Friday, August 1, 2014

My Guardians of the Galaxy Rant

I reserved a healthy dose of skepticism coming into this movie. I've enjoyed pretty much all the Marvel Universe movies that have come out. I have heard some bad things about the Hulk movies, and have only seen bits and pieces of them on cable, but they are on my Netflix queue and I will get to them someday. If you had told my 14 year old self, that this is what comic book movies would be I would never have believed you.  I remember sitting with friends in the 7th grade and casting our dream X-men movie. I'm pretty sure we nailed Patrick Stewart as Prof. X, meanwhile Fox had Roger Corman making the worlds worst fantastic four movie so they didn't lose the film license. Around this time Marvel was going bankrupt, and the rights of some of their biggest properties were going to the highest bidder. It's why Spider-man and Wolverine, sometimes Avengers will never be able to join the Avengers on the silver screen. It's why we are going to get a horrible Fantastic Four reboot next year. It's why we are now suffering through a horrible Spider-Man reboot.

Anyway, to me the Guardians of the Galaxy is an unknown. The resurgence of these characters is pretty much past my prime as a comic book reader in my youth, while I am always tempted to start buying them, I know I probably shouldn't walk into a comic book store, as I will walkout without next month's rent payment. Having them as an unknown, got me really enthusiastic for this next chapter in the Marvel cinematic universe, as I had no frame of reference it is all knew. I had read the few bad reviews, and they mirrored some of my concerns... would it be too campy, would I care about these characters, too much flash and not enough character development blah blah blah...

Well these reviewers are idiots. I don't think they saw the same movie. I stand with the 90% certified fresh people on Rotten Tomatoes. This is non stop entertainment from start to finish that you can see will fit in seamlessly with the rest of the expanding universe they are developing. It has action, comedy, character development, and the acting is great. This is the summer blockbuster everyone has been waiting for, and maybe it's better than The Avengers.

But this is not my rant topic, I could gush over the movie for pages, I'd like to get back in the car and go see it again. No... I am using this opportunity to vent on another topic.

About halfway through this movie, I got angry... like seething mad. The reason is, I wish the Star Wars prequels did not exist. To be fair the CGI stuff has come a long way, but man... do the CGI characters in those movies absolutely suck. It's really a travesty. George Lucas who is responsible for such an expansive and colorful universe, gave us Jar-Jar Binks. The word "give" is too high praise... he inflicted it on us. This is not a new complaint, people have been ranting on this since the initial shock of what we had witnessed wore off, but I'm looking at it in a whole new way. It's absolutely dreadful.

James Gunn, maybe best known for writing the live action Scooby-Doo (and some other stuff admittedly, but that seemed funny). Gave us more heart, character development, conveyed more emotion, and told a better story with Bradley Cooper as a Raccoon, and Vin Diesel as a walking tree that can only say three words. The integration of these characters into the film is seamless, you will forget that they are not real at times. If anything and this is probably sacrilege, they one-upped Gollum from Lord of the Rings here, and that's purely just a technical leap.

I couldn't believe I got so mad in the theater but there it was, I was distracted from what was going on in front of me, because I was wishing Lucas left well enough alone. I sat in the theater and watched the Phantom Menace four times trying to convince myself it was good. It is not. I know it's popular to hate on George  Lucas, and it's popular in some circles to send hate-waves towards Disney for acquiring Lucasfilm, but boy am I glad he no longer has no creative control over his greatest creations. After watching Guardians of the Galaxy, I have no doubt that the right people are at the helm, and whatever these guys want to do with Andy Serkis is going to be leaps and bounds greater than whatever the hell than the pure drivel that was put out in episodes I, II and III.

I'm done with this for now, but go see this movie, you will enjoy the hell out of it.