Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

[klen7]

@ O.Supreme, I felt the same way about Thor 2

[XvGojira]

[jellydonut25]

I haven't seen Green Lantern in a LONG time, but I remember it being REALLY REALLY awful.

Ryan Reynolds spends like 45 seconds training, then quits, then is somehow the only hope to save the universe? What? Then the one dude brags about training him? Dude, he QUIT.
Peter Skarsgaard...is SOOO bad. His look, his character, wow...terrible.
The CGI...for 200 infinity bajillion dollars is the most hilariously bad CGI I've seen in a movie since the Yonggary remake.

I know there ARE worse super hero movies out there...but Elektra is a third-rate hero anyway. In terms of a big name hero (Justice League members, Avengers members, X-Men, Spider-Man), Green Lantern is on the same level as Origins: Wolverine.

[jellydonut25]

[klen7]

Mrs Klen7's opinion on Thor 2 was "At least with Man of Steel we could laugh at it".. really i think it got a pass because everybody looooves Loki... but as soon as i saw the aether my mind went Parallax.

[Rodanex]

[lhb412]

It seems we're looking at another weekend at the #1 spot. It's been out for a month! This is madness!

[The Shadow]

I hope that the suits at Warner Brothers have been watching all this, just maybe they'll have a bit a sense pounded into their thinking and realize that not all superhero/comic book movies have to be Nolanized.

[XvGojira]

[lhb412]

[mr.negativity]

[Psycho Soldier]

So I finally saw this last night. It was good. Amusing, emotional, pretty well paced for the most part. With that said, it really feels like it was meant to be edgier and zanier before the studio interfered. In that respect, I had a constant feeling that the movie was holding out on me, which took away a lot of my excitement for it. Also, as much as I liked his design, Ronan was rather thin and uninteresting as a villain. Still, there's a lot to like. It'll never be a favourite movie of mine, but it's good fun.

[lhb412]

[Rodanex]

Interesting read.

[jellydonut25]

I take issue with the article's praise of Rocket. I like the character. He's fun, he's got some GREAT moments in the film, and he does have a gooey, emotional center...but this isn't a groundbreaking character. Dozens, if not HUNDREDS of RECENT movie characters follow this exact same archetype: the jerk who isn't really a jerk but is just putting up a defense mechanism of jerkiness.

In fact, the only character in this movie that I feel is truly deserving of praise as "hey look, wow, a movie that celebrates someone with severe emotional/psychological issues that feels completely UNIQUE" is Drax.

We've seen the "outwardly 'dumb' being who has true wisdom" done in many different ways: one of my favorite in recent memory is the character of Christopher Johnson, the alien from District 9. Perhaps not depicted as "dumb" but definitely depicted as truly ALIEN and difficult to identify with, only to be exposed as the true emotional crux of the film.

We've seen the Rocket character arc also all over the place.

Same with Gamora. The "trained war machine who's mistrusftul of everyone, even those he/she ought to trust" is on display even within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Black Widow shares many of these character traits with Gamora).

And Peter Quill? We've seen the "Character who attaches special meaning to a specific item from a lost loved one" before.

I'm not saying any of these things are BAD or are poorly executed or don't work or anything like that...I'm just saying I don't think they're deserving of special praise individually. As a team, it is a bit unique to see this all coming together to form a cohesive whole, but many of these characters are tried-and-true archetypes.

I do feel Drax is the one exception. He's unique in that his outward appearance of not understanding the emotional or psychological implications of a situation actually reflects his inner thoughts and feelings. Most often, this character would later be shown to really understand this kind of thing and not as emotionally closed-off as he appears. Not so with Drax. He straight-up doesn't even UNDERSTAND emotion. He's not forcing himself to feel nothing, he's not incapable of expressing himself, he doesn't even have those feelings at all. That's unique. That's different. THAT (along with his ultimate heroism) is worthy of individual praise.

[klen7]

[klen7]

^ Related.. James Gunn posted this today

[Gwangi]

Saw it this past weekend. I thought it was OK. As has been said on this thread, the main villain had a feeling of “been there done that” mode, so I didn’t find him particularly special. Truth be told, I found Chris Pratt’s character rather one-dimensional as well, especially going up against the rest of that group. Pratt seemed more animated (pardon the pun) in “The Lego Movie”!

Now, I have stated before that I am not learned in the ways of comic books, and I must admit, I was not even aware of “Guardians of the Galaxy”, so I am not sure if Peter Quill’s character is depicted exactly as he was in the comics.

Using Leonard Maltin’s rating from his movie guide (RIP, by the way), I gave this feature *** stars, albeit, not a strong three.

[Mysterio]

I love this movie but I really don't think Drax is all that amazing or unique... my take as a wrestling fan (predominantly of the good old days) is that they probably realized that Bautista/Batista's acting abilities were limited so they creatively tailored the role to make the most of him. I think they did a good job in that regard but I really doubt he's going to be a break-out movie star outside of this role... I've seen a lot of praise for how well he did but I think a LOT of credit goes to the director and writers for making the most of him as a resource.

[MouthForWar]

Drax is awesome. Gomora is the most boring one.

[lhb412]

[jellydonut25]

Gomora was boring...but played by Zoe Saldana, what else should we have expected? The most interesting thing she's ever done is kinda look like Thandie Newton.

[klen7]

^Columbiana

[The Shadow]

[lhb412]

It's the movie guide that's expiring.