Is superhero movie fatigue a real thing? The box office says no. The four Marvel films which have been released since August 2013 have taken $2.8billion at the box office worldwide. And yet whenever I've asked anyone if they're going to see Guardians of the Galaxy I've been met with a wave of indifference, which must be mostly attributed to the Marvel tag. This, combined with a lousy trailer which has elicited few if any laughs whenever I've seen it in a cinema, seems to have put many people off seeing Guardians. Review spoiler alert: you're wrong, and you need to go and see this movie. Of all the big superhero movie sequels this year (Captain America 2, Thor 2, The Amazing Spiderman 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past) I saw only one - X-Men. I suffer from superhero movie burnout as much as anyone. But the fact is that this isn't even a superhero movie, which is why it's doubly cursed by Marvel's name. This is big budget blockbuster sci fi which draws considerable inspiration from the best. J.J. Abrahams' Star Trek films, particularly the excellent Into Darkness have clearly had an influence, and a number of visual nods are sent in the direction of the Star Wars films.
The plot is pure end-of-the-universe
apocalyptic silliness – good people, bad people and greedy people
chasing each other around the galaxy, hunting for a macguffin which
gives the holder unimaginable powers. Discard this information
immediately – you won't need it. The real joy of this film is in
the intelligent script, and by extension the characters. The five
titular Guardians are wonderfully drawn, and although (I'm) Starlord
is the de facto 'main' character, all five of them are given equal
time to tell their backstories, all five have very different
motivations for being on the quest, and all five have their strengths
and weaknesses – this level of balance among so many major
characters is rare indeed for a big budget blockbuster. The way in
which this motley crew is assembled also feels organic. They aren't
collected one-by-one, piece-by-piece as in, say, Mass Effect 2. The
scenes in which all of the Guardians are on screen together are a joy
to behold. One liners zip back and forth and their differing
personalities jar with each other perfectly. You can see exactly
what the writers, James Gunn (who also directed) and Nicole Perman, were going for. They nailed it. This group of
anti-heroes just works.
The rest of the
production crew certainly didn't let the script down. On a
technical level every element of film-making is executed brilliantly.
It's a stunning movie to look at which deserves to be seen in IMAX if
possible. At least see it at the cinema, don't wait for the DVD
release. The visual magnitude of this film can only be done justice
on the big screen. Two characters have a romantic tête-à-tête seemingly on the edge of space, as colourful clouds swirl around them
and the rest of the galaxy extends behind them. A thousand little
ships join together in a golden field to stop a single enormous ship
from passing them. On a closer level the detail that's gone into the
design of the film, from the weapons to the costumes to the make-up,
really make the film pop off the screen and lend it a physicality and
fidelity which is so often lacking in futuristic films like the original Star Wars trilogy (yes, that's right, I said the original Star Wars trilogy wasn't perfect - cue the hatemail).
The
soundtrack deserves a paragraph of its own. I won't spoil its theme
because if you don't know about it already, which I didn't, the
moment when it hits is surprising and funny. It serves the purpose of
tying together a 20th
century pre credits sequence, in which we're introduced to Starlord as a child,
and the rest of the film in the future. I wasn't entirely on board
with the choice of music. It felt knowingly quirky, like the film was
trying a bit too hard to be different. It already is different,
through it's aesthetics and dialogue, and primarily through it's
characters. While it does serve a plot purpose of deepening
Starlord's character, I simply felt that it was a step too far
(although the way in which it's introduced really is funny, and effectively sets the tone for the rest of the film).
My
only other gripe is the villain, Ronan the Accuser (great name). He's
fine. He has a degree of imposing physicality, and the way in which
we learn about him through rumour and hearsay from other characters,
minor and major, before we see him in action builds anticipation
well. He just lacks personality, in a film which is so filled with
personality everywhere else. That goes for his sidekick too,
played by a shaven-headed Karen Gillian who suffers from a severe
lack of screentime. This film, like most blockbusters, is about a
battle between good and evil. It's not enough to only flesh out the
good. To really reach the echelons of sci fi or superhero greatness
you need a Joker, a Bane, a Khan. Those villains are memorable
because they're three dimensional, and their flashes of humanity make
their unhinged nature all the more threatening. Ronan is
figuratively faceless, and mindless in his generic pursuit of power,
desire to rule/destroy the galaxy, etc.
I was recently
browsing a pop culture website when I was presented with a poll
question: 'Is Guardians of the Galaxy better than The Avengers?'
Great question – they're both from the same studio, they're both
about a group of heroes coming together, they both had big budgets
(Guardians $170mill, Avengers $220mill). Without thinking about it, I
answered 'yes'. The Avengers took a gazillion dollars (note: my
spellcheck did not flag up the word 'gazillion'), and I got just as
caught up in the pre-release hype as anyone. It was enjoyable, but it
didn't blow me away. It was badly structured, and it felt like the film was making a conscious effort to try and give all of the characters equal screen time, which was especially grating when there was such a clear difference between the
interesting/entertaining characters (Bruce Banner, Tony Stark), and
the not so interesting characters (ahem, CAPTAIN AMERICA). This
film suffers from no such problems. There was no plodding middle act, like the Flying Fortress section of The Avengers. All the Guardians are both
interesting and entertaining, and it was never dull.
It's not a perfect
film, but it is a very welcome breath of fresh air. Is it
as good as Star Trek: Into Darkness? Not quite, but it's in the
discussion, and I certainly hope that the film's closing message
proves prophetic – 'The Guardians of the Galaxy will return.'
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