about this movie: It's all so literal and realistic.
After seeing it a second time and having a few days to think about it, this movies succeeds on SO MANY LEVELS. I've come to realize that many of my favorite bits are the short clips that build the characters for us. Not really the ones that build their back story so much, but the ones that give us a glimpse of their personalities. Examples: Peter's Quill's reaction, late in the movie when inside Ronan's ship and confronted by Korath, who calls him "Starlord"...a satisfied sigh of "Finally!" Yondu's habit of collecting little figurines that he places in a line on the console of his ship Rocket's reaction when Drax tosses him a weapon during the prison break. His expression and the "Oh Yeah!" were perfect!! even the following exchange, "humanizing" essentially a throwaway character... On another note, apparently Director James Gunn is the uncle of one of my son's better friends from HS Marching Band. Don't know if I'll ever cross paths with him, but I sure hope I get a chance someday!
My guess would be that you like your superhero movies more serious and gritty. Frankly so do I but I still enjoy the Marvel movies even though they can be a bit over the top at times.
I'll stop you right there. Its a good movie but nothing close to revolutionary like star wars was when it first hit. This film didn't do anything we haven't seen before and certainly didn't push any new boundaries. The entire film industry isn't rushing to make the next GOTG and I dont see kids falling all over themselves to buy the action figures.It was an entertaining popcorn flick. Nothing more.
To be the kind of revolution you want would take fucking holograms. But, far as storytelling goes....Star Wars was nothing new either. Lucas admits he ripped off Kurosowa films, serials, WWII films, westerns, and King Arthur.
The reason the entire film industry rushed out to make the next SW was not because it was a ground-breaking film, but because it made an assload of by re-invigorating a dead film genre. Sci-Fi has had it's ups & downs since then, but it's nowhere near as dead as it was prior to SW. And if you don't think the success of GOTG is helping to create the next wave of Sci-Fi films...well, you're either naive as hell, or an idiot.
The visual effects for Star Wars was unlike any the industry had seen before. Most reviews at the time called it ground breaking. Star Wars was a phenomon the likes of which GOTG hasn't reached and likely never will. Which only proves my point that Star Wars broke new ground and GOTG didn't. Instead of acting like a petulent child why don't you try providing examples? Where is this next big wave of GOTG like movies that are coming out? Where is this big demand for GOTG merchandise? What was its box office take compared to Star Wars? How many filmmakers are talking about it inspiring them? If you're going to compare it to Star Wars then do it right.
I, too, find the comparisons to Star Wars premature. It's a good sci-fi/comedy flick. But it's nothing earth shattering. A library of books has been written about Star Wars, generations of filmmakers and story tellers have cite it as an inspiration, Jedi has even been recognized as an official religion. Not to mention the decades of toys, video games, books, comics, cartoons, and merchandise it has spawned. Hell, they even had Star Wars cereal. I agree that the actual plot of the original movie is nothing special and derived from various works. But the same can be said of Guardians and pretty much every movie that comes out these days. In my opinion, Guardians isn't even the best Marvel movie...
Not to take a position but you really might be making a stronger point if you waited until the damned thing was out of the theaters, at least, before asking most of those questions. I rather think the intent of the comparison is something entirely different anyway
