Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

OwaynOTT

Loki isn't all that bad as a villian.

I think overall Marvels attempts at bad blokes and gals has been poor and you don't need to compare them to DC attempts like Joker. Sure look at Magneto in the recent XMen stuff and he's from the Marvel universe and is handled much better than Marvel have handled their guys.

ancapailldorcha

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Loki isn't all that bad as a villian.

I think overall Marvels attempts at bad blokes and gals has been poor and you don't need to compare them to DC attempts like Joker. Sure look at Magneto in the recent XMen stuff and he's from the Marvel universe and is handled much better than Marvel have handled their guys.

Part of it might be the fact that there's a lot of revenue in toy and merchandise sales. They have to be careful if they want to avoid PG12 ratings and the like.

I loved Loki as a villain but he was going up against a full team. It was a bit dull seeing all these colourful characters showing off their powers against a group of faceless minions wasn't terribly satisfying, especially given the first 2 acts.

Telecaster58

Sorry to burst everyone's balloon, but I thought that was a terrible film.

Otacon

Telecaster58 wrote: »

Sorry to burst everyone's balloon, but I thought that was a terrible film.

Why would your opinion burst anyone else's bubble?

ancapailldorcha

Telecaster58 wrote: »

Sorry to burst everyone's balloon, but I thought that was a terrible film.

Why?

Looper007

Telecaster58 wrote: »

Sorry to burst everyone's balloon, but I thought that was a terrible film.

someone crying out for attention I see :rolleyes:

e_e

Telecaster58 wrote: »

Sorry to burst everyone's balloon, but I thought that was a terrible film.

Wouldn't go that far but yeah I find it be very mediocre, at the bottom of this Summer's blockbusters of what I've seen.

OwaynOTT

e_e wrote: »

Wouldn't go that far but yeah I find it be very mediocre, at the bottom of this Summer's blockbusters of what I've seen.

Have you seen Transformers?

PhiloCypher

e_e wrote: »

Wouldn't go that far but yeah I find it be very mediocre, at the bottom of this Summer's blockbusters of what I've seen.

What blockbusters have you seen this summer out of curiosity.

I mean if it's just XMen DOFP and Cap 2 then fair enough but if it's godzilla and transformers too then I don't know what to say.

e_e

PhiloCypher wrote: »

What blockbusters have you seen this summer out of curiosity.

Captain America 2, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Edge of Tomorrow, X-Men, How to Train Your Dragon 2, 22 Jump Street, Transformers (which I didn't like either, to answer Owayn's question) and Godzilla.

Have to say I felt Winter Soldier was the better Marvel movie overall on the level of plot, action, and character. In fairness to Guardians it wins out on the humor front at least.

krudler

e_e wrote: »

Wouldn't go that far but yeah I find it be very mediocre, at the bottom of this Summer's blockbusters of what I've seen.

Transformers 4 says hi lol

PhiloCypher

e_e wrote: »

Captain America 2, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Edge of Tomorrow, X-Men, How to Train Your Dragon 2, 22 Jump Street, Transformers (which I didn't like either, to answer Owayn's question) and Godzilla.

Have to say I felt Winter Soldier was the better Marvel movie overall on the level of plot, action, and character. In fairness to Guardians it wins out on the humor front at least.

You've seen more blockbusters then me this summer in fairness. For me on pure entertainment value Guardian was the most enjoyable film I've seen this summer (I've seen cap2,Xmen,dawn,jump street) tho I'm willing to concede that it may not be the best film from a critical/technical standpoint.

e_e

Yeah I may go back to Guardians at some point because I didn't have all that much of a good time and it made me feel like a bit of a killjoy tbh to see how everyone else adored it.

krudler

One thing I will say, this has been a pretty solid year for summer movies. Cap 2, HTTYD2, Guardians, Apes, Edge of Tomorrow were all really entertaining. TF4 is one of the worst films I've ever seen, although still not as bad as Revenge of the Fallen. Godzilla had some good moments but was a missed oppurtunity. Hercules was forgettable dumb fun. Ninja Turtles will probably be rubbish.

e_e

Yeah I think this'll be remembered as the summer of surprisingly good sequels.

ancapailldorcha

krudler wrote: »

One thing I will say, this has been a pretty solid year for summer movies. Cap 2, HTTYD2, Guardians, Apes, Edge of Tomorrow were all really entertaining. TF4 is one of the worst films I've ever seen, although still not as bad as Revenge of the Fallen. Godzilla had some good moments but was a missed oppurtunity. Hercules was forgettable dumb fun. Ninja Turtles will probably be rubbish.

TF4 was outright bloody trash IMO. Godzilla would've been good if it was about Godzilla. We've had some very nice gems like you said.

constitutionus

and the lego movie not only not sucking , but being one of the smartest films of the year.

and who the hell saw that coming !

johnny_ultimate

'Solid' is the optimal word - plenty of enjoyable fare, but also nothing that could IMO really be considered truly spectacular.

I had my issues with the film, but to me Gravity was a film last year that had ambitions beyond mere thrills. It was a big budget film which really pushed the limits of the medium, and to me it just highlights how very modest the successes of even most generally enjoyable blockbusters are.

Oh well, we have a Chris Nolan film yet to come this year

krudler

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

TF4 was outright bloody trash IMO. Godzilla would've been good if it was about Godzilla. We've had some very nice gems like you said.

I didn't mind so much that Godzilla himself was kept to less screen time as it meant the times we did see him had more impact. But why oh why was the main character Captain No Charisma instead of Bryan Cranston, who actually had a reason for being in the film. Generic Asian man with philosophical musings straight from fortune cookies will be played by Ken Watanabe in tonight's movie.

edit: oh yeah, and Noah, which I wasn't particularly a fan of but at least it tried to do something different. Plus it was batsh1t mental in places and it should be applauded for that.

Bacchus

Looper007 wrote: »

Rocket is going to be the franchise most quotable hero soon enough

He's got some great lines alright but I think Groot will take that mantle.

I am Groot. We are Groot. Brilliant stuff.

ancapailldorcha

krudler wrote: »

I didn't mind so much that Godzilla himself was kept to less screen time as it meant the times we did see him had more impact. But why oh why was the main character Captain No Charisma instead of Bryan Cranston, who actually had a reason for being in the film. Generic Asian man with philosophical musings straight from fortune cookies will be played by Ken Watanabe in tonight's movie.

edit: oh yeah, and Noah, which I wasn't particularly a fan of but at least it tried to do something different. Plus it was batsh1t mental in places and it should be applauded for that.

I think they took the teasing thing too far but I agree with you regarding Bryan Cranston. Forgot about Noah. It's a weird one but weird is good sometimes.

GottaGetGatt

Wasn't too keen on this when i first saw the trailer a few months back but went to see it last night and loved it.I loves my 80's classics, being listening to the soundtrack all evening.

krudler

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I think they took the teasing thing too far but I agree with you regarding Bryan Cranston. Forgot about Noah. It's a weird one but weird is good sometimes.

I know the audience I saw it with let out a "ahh wtf?" when the first reveal of the big dude himself is cut short and we instead see a clip on a news report instead of the epic battle it was building up to be.

e_e

krudler wrote: »

I didn't mind so much that Godzilla himself was kept to less screen time as it meant the times we did see him had more impact. But why oh why was the main character Captain No Charisma instead of Bryan Cranston, who actually had a reason for being in the film. Generic Asian man with philosophical musings straight from fortune cookies will be played by Ken Watanabe in tonight's movie.

edit: oh yeah, and Noah, which I wasn't particularly a fan of but at least it tried to do something different. Plus it was batsh1t mental in places and it should be applauded for that.

I think Godzilla has higher highs and lower lows than this. It's almost as if Edwards and his cast were going as far as possible to bore the audience just to make Godzilla's presence more palpable. It's still for me a film with more wow moments than Guardians at least.

krudler

e_e wrote: »

I think Godzilla has higher highs and lower lows than this. It's almost as if Edwards and his cast were going as far as possible to bore the audience just to make Godzilla's presence more palpable. It's still for me a film with more wow moments than Guardians at least.

I don't think Guardians was going for that level of spectacle though, that's why I liked it so much was it was character driven for the most part instead of incessant explosions and forced "look how epic this is!" shots.
The opening temple sequence was brilliant fun and the bickering between the five of them, well four since Groot doesn't add much to the conversations, were really fun to watch. Stuff like that mining colony planetoid and the big battle at the end were definitely money shot material though.

There were some wow moments in Godzilla no doubt, I must watch it again when it comes out it's just a pity so much focus was given to completely uninteresting characters and the one person who was actually worth sticking with isnt in it much.

SherlockWatson

GottaGetGatt wrote: »

Wasn't too keen on this when i first saw the trailer a few months back but went to see it last night and loved it.I loves my 80's classics, being listening to the soundtrack all evening.

Oooooooh Child!!

Mickeroo

Fair to say spectacle wise Godzilla was the best out this summer's crop imo and kudos for the different approach they took, just a shame the characters and story were fairly dull. It was also unlucky to come out in a summer that was unusually strong in terms of quality blockbusters, any other year it might have stood as a shining light of 'pretty good' in a sea of crap.

Apes and Guardians outdid it by quite a bit in the story and character departments IMO.

ancapailldorcha

krudler wrote: »

I know the audience I saw it with let out a "ahh wtf?" when the first reveal of the big dude himself is cut short and we instead see a clip on a news report instead of the epic battle it was building up to be.

It's always good to see something different but the final payoff just wasn't worth 2 hours of watching Kick Ass running around.

cloud493

I thought Godzilla was dull as dishwater to be honest. Edge of tomorrow was a stand out of this summer.

ancapailldorcha

cloud493 wrote: »

I thought Godzilla was dull as dishwater to be honest. Edge of tomorrow was a stand out of this summer.

It had a few cool moments but it was nowhere near as good as Apes or Edge.

krudler

Edge of Tomorrow was really, really entertaining, wasn't too crazy about the generic final act I was hoping it'd go a different way but it had some genuinely funny moments and some fantastic action sequences.

cloud493

Edge of tomorrow, Jump street, the purge, and GOTG are the highlights of this summer. Although if guardians hadn't come at the end of it to redeem the whole thing, I'd be giving this summer a resounding 'it was good enough' ranking.

Of all the Marvel films to date this is certainly one of the better ones, the kind of old fashioned, tongue in cheek nonsense that you wish they made more of. It's not without it's flaws but there's a wit and imagination here that most of Marvel's output has lacked.

I really wish that Marvel would find another way to end their films. The final stand here felt like someone had once again taken the third act of Transformers 3 and simply changed a few names. It felt bland in the Avengers, blander yet when it was redone in Captain America 2 and now Guardians of the Galaxy has once again seen the same ending recycled and you know what, it's not getting any better.

Reading some reaction to Guardians and I'm struggling to understand the acclaim it has received. It's certainly one of Marvel's best films and has a playful nature which much of their recent output has lacked but there's little here that hasn't been done before. The film felt like it was paying homage to every sci-fi film of the past few decades and much of it felt eerily similar to Serenity. With Gunn directing I expected something a little more out there, something that was provocative and not afraid to mock the whole genre but bar one or two moments it never quite attained that gleeful feel of Super or Slither. Still, considering the age rating, the huge budget and the fact that Marvel more then likely reined in Gunn it's hard to find much fault with him. He tackles proceedings with just the right amount of humour and it's obvious that he cares about the characters, which is something that some other Marvel outings have lacked.

There's a playfulness to the film that impossible not to warm to, comparison have been drawn between the films and Star Wars but honestly the film has more in common with cheap Star Wars knock offs such as The Ice Pirates and Battle Beyond the Stars. Those were films which embraced the odd in favor of spectacle and much of the humour found in those imitations can be found here. Quill's use of Footloose and the hero Kevin Bacon to inspire Gamora was far funnier than it had any right to be and is the kind of light touch that the Marvel universe needs more of. That the final confrontation nearly becomes a dance off is rather joyful, it's a ridiculous moment that shouldn't work and it wouldn't in any other Marvel film but here it's just perfect.

The way in which the ridiculous is used in the film is the films strongest aspect. Characters such as Rocket and Groot are the standouts here and when you consider that the latter has only 5 words of dialogue it's all the more impressive. Rocket was a lot of fun and Cooper nailed the voice just right, he got that Rocket is filled with self loathing and not some cute lil ass kicker. Far too often in the comics the character feels like he's there to be the butt of a joke but here he felt like the most vital part of the entire team. Groot was equally as good and Diesel did a lot more with his 5 words than many accomplish with 50, and it's not the first time either. The real surprise was Dave Bautista, with not a whole lot to work with he managed to deliver one of the strongest characters and infused Drax with a deft comedic touch that I doubt anyone thought him capeable of. Pratt once again showed that he's one of the most likeable stars working today and has some of the finest comic timing of anyone working today, though anyone who watches Park and Rec would be aware of that.

Sadly, like with all of Marvel's films to date the single female hero seemed like an after thought. Saldana was good but she had little to work with and not all that much time to shine. She has a lot of screen time but she felt more like part of the scenery than anything else, and it's disappointing as she really could have bucked the trend of rather bland female super heroes. Still, at least she had more to do than Reilly, Del Toro and Close whom all had so little to do that you cold pronely drop their scenes and no one would notice. It seems odd that Gunn would get three big stars and then offer them absolutely nothing to do.

For me the film strongest moment comes near the end when Groot lights a room with fireflies. Visually it's gorgeous and is a reminder that you can have all the bombast you want, all the CGI explosives and at the end of the day it's the small moments that impress the moments, the ones that recognise that wonder and awe is most often found in the smallest of things. Hopefully the sequel will see a little less bombast and a little more time spent on the small things, as that afterall is where the film excelled. Peter exploring the temple, the back and forth between the Guardians, the fireflies in the room, the use of music, those are moments which stand out for me.

Skerries

Bacchus wrote: »

He's got some great lines alright but I think Groot will take that mantle.

I am Groot. We are Groot. Brilliant stuff.

I think they missed out on an opportunity for a killer line when we get a close up of Rocket and his line is "oooh yeaah!"

anyone else think that Groots acting was a bit wooden?

Slydice

Guardians of the Galaxy was fantastic!

So much good about it. So hard to pin down just one stand out part. The whole film was just great.

Sleepy

This was the first movie my entire family loved, my wife and I laughed our heads off and the kids (5 and 8) both absolutely *LOVED* it!

Looper007

cloud493 wrote: »

I thought Godzilla was dull as dishwater to be honest. Edge of tomorrow was a stand out of this summer.

I'd go

1. GOTG
2. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
3. x men days of future past
4. Cap 2 winter soilder
5. Edge of Tomorrow
6. Godzilla





7. Transformers (amazing that this turd is going to make over a billion)

Looper007

e_e wrote: »

I think Godzilla has higher highs and lower lows than this. It's almost as if Edwards and his cast were going as far as possible to bore the audience just to make Godzilla's presence more palpable. It's still for me a film with more wow moments than Guardians at least.

come on e_e, I think you are been really harsh on GOTG to be honest. I get the feeling you are disliking it cause of the amount of praise it's getting.


For me it made me feel like a young kid again, like watching Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade. I've seen it three times already, It bought back the fun and heart of the superhero film, after the darkness and downbeatness of past superheroes films. It's first time Marvel got a film right from the start to the finish for me.

Pratt gave the performance of the Marvel canon, he comes across far more likeable then Downey Jr's Tony Stark, as many have said like a Harrison Ford's Indy/Han Solo. It's a star making performance. Bradley Cooper also gave his best performance to date as Rocket and Groot is amazing. Batista and Saldana were very good too. Best Comic book film since the Dark Knight and by far the best blockbuster this year.

e_e

Looper007 wrote: »

come on e_e, I think you are been really harsh on GOTG to be honest. I get the feeling you are disliking it cause of the amount of praise it's getting.

You'll have to ask yourself why I'm not ambivalent towards Boyhood, Edge of Tomorrow, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and many other acclaimed films this year. It'd be completely arbitrary of me to go against this film of all the things on release and I'd like if you weren't so skeptical of other people's opinions.

I treated GOTG the way I do any other movie, knowing as little in terms of plot as possible and just allowing the film to unfold before me. The story didn't grab me at all, most of the character's fell flat (Rocket and Groot aside) and the big climax at the end felt cookie cutter as ****, almost indistinguishable from the ways Avengers and Captain America 2 ended. You say the film brought back fun and heart but that was solely what it lacked for me, I can't pull out a single moment of this film that truly wowed me and all of the emotional pulls felt unearned to me. It's a film with almost nothing that stands apart and for a big action movie that wants to be so quirky and irreverent it really is one of the most directed by committee things I've seen of late. It really disappointed me just how overly familiar the film turned out to be in the end. Like it or not Looper the film had almost the exact opposite effect on me than was likely intended. I'm not going against the grain for the sake of it, I am genuinely bemused at the ecstatic responses the film is getting.

This really sums it up for me. Only The Lego Movie is funnier, more subversive and less predictable.

Manach

I saw, I enjoyed, I listened to the soundtrack of awesome 80s music afterwards.

Icyseanfitz

I AM GROOT
well i have a new favorite marvel character, loved him, i had a sneaky suspicion that he wasnt just a stupid tree and after a bit of character research it turns out he is in fact a genius, really want to see more of him

TheFullDuck

I enjoyed that immensely

Warper

Thought vin diesel gave an excellent performance as Groot

Mitch Connor

Warper wrote: »

Thought vin diesel gave an excellent performance as Groot

Right up there with the iron giant.

Lucas Hood

Loved this. Tempted to go see it again.

Frank Lee Midere

I too thought it was weak. Funny in parts which didn't make up for a mess.

e_e

Am I really the only one who found Peter to be a dull and flat protagonist? All we get for him is a heavy-handed plot device to force the audience's sympathy and... that's about it. His character development amounts to "Feel sorry for him! Now laugh at him acting quirky for the rest of the film!" and Zoe Saldana is similarly underdeveloped.

When the most charismatic, layered and interesting character in your movie is a talking raccoon you know you're in trouble.

FortuneChip

e_e wrote: »

Am I really the only one who found Peter to be a dull and flat protagonist? All we get for him is a heavy-handed plot device to force the audience's sympathy and... that's about it. His character development amounts to "Feel sorry for him! Now laugh at him acting quirky for the rest of the film!" and Zoe Saldana is similarly underdeveloped.

When the most charismatic, layered and interesting character in your movie is a talking raccoon you know you're in trouble.

I find Zoe Saldana to be underwhelming in a lot of movies. She's very attractive, and she's very athletic so she fits the bill for a lot of action roles, but I don't think any of her roles have been all that impressive.

On Rocket, I don't think making one of the main characters charismatic & interesting is an indicator that your movie is in trouble. Fair enough if he was only in it for a few minutes, but he's pretty much the co-lead, and promoted as such.

Mickeroo

e_e wrote: »

Am I really the only one who found Peter to be a dull and flat protagonist? All we get for him is a heavy-handed plot device to force the audience's sympathy and... that's about it. His character development amounts to "Feel sorry for him! Now laugh at him acting quirky for the rest of the film!" and Zoe Saldana is similarly underdeveloped.

When the most charismatic, layered and interesting character in your movie is a talking raccoon you know you're in trouble.

I'd be more of the opinion that if you can make a talking racoon into a charismatic, layered and interesting character then you know you're doing something right.

I found Quill to be a likable character and a hero I could root for much like Jon McLane or Indiana Jones (and Quill was arguably more well drawn a character than either of those). The fact the Pratt is such a brilliant comedy actor helped immensely with this. I didn't find the character flat or dull in the slightest. I didn't find the stuff with the mother particularly heavy handed either, it gave him enough of a back story to make him sympathetic and understand why he is the way he is. Little touches like the walkman only served to add to this and I found the moment in the climax

where he sees his mother and afterwards when he reads the letter

to be quite touching.

The level of characterisation in the film was well above average for a summer blockbuster in my opinion (though not in the case of the villains to be fairand Saldana was short changed too but wasn't a complete write off imo).

I think due to the tone of the film and what they went for it surpassed itself, this film is a Saturday morning cartoon for the most part but I actually think that's a good thing in this case.

PhiloCypher

e_e wrote: »

Am I really the only one who found Peter to be a dull and flat protagonist? All we get for him is a heavy-handed plot device to force the audience's sympathy and... that's about it. His character development amounts to "Feel sorry for him! Now laugh at him acting quirky for the rest of the film!" and Zoe Saldana is similarly underdeveloped.

When the most charismatic, layered and interesting character in your movie is a talking raccoon you know you're in trouble.

I think some are looking for malick in all the wrong places . It's a fun galactic romp, that it managed to make all 5 characters memorable without 5 films of set up like Avengers had is impressive without expecting them to have have more layers then an onion in a 2hour movie.

Maybe with no introductions necessary in Galaxy 2 they will have time to peel back those layers but not in the first film which has 5 character and a Mcguffin to introduce.