GUARDIANS of the GALAXY - Grading & Discussion

[Warped9]

I'm a Star Trek fan yet I certainly don't like everything related to it.

I'm a Batman fan yet I certainly don't like everything related to him.

I'm a Superman fan yet I certainly don't like everything related to him.

I'm a Spider-Man fan yet I certainly don't like everything related to him.

I'm a James Bond fan yet I certainly don't like everything related to him.

I've enjoyed Marvel movies, but certainly not all. X-Men leaves me cold no matter how well done. I was surprised to enjoy Avengers because I wasn't a fan of the comics and I normally don't care for superhero teams. I quite enjoyed Iron Man 1 and 3 but 2 was bust. The Thor movies were meh though partly because I'm not interested in Thor. I quite liked both Captain America films.

Guardians Of The Galaxy piqued my interest as an idea and I was only very dimly aware of the comic. I loved that it was only tangentally connected to the other films and could stand on its own. But it won me over simply by being damned entertaining. It was really fun.

GOTG also reminded me of Star Wars only I think it's a helluva lot more enjoyable than SW with much better writing, acting and execution all around.

 

[BillJ]

I understand your point.

I just don't think the film would have been as respected, well-regarded, or popular if Marvel hadn't slapped their name on it.

That's not meant to offend anyone

I have no real interest in the Marvel universe. I've seen Guardians of the Galaxy twice (theater, Blu-ray) and thought it was fairly entertaining. Not the "best movie ever", but not a bad movie.

 

[Mage]

I'm a Star Trek fan yet I certainly don't like everything related to it.

I'm a Batman fan yet I certainly don't like everything related to him.

I'm a Superman fan yet I certainly don't like everything related to him.

I'm a Spider-Man fan yet I certainly don't like everything related to him.

I'm a James Bond fan yet I certainly don't like everything related to him.

I've enjoyed Marvel movies, but certainly not all. X-Men leaves me cold no matter how well done. I was surprised to enjoy Avengers because I wasn't a fan of the comics and I normally don't care for superhero teams. I quite enjoyed Iron Man 1 and 3 but 2 was bust. The Thor movies were meh though partly because I'm not interested in Thor. I quite liked both Captain America films.

Guardians Of The Galaxy piqued my interest as an idea and I was only very dimly aware of the comic. I loved that it was only tangentally connected to the other films and could stand on its own. But it won me over simply by being damned entertaining. It was really fun.

GOTG also reminded me of Star Wars only I think it's a helluva lot more enjoyable than SW with much better writing, acting and execution all around.

Be careful Warped9, you're proving that not all fans think alike. That's dangerous thinking, and breaking moulds is something that is certainly not allowed.

 

[Shazam!]

And this *was* a risk for Marvel because, again, it dealt with characters no one have even heard of or cared about

I've never bought this argument. Loads of films are released every year with characters no-one has ever heard of.

I don't think the makers of Die Hard were sat around considering the movie a 'risk' because no-one had heard of John McClane.

 

[Guy Gardener]

But everyone was still swooning over how awesome Moonlighting was.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

And this *was* a risk for Marvel because, again, it dealt with characters no one have even heard of or cared about

I've never bought this argument. Loads of films are released every year with characters no-one has ever heard of.

I don't think the makers of Die Hard were sat around considering the movie a 'risk' because no-one had heard of John McClane.

But a comicbook film is different. People are saying that Marvel has sold movies based on the Marvel label (like the Pixar label before it), but I don't think that was certain before this movie. Instead, it seemed more plausible that it followed trends of the past - people were responding to which character it was. Granted, they were never the most popular characters (Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, and the X-Men), but people certainly knew who Captain America was, the Hulk was, Iron Man was, and Thor was (although I suspect fewer knew Thor was a Marvel character as opposed to the god). Guardians was certainly not in that category.

 

[DWF]

And this *was* a risk for Marvel because, again, it dealt with characters no one have even heard of or cared about

I've never bought this argument. Loads of films are released every year with characters no-one has ever heard of.

I don't think the makers of Die Hard were sat around considering the movie a 'risk' because no-one had heard of John McClane.

People had heard of Bruce willis though, GOTG had no huge names among main characters. The trailers for GOTG had alot of music and energy in them and really if people didn't like the movie even with the Marvel tag on it the movie wouldn't have made so much money.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

That being said, it was also blessed by being a good movie at the very end of the movie season. Marvel put it where there was no competition, but that helped because people didn't have any other movies to go see so it lasted on top for weeks.

 

[Shazam!]

People had heard of Bruce willis though, GOTG had no huge names among main characters. The trailers for GOTG had alot of music and energy in them and really if people didn't like the movie even with the Marvel tag on it the movie wouldn't have made so much money.

Zoe Saldana? Bradley Cooper? Vin Diesel?

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Bradley Cooper hardly counts here and Vin Diesel certainly doesn't count. No one goes "I loved Vin Diesel in The Fast and the Furious, I'll love him even more when I can't see him and he only says one line the entire movie!" Granted, he really pulled off the role, but, when people think of star power, that's not what they think of.

Zoe Saldana is a rising star in the Marvel mold, imo. She isn't on Bruce Willis's level, though.

 

[Set Harth]

he only says one line the entire movie!

Two lines, technically.

GOTG also reminded me of Star Wars only I think it's a helluva lot more enjoyable than SW with much better writing, acting and execution all around.

The original Star Wars? Now you've lost me.

 

[Warped9]

GOTG also reminded me of Star Wars only I think it's a helluva lot more enjoyable than SW with much better writing, acting and execution all around.

The original Star Wars? Now you've lost me.

All of it as far as I'm concerned.

 

[DWF]

People had heard of Bruce willis though, GOTG had no huge names among main characters. The trailers for GOTG had alot of music and energy in them and really if people didn't like the movie even with the Marvel tag on it the movie wouldn't have made so much money.

Zoe Saldana? Bradley Cooper? Vin Diesel?

There were plenty of well known actors but in the end it was Chris Pratt's movie and I didn't see any of the promos or trailers saying that the movie starred the well known actor of Parks And Recreation and Wanted.

 

[Rincewiend]

GOTG also reminded me of Star Wars only I think it's a helluva lot more enjoyable than SW with much better writing, acting and execution all around.

Hm, in some ways this movie reminded me of The Fifth Element...
Overal i enjoyed this movie when i got to see it recently and i think i would've enjoyed it just as much with the same story in a different universe(a non-marvel IP)...

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

The relationship between Star Wars (the original trilogy) and Guardians of the Galaxy could be expressed by paraphrasing Jeff Goldlum's speech in Jurassic Park.

The movie they made with Guardians didn't require any discipline to make it. Star Wars - being the first true blockbuster (along with Jaws) and certainly the boldest to incorporate sci fi and fairy tales, special effects and miniatures, new characters and ideas, fast storytelling (the list goes on) all the disciplines that make it what it is, was all just pillaged by Guardians of the Galaxy. They simply read and watched others had done, took the next step, but didn't really earn the knowledge for themselves. They were so concerned about how it would sell,they slapped in on a plastic lunchbox, threw in some songs 20-somethings haven't heard of and now it's selling.

To me people that degrade Star Wars to say that this film is better have little respect for the history of film-making in my book. It's one thing to like this film better (but usually these are twenty-somethings that, like the person who sent in the sad, sad question in the video below, really need to go and watch more movies). The point is that movies simply wouldn't be where they are today if it hadn't been for Star Wars. Also, we wouldn't have a geek or nerd culture or whatever. We wouldn't have Pixar or Photoshop, probably not even WETA. In a few years, GotG will have grown stale.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS7NEaxhOOA[/yt]

If Guardians of the Galaxy were simply considered mindless or fun entertainment like Fifth Element or a G. I Joe movie, I wouldn't be complaining. Saying it's executed better than Star Wars, implying that it's such a huge risk for Marvel and all that.. that's what I'm arguing. Remember, no one had faith in Star Wars.. the studio threatened to shut the production down each and every day. All those special effects were cobbled together from scratch. Even many of the actors thought it was silly. Turns out there's more innovation in the first few musical notes of the Star Wars theme than the entire Guardians of the Galaxy film

 

[Warped9]

There was little truly groundbreaking about Star Wars unless you were 8 or 10 when you saw it. It was sword-and-scorcery done as sci-fi. In many ways it was building on material already long established in sci-fi in the pulps all the way back to the 1920s. In many ways it emulated what had already been seen in the John Carter books and the Flash Gordon serials.

I found SW visually interesting, but not amazing. And the story, writing and characterization I found often rough and shallow. And that's the original trilogy. It did have energy and enthusiasm, but I found it quite easy to not get caught up in it like so many others at the time.

I found GOTG more polished the SW (any of them) in overall execution, but then genre films as a whole have become generally more polished in execution over the years. Both are supposed to be fun movies yet I find GOTG more polished.

The one thing I never bought into was all the deeper meaning some fans ascribed to the SW films. No, they're not that deep. Indeed in many ways they're rather facile.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

First of all, I could spend paragraphs posting about the behind the scenes innovations, the huge strides Star Wars has made in those regards. if you actually read my posts, I've hinted at them.

As for it's appeal, that's a bit more difficult to articulate. "Deeper meaning" might not be the right phrase exactly. And, no, you don't need to be 8 or ten when it first came out to appreciate it. Sure, "all" it did was mix sci fi and fantasy, but that "all" hadn't been combined like that before. Sure, Buck Rogers had it, but it suddenly became far more meaningful and tangible. It's like growing up loving spaghetti westerns filmed on sound-stages and then watching your first western filmed on location in places like Monument Valley. Everything just feels right. The production design alone in Star Wars makes the crazy world feel tangible. A lot of the technology seems crazy and different, yet, in this universe, it feels of a piece.

As for describing more than it's innate appeal of hero and villains and chases and escapes, and it's mythological underpinnings.. it's a tough one. I'm not one that has delved into the expanded universe, but I guess just the fact that there is an expanded universe is part of what makes it all seem so big, and interesting. Kristian Harloff had a "far far away" podcast where he spent an hour talking about about the teaser trailer, and even describing whom he thought the hooded figure could be (this was before his name was revealed) took many many minutes if him going into the history of the Sith, the ciluture, the conflicts. The idea that, in the Star Wars Galaxy there is a sameness to the technology and cultures - and, for writers, the storytelling style - in the "current star Wars universe as it was many generations before is interesting. Is that Galaxy finished innovatting..ius their pre-industrial age similar to their post-modern age? What the Star Wars films did was tell a story that seemed larger than what audiences had been used to, and yet could only be a significant lynchpin (the fall of the head of the Empire) in a galaxy that has thousands and thousands more stories to tell.. that the films could do for fans what just amounts to setting a unique look, feel, tone, and storytelling style. And these elements are truly unique. When they work, they simply work, no winking at the audience, no referencing our own popular culture, no off-kilter sentimentality. There is something intangible about the "feel" of the Star Wars universe that merely touches the iceberg about what could happen in that setting.

 

[Kemaiku]

Star Wars was as much medieval themed fantasy in space as much as Star Trek originally started as frontier/wild west stories in space occasionally fitting in cold war tensions with the Klingons.

That doesn't take away anything from their appeal or success, but they really weren't trying to be much more than that.

GotG is largely the crooks with a heart of gold/jailbreak/jewel heist/grudge story where the jewel happens to be of importance to a larger story, which is not necessary to really know to enjoy.

GotG just benefits from a few advantages over Star Wars from decades more film refinement and I'd argue, somewhat better writers and cast.

 

[urbandefault]

Just watched Guardians again, the first time since I saw it in the theater. This is just a fun movie, even better the second time around.

 

[DWF]

Star Wars storywise was a combination of many things that came before it like Flash Gordon serials, The Hidden Fortress, John Carter and dozens of other references. Visually the motion control of the models were revolutionary. GOTG is a fun exciting movie and it's understandable that people would love it. And given the unsuccessful attempts at space operas who aren't named Star Trek or Star Wars, GOTG was a risk.