Quite jolly, but hardly the Second Coming, and not (as I have seen bruited about) the best Marvel movie ever. The plot was varied, there were lots of inventive details scattered about and some of the banter was funny; but by the same token there was never any real tension or drama, since nothing was ever really at stake. The more hyperbolic the macguffins (infinity jewels that could destroy the galaxy!) the less we believe it, and clearly none of the team are going to snuff it. Still: it would be out of place to carp. Fun was had. The special effects were very detailed and professionally done. Groot was sweet. It bothered me more than it should have done that Drax the Destroyer's inability to comprehend simile or metaphor ('nothing goes over my head' and so on) was so inconsistently applied: many things are said to him in this film of the 'you defeated him single-handedly!' kind that didn't seem to bother him in the least. More debilitating from a dramatic point of view is that the villains all lacked menace. Karen Gillan's Nebula looked like she was auditioning for the mirror-universe's Blue Man Group; Lee Pace's Ronin was camp without ever managing scary camp (which is totally a thing, by the way) and the only evil thing about Josh Brolin's Thanos was his enormous chin. Really: Jimmy-Hill-worthy chinnage.
Big old chin.
One other thing occurred to me as I watched the big SFX-splurgy conclusion, and it was this: when will big budget Hollywood find a way of ending SF movies that doesn't involve crashing enormous planes into a New York City analogue? Avengers; Star Trek Into Darkness; this film. Which is another way of asking: when will that trauma no longer be so overwhelmingly dominant in the US cultural subconscious?
It's come as a bit of a surprise that the paltriness of Guardians's villains is being treated as such an important point against the film, since to me it is - though indisputable - of secondary importance. For one thing, Marvel are just generally terrible at villains. The only time they've managed to avoid that pitfall is with Loki, and I'm not at all convinced that that wasn't just a case of casting a fantastic actor and then playing up to his conception of the character. But more importanty, the film that Guardians is clearly trying to be - Galaxy Quest - also has a fairly forgettable villain (albeit one who manages to cause actual damage in a way that none of the villains here do, when he forces Jason to admit to lying to the Thermians). For me, Guardians, like Galaxy Quest, lives and dies with its central team, which is to say that it's somewhat successful. A lot of the scenes of back and forth sniping between the team, and their growing closeness, are extremely well done, but most of the individual character stuff falls flat, and particularly everything having to do with Peter Quill's supposed heroism. And unlike Galaxy Quest, Guardians has a sloppy, lazy script, which often coasts on the film's soundtrack instead of earning its character moments.
ReplyDeleteAbigail: I've deliberately avoided reading reviews of this movie so as not to spoil it (we were away when it was first released, and only now post-Loncon has there been slot when I could take my 6-year-old to see it) -- which means I didn't realise that the feebleness of the villains is being treated as such an important point against the film more generally. I can well believe it. I'm a little resistant to, and if I'm honest surprised by, the rise and rise of Galaxy Quest-love in amongst fandom. Not that I hate that movie; I liked it well enough. But it's increasingly becoming a touchstone for sf cinematic excellence, THE example of SF film-making that doesn't simply rely on spectacular sfx. Is it really all that?
ReplyDeleteI thought the derivativeness of Guardians more commercially naked: it's original flavour Star Wars with more gags: the racoon is Han Solo, Groot is Chewbacca, Quill Luke, the Token-Black-and-Token-Female-character (handily combined in one individual for extra box-ticking efficiency) whose name I've forgotten is Leia and so on. And what interests me about that is the way it is the humour of the original Lucas franchise that gets played up. Lucas has one of the most arthritic funny bones in cinema, and yet his lines are still quoted ('laugh it up, fuzzball' and so on) -- and, as here, expanded upon.
Is Galaxy Quest all that: I think so, and not just because of its loving but irreverent riff on Star Trek and fandom in general. It's just a smart, well-constructed film, without a single bit of slack in its script, or a bum performance. I think that if you watched it again you'd admire just how well put together it is.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that Star Wars is also an obvious influence on Guardians (though I would say that it informs Galaxy Quest as well). But to me, the most important element of the film is the core team, something that Star Wars - which is ultimately the story of a single hero, with a bunch of other characters who turn out to be more interesting than him emerging around him - lacks. The film is much less successful when it tries to be the journey of a single hero, and I'm not sure I see echoes of Lucas's sense of humor (which I think is quoted more because of Star Wars's iconic status than because it's any good). If anything, the pop culture inflection of the film's humor, as provided by Quill (to a level that isn't entirely believable, since he makes Earth-based jokes about things that a ten-year-old wouldn't have known or cared about), is where it seems most reminiscent of Galaxy Quest.
On the 9/11 thing: judging by how many Japanese movies and anime shows still feature cities being destroyed by gigantic explosions -- maybe never?
ReplyDeleteAbigail. I daresay I *should* give Galaxy Quest another viewing. Tim Allen rubs me up the wrong way, rather. It's not him, as such -- I love the Toy Story movies very much. It's his face, I think.
ReplyDeleteEthan C. Point.
Then what's the best Marvel Movie, in yer opinion?
ReplyDeleteTricky. "Iron Man 3" maybe. What d'you reckon?
ReplyDeleteI actually liked this one quite a bit. I guess all one has to do for my vote is cut the gram of action/drama with a liberal portion of humor--which, previous to this one, the Iron Man movies did pretty well. I liked the tonal balance between stakes and fun here. Not a strong defense.
ReplyDelete