Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

I should add I didn't hate the film or anything. I thought it was pretty good fun. I guess the hype had left me a little disappointed.

Timing is everything, I think if you viewed this film when it first came out before the hype, your opinion of it would be different.

 

[Ejanss]

And I will wager now that these all powerful MacGuffins will simply be used to build one all powerful MacGuffin that can destroy the entire universe, rather than just a city/planet/galaxy.

Yeah, yeah, maybe they'll all be put together to form some kind of, I don't know....eternal mitten!
(No, really, nobody ever clicks YouTube links, I can accept that...)

Yeah, everybody is welcome to their opinion and it's really nothing to get upset about.

No, he meant "Sigh, the poster just showed off 'wagering' something comic book fans have known for the last 30 years, are already three films ahead of the story, and tuning in to see how well they got it right..."
It's classic literature, get with the program.

 

[Tino]

With a 60%+ drop this weekend for Catching Fire, GOTG is pretty much assured the boxoffice crown for 2014. Unless The Hobbit pulls an upset, Groot can do another dance.

Oh well, looks pretty certain now that Hunger Games Mockingjay pt 1 will indeed win the 2014 boxoffice crown with Guardians coming in second. It was a good run.

 

[SilverWook]

Considering how many internet naysayers thought it had box office bomb written all over it, it was a very good run.

 

[Ejanss]

Considering how many internet naysayers thought it had box office bomb written all over it, it was a very good run.

With all the short-memoried fan-geeking over James Gunn directing, it was surprising how much Marvel was still in it--With two writers, you could tell which parts were written by Gunn, and which parts weren't.
When they try to explain the Nebula/Thanos/stones canon, that was some of the non-Gunn script, and when they make Footloose jokes...

For this title, either one or the other just wouldn't have worked, but no, Kevin, that doesn't mean we suddenly "want to see more obscure characters". (It was the only title you had left to explain Thanos, and your hands were tied, that's okay.)

 

[SilverWook]

I was totally unfamiliar with Gunn's resume before this. I was already a Rocket Raccoon fan, but the trailer promised a fun ride, and the movie delivered it.

Obscure characters are fine by me, so long as there's a good story to tell. (There's only so much you can do with the "big guns" of Marvel.) At this point, I think they could even pull off Howard The Duck, and finally lose the baggage of the 1986 film the character has been saddled with.

 

[TravisR]

I was totally unfamiliar with Gunn's resume before this.

Super was really good.

 

[Ejanss]

Obscure characters are fine by me, so long as there's a good story to tell. (There's only so much you can do with the "big guns" of Marvel.)

Although Kevin Feige at the Phase 3 announcement said flat-out "It's proof that you like obscure characters!", that's not why they made it, that's not why the fans were hyping it, and that's not why we liked it--
Honest Trailers joked "We're down to these guys?", but the constantly overlooked fact is that Marvel had to explain Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet stones in time for A3, BUT the only other major titles that delved into those storylines were Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer...And until their rights revert back, Fox is still acting like a jerk about it. So, in a way, yes, we were "down to these guys", at least as far as explaining the Big Purple Guy in the Chair and "One down, five to go".
And I doubt comic-reader fans were as excited about the Inhumans or Black Panther as they were about seeing Rocket Raccoon get his movie, end of argument.

At this point, I think they could even pull off Howard The Duck, and finally lose the baggage of the 1986 film the character has been saddled with.

Howard was supposed to be the "satirical" side of Marvel, that Deadpool and She-Hulk later indulged in. (Howard even teamed up with She-Hulk in an arc of her solo comic, back during the "Sensational" genre-satirical John Byrne days.)
It helps if you know enough of Marvel TO satirize it, but if you don't--like, back in 1986--it comes off as a bit of a strange idea. In the comics, Howard got involved with all sorts of cosmic/dimensional anomalies, and we...maybe, sort of got some of that in the 80's movie, but the movie was too distracted by Huyck and Katz's taste for corny sitcom gags to notice. It wasn't exactly the sort of movie you'd use to Break the Curse, any more than you'd use the Guardians to do it.
I agree, the print-comic Howard fit perfectly into Guardians' cosmic/spoofing/fratboy tone, but you'd need the same people to do it.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I think Marvel made it primarily because they want to continue to try to make different types of sub-genre movies under the Marvel Universe umbrella (WWII pulp period adventure, high tech actioner, fantasy / royal family-drama adventure, 70's political/conspiracy thriller, etc..). Feige has said that they really wanted to do a Star Wars-ish space adventure, and they also wanted to branch out their cinematic universe into the cosmic stuff. I don't think its fair to say they made the movie just to introduce Thanos. If that were truly the case I believe he would have had a more prominent role. Thanos already made a brief appearance in The Avengers. Here they had an opportunity to do something a bit more with him, though his appearance in Guardians isn't much more than a cameo. It was a great opportunity to introduce the general audience to the concept of this powerful guy being out there without giving much information about him (other than being considered "the most powerful being in the Universe"). I think doing it gave them a good opportunity to work in some seeds about the Infinity Stones and Thanos, but they didn't NEED Guardians to do that. If they didn't do Guardians they likely would have touched on those things in the next Thor movie. They first started trickling out info about these Infinity Stones in Thor: The Dark World after all. But they wanted to do Guardians. I don't think they technically "need" to establish the Infinity Stones and Thanos outside of the Infinity War movies. Since they are doing it in two films, there'd be plenty of room to give all the info you need in an opening prologue like in The Fellowship of the Ring. But since they know so far in advance that they are going there and are doing so many other movies first, it also works to seed some things in these earlier movies. I'd still expect to see a prologue in Infinity War part one because they still have to try to make these movies as if the viewer hasn't seen any of the previous films (to a reasonable degree). Ultimately I think audiences went to see the movie because it looked like a fun, space adventure with a bit of a Firefly/Farscape flavor (for fans of those shows), plus the "Marvel Brand" has built up some good will.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

In the comics, Squirrel Girl actually kills Thanos. I triple-dog-dare Marvel to go there.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Guardians of the Galaxy has received a WGA nomination for best adapted screenplay.

Adapted Screenplay:​

American Sniper - Screenplay by Jason Hall; Based on the book by Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn; Based on her own novel
Guardians of the Galaxy - Screenplay by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman; Based on the Marvel comic by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
The Imitation Game - Screenplay by Graham Moore; Based on the book Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges
Wild - Screenplay by Nick Hornby; Based on the book by Cheryl Strayed

Go Guardians!

 

[SilverWook]

Sean, can you fix your post? It's breaking the page, width-wise...

 

[Sean Bryan]

Sean, can you fix your post? It's breaking the page, width-wise...

Hope that did it. It was good on iOS and Chrome, it seemed to be messed up on Internet explorer. Let me know if its still wonky.

 

[Tino]

Sean, can you fix your post? It's breaking the page, width-wise...

There's a certain cat loving member here who does that ALL the time.

 

[SilverWook]

Hope that did it. It was good on iOS and Chrome, it seemed to be messed up on Internet explorer. Let me know if its still wonky.

The text is fine now.

 

[Ejanss]

I don't think they technically "need" to establish the Infinity Stones and Thanos outside of the Infinity War movies. Since they are doing it in two films, there'd be plenty of room to give all the info you need in an opening prologue like in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Or like in Thor 2?


(I decided to forego the "Dune" joke about long prologue explanations of sci-fantasy arcanea)

 

[Sean Bryan]

No, not like Thor 2. Like Fellowship.

 

[Steve Christou]

James Gunn talks about Oscar nominations and snubs on his facebook page -


https://www.facebook.com/jgunn/posts/10152445297411157

 

[Colin Jacobson]

James Gunn talks about Oscar nominations and snubs on his facebook page -


https://www.facebook.com/jgunn/posts/10152445297411157

Thanks - fun read!

 

[Sean Bryan]

Speaking of James Gunn, I just saw this recently and thought it was funny.