f13.net

(http://images1.cosmicbooknews.com/rocket-raccoon-gotg-ani-2.gif)

I don't know how can I possibly think that is badass and yet....

SPROING!!!!!

GoG: A trailer for the trailer, which premiers tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbFPyMOHcHQ

I'm so hyped for this movie. The mid credit scene in Thor was a major disappointment, but everything else has been good. Can't wait to see the full trailer.

I am all psyched for this movie too. 

Not enough raccoon. 

Racist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XltzyLcu0g

I liked most of it, but I didn't care for how it was edited if that makes sense. I'm still hoping for a good movie. Also, right around the 1:58 mark, looks like Drax vs. Ronan.


Also, I hate the Nova Corps uniforms. HATE HATE HATE HATE  :mob: :tantrum: :angryfist:

This is the movie I was hoping for, I am not disappointed.

Delightful.

OK, that looks like fun.

If it's not rated R, it will suck.

Looking really good.

The trailer looked awesome on it's own, but the song choice ramped it up to  :drillf: for me.

Sounds like there is going to be a fair bit of humor to go with the action, too. 

I don't know anything about Guardians of the Galaxy, but I sure want to see that movie.

This looks to be about as close to a Farscape movie as I'll ever get so I'm excited.

Oh, I'd think you'd HAVE to go down the humour route.  I mean, it's called Guardians of the Galaxy starring a CGI Racoon and a tree. 

I can only hope the humour doesn't fall as flat dead as it did in Green Lantern.

It'll be interesting to see how this movie sets the stage for future 'cosmic' Marvel characters. 

Before I heard that James Gunn was associated, I was hoping this would be the Staw Wars of the Marvel universe.  Once I heard about Gunn, I was expecting what we're getting. 

I am a little disppointed by the Nova Uniforms, though... 

Considering that the Nova Corps if you play it completely straight IS the Green Lantern Corps without the silly light-constructs and weakness to yellow, etc. I think I'm glad that they're not playing that or anything else straight. Much as I actually love the character of Nova for some reason I can't fully explain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTZ2Tp9yXyM

Galaxy Quest meets Marvel.  Ready.  Set.  Discuss!

edit: no, I have not read the books

We really need to get you to a hospital.

I have been a tad more loony then usual of late eh?  I still blame it on a lack of good games to play.  Well that, and too much coffee.

I read online somewhere that Knowhere is in the movie. Not even Gunn will touch Cosmo, right? Also, Rider is allegedly in as well.

FUCK. YES.

Burt Macklin, space FBI!

Fuck. Yes. Want. Now.

So wait, is Del Toro (as 'the collector' guy) in this and the next Thor? (I thought I saw him in the trailer) Someone explain pls, I'm not into these comics. I'm going to assume there's some crossover happening here or I just mistook him in the trailer and it was actually someone else.

The recent Marvel movies have been introducing elements from The Infinity Gauntlet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Infinity_Gauntlet) series. Thanos, the villain of that series, was shown (very briefly) in The Avengers, and two of the Infinity Gems/Stones have been revealed so far. The Collector was given possession of one of them in Thor 2 and he was a character in the original comic series so that's why he keeps popping up.

Also:

(http://i.imgur.com/TjVJtPK.jpg)

 :awesome_for_real:

3

Gods but they pitched that just right, didn't they? I'm getting serious first Iron Man vibes off this; a big risk that somehow, ludicrously, paid off. Because it was FUN.
I just grin like an idiot every time I watch the GotG trailer.

James Gunn, this might be your time in the sun. I can't believe it's been 8 years since Slither.

James Gunn did some good work in Lollipop Chainsaw!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XltzyLcu0g

@1:53 Is that Annihilation Wave?

I just thought of something: Marvel is rumored to have the sequel already planned. I doubt Adam Warlock is in the first one, but I think adapting Starlin's first story (Adam Warlock and Thanos vs. The Magus) would work great in GoTG2 (assuming of course GotG does well enough to justify a sequel).

You're welcome  :awesome_for_real: (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/guardians-galaxy-marvel-explains-characters-682171)

Gunn has said in an interview that the ship at 1:53 is part of Ronan the Accuser's "necroship" armada.

Thanos will appear in this flick - and I'm hearing a whisper that it might be Nathan Fillion in the role. 

Looking forward to this flick more than ASM, X-Men, or Godzilla...

Meh.  As much as I like Fillion, I don't think he is right for Thanos.  Hell I would be happier if Vin did double duty as Groot and Thanos.

If it is Fillion, I imagine he'll be Thanos like Ruffalo is Hulk.  I don't think they'll entirely 'man in a suit' the character.

I can't imagine a worse miscast. But I like these guys, so if they think it's right, I'll wait and see. Makes no sense to me though. Sounds like that bullshit fucking nonsense from the Latino Review that certain overcredulous people around here keep posting like it isn't just some fan in his basement imagining it.

Yeah I think he'd be a horrible villian. Almost as bad as that guy who played Doom in FF. He plays a great douchebag in other shows, but not an "embodiment of evil" type of guy.

Fillion was a pretty bang-up bad-guy as Caleb in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'.  Well, good enough that 10-years-ago me remembers him as being decent.

I'm willing to think it could work.

The Hammer.

This is a giant deadly serious avatar-of-death we're talking about, though. Just doesn't seem Fillion's kind of gig.

People are way too quick to say someone is miscast when they've never seen that actor in that type of role.

Fillion can do serious.  He's very often playing the straight-man.  If it is him, I don't think it will be a problem at all.

He has a broader range than Mal, Captain Hammer, Caleb and Castle.  Of course, this is still speculation based upon Fillion's comments that he might be in GotG and the 'we won't tell you who Thanos is' comments.

I doubt he is Thanos. Sounds like he gets a cameo but its def going to be a character they don't need to use in the future. Nothing about the comments anyone has made suggests a cameo of a pivotal character for future movieS.

Also Thanos is a huge badass. I cannot wait.

Thanos also has a body like the Hulk's.

Maybe they can have a pro-wrestler play him, CGI the face and have a different person do the voice or something. Or find a wrestler who can act. They already have Batista in one movie. Hell, paint The Rock's face purple.

It's hard for me to imagine Thanos as skinny or normal sized. Even Thor should look a little shrimpy by comparison.

Maybe they will make him into a cloud so he's more ominous.  :why_so_serious:

As a reminder, Ruffalo does the acting for Hulk.... they use body capture.  They could be doing the same thing for Thanos.

I don't think the Hulk in Avengers looked very good. He was also pretty much only onscreen for action moments, whereas I assume Thanos will, at some point in the future, be onscreen a fair amount just talking and such, so it's hard to imagine a CGI construct working, motion captured or not. I would definitely prefer a person to a CGI thing, even if that person doesn't have the right proportions.

My guess is they'll make him look very different and a lot less ridiculous than he does in the comics. The amount of energy going in to building Thanos hype implies they are more confident in their interpretation than they have any right to be from the source material alone.

Marvel has a solid track record in its execution. I don't know how exactly it will look, but I expect Thanos to work.


Amusing aside: it's truthful that the more inhuman your villian, the less interesting to the audience. I'm reminded of The Fifth Element -- the interesting antagonists were Gary Oldman and the muppet mercenaries than the planet-seeking amorphous force of evil.

Forces of nature and super-nature aren't as... sensical? We need human motivations (ghost wants revenge, evil wants power) and a human connection to what we're seeing.

Edit: refining theory.

To be fair the fifth element while an excellent movie did not really develop the force of evil much at all.

Actually, you guys are making me think. I actually hope they don't entirely go with Starlin's version of Thanos, who is not nearly as interesting as Starlin makes him out to be. But I wasn't terribly impressed with the recent attempt to lightly reboot him as a sort of OCD serial killer who may or may not be seeing (and loving) Death.

So maybe they're devoting some thought about what to do to make a Big Bad who is Thanos-like if not the traditional Starlin Thanos.

The Starlin Thanos is a pretty classic bad guy who wants to become powerful and kill everybody. Why he wants to do that is different from other villains, but I can't see a Marvel comics movie playing up the angle that he is a servant of literal Death. I do think that is an interesting angle though.

In terms of what he wants to accomplish Thanos is pretty much the same as the bad guy in Thor 2 - collect some artifact(s) and use that artifact(s) to destroy the universe. Hell, the artifact in Thor 2 is even a subset of the artifacts Thanos wants.

Actually when I think about it that way it's kind of silly. That one artifact in Thor 2 was enough to almost destroy the universe. So Thanos is going to collect a bunch of those then...do the same thing the Thor 2 villain did?

The artifact the Dark Elves wanted wasnt going to "destroy the universe", otherwise, the Elves wouldnt have anywhere to live afterwards.   They were going to use it to return the universe to a state of darkness, not literally unmake it like Thanos wants to.

This is basically a distinction without a difference. The process of doing what they wanted to do was going to destroy all 9 realms and all the people in it.

Also I don't think Thanos wants to unmake everything - then there would be no more death. At least in the classic Thanos Quest / Infinity Gauntlet story he wanted to kill half the life in the universe.

In Thor I always assumed the "9 realms" were just nine different planets, not the entire universe.

In Norse mythology I believe the 9 worlds together cover pretty much everything outside of Valhalla and Fire/Ice places. But they didn't take into account space travel or other planets. So in that mythology if you destroyed the 9 worlds you destroyed pretty much everything I would think.

I'm not sure how that maps into the Marvel universe exactly. I don't think you can just fly on a spaceship from Earth to Asgard. It seems pretty purposefully vague, because it doesn't make a lot of sense when you try to map Norse myth to present-day understanding.

It's probably best not to think about it too much.  I guess if you really want to reconcile it they are best thought of as 9 planets that are somehow connected in some technobabble manner and in some way make up their own coherent system, such that destroying them does not destroy the entire universe but does from the perspective of the Yggdrasil-defined universe...so they are or are not the entire universe depending on which angle you view it from.

http://marvel.com/universe/Asgard

Yeah...basically who the hell knows?

Marvel comics, at least in the 80s and 90s, had inconsistent and conflicting cosmology.  The movie version is left a bit unclear, but straddles a line where the 9 realms could be on 9 different planets in the same universe, or on 9 different planes of existence.

Not exactly. They have said on the Agents of SHIELD that the Kree Empire is one of the nine realms, so I'm thinking it isn't different planes of existence.

I must have missed that statement?   Was that in the SIF episode?

Yes. Coulsen asked her about blue skinned aliens and she mentioned the Frost Giants and the Kree as races they've met in their travels through the Nine Realms.

EDIT: Alpha Centaurians were also mentioned - which is a shout out to Yondu from the original Guardians of the Galaxy.

My take on the Nine Realms was one or more star systems the Asgardians consider their own.  Pretty sure she didn't say the Kree was from Midgard, Asgard, etc.  The GoG are not coming from any of the Nine Realms I'd say.

I don't think Sif meant that the Kree are a "Realm". I just think it means that Asgard is a futuristic space civilization in "our" universe, not in a dimension. The Nine Realms, judging from the two Thor movies, seem to be places that have hard-wired connections for some mysterious reason, but they exist within a larger universe of aliens, etc., whom I think we're about to see in GotG.

I am hoping they leave out the Skrulls, though. Really the standard MU would be better without them.

They explain the 9 Realms quite clearly in Thor: Dark World:

I thought the movies were set in something other than the 616 Universe.

Ya its supposed to be Earth-199999.

Yeah sif says she encountered kree but that could just mean one of the planets had a kree bartender.  They show all nine realms in thor 2 as planets so really that's what we need to go by in the movie continuity until they say otherwise.

Fixed that spoilered image, although for the life of me, can't remember the size stuff, so size.

I always thought that the Nine Realms were different dimensions just connected to Midgard and Asgard, which were in the same dimension in our larger universe, and that there are other worlds out there in our universe.

I just noticed the chalkboard says "616 universe"

Don't forget the postcredits scene in Thor 2 with the Collector. That clears up some of this also, at least a bit.

New Guardians Trailer. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89yh3vYs-zo)

I cracked up at Rocket readjusting himself.  Film is looking good though!   :awesome_for_real:

Linking private videos should be outlawed.

That video was public like 30 seconds ago, I just watched it but now I can't either!

This one still works (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5msNnBeeMTQ).  I really can't wait for this movie.

Yeah that vid was all on facebook and stuff.  I have no idea why it went private.

They have been taking down everything not on facebook since thy are trying to direct everyone there.

Also, that trailer is baws.

I am so fucking there for this movie. Just loads of FUCK YEAH at that trailer.

"This might not be the best idea." LAWL

Can't wait for this!

Fuck yes X10,000.

I can't wait to mock every mofo who said, "WTF, talking raccoon, silly bullshit, I hates you Marvel, this will fail."

Yeah, I'm all over that.

For the first time I have ever put a movie on our family calendar.

The first trailer for this was very, very underwhelming. This one though made me go from "Eh, maybe. I like sci-fi though.." to "Hell yeah, when does it come out?"

Also, I love how during the heroic slomo walk the racoon is adjusting his crotch.

Well they don't call him rocket for nothing.

Alex, I'll take Things you shouldn't admit on message boards for $1,000:

Really?  I thought the first trailer was one of the best I've seen.  I went from "why the fuck are they making a god damned guardians movie" to "why the fuck didn't they make this sooner?"

Interested to see if use of music in the film is a thing, or if the trailer soundtracks are just pandering to almost middle aged nerds.

Don't know, don't care.  I just love the music they've chosen to use so far for these trailers.

All the music in the trailers is chosen by the director/producer/whomever person.  It's the stuff Star-Lord listens to.

In a world where Hollyword shits grimdark all over the fucking place, the music and the comedy contrasts well.

They even show he still has an 80's walkman and an "awesome mix tape vol.1"

Inconseqential spoiler unworthy of tag:  The music has a place in the character's story.  It was with him when he left Earth, and is one of the few pieces of Earth he still has with him.  You hear all of the songs on the tape save one according to an interview I read this week - I forget where I read it.

To be fair, when you say Hollywood, I think you mean Warner Brothers.

Yes, I should be ashamed of finding a humorous moment humorous. Clearly they just put that moment into the trailer as a gotcha.

You know how I know you're gay...  :why_so_serious:

Luckily I don't find gay insinuations to be problematic, though I also know you're joking.

Besides, the proper insinuation here isn't that I'm gay. It's that I'm homosexual for furries. Come on, man, get it right!

Yiffers have to show up and ruin Guardians of the Galaxy for everyone.

He does look pretty well hung for a raccoon. 

Here's a shitty looking page with a working trailer: http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/video-guardians-of-the-galaxy-trailer-2-i-am-groot/

I can't imagine this is bad. Marvel got over the whole "SUPER HEROES ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS" thing with Iron Man.

Fuck, all the Spiderman movies were bad.

Like an idiot, I looked that word up. Damn you....

Now look up yaoi!

Futanari

I was hoping we'd have some promo shots of bald, blue Amy Pond by this point.

Side note: My girlfriend lost it when I told her the blue assassin girl was Amy Pond.

(http://static2.hypable.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/guardians-of-the-galaxy-karen-gillan-nebula-HD.jpg)

Pretty sure the music coincides with whenever it was that Star Lord left Earth.

The characters in this increasingly look like a film put together by pre-ea bioware.

I don't mean that as a good or a bad thing.

Definite Mass Effect vibe off that Amy Pond photo.

(http://i.imgur.com/kke3jRz.jpg)

Also, why do you guys hate Riggswolfe?

Actually a trap is closer to a twink.

Not if you're having him look up futanari it's not.  That's a flat out trap, it is.

No he's totally right.

If we're talking about a context where you would come across futanari as a descriptor 'trap' certainly does not apply to them. It applies to a seemingly attractive female that is actually 100% male.

I'm not sure if I should offer a high five for that or not.

Low five?

(http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100405233002/mysims/images/e/ec/Teehee.png)

Aw man, why'd you have to shit up the Guardians thread?

Because we started talking about Amy Pond, so naturally it got all Moffat.

No one can destroy the Moffat
The Moffat will strike you down with a vicious blow
We are the vanquished foes of the Moffat
We tried to win for why, we do not know

More conventional action trailer, UK:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CqymRQ1uUU

So mashing up previous movies as GoTG tailers is apparently a thing now (which is an indication either of how good the trailer is or how you can make a good trailer for dreck). Anyways, here's one for the SW prequels:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYMJdhbitXQ

I'm apparently going to watch 17 minutes of footage on July 7... the Facebook page for the movie has tickets to previews for those that would care.

Dude, as someone who enjoys marvel movies as I know you do, don't do it.  Watch the movie as it's intended to be watched,  this preview stuff could really ruin it for you.

It'll most likely be just like the Cap II preview: The first 12 minutes plus a supercut of all the trailer material. 

And I have no real choice - the boss got 2 tickets and thought it'd be fun to go with me. 

God, not even that treatment can make those movies look watchable.

Saw the 17 minutes. I'm guessing it was most of minutes 15 to 30 plus roughly 2 minutes from around the hour mark. Mostly pleased, but a few special effects issues caught my eye. Pratt never looked like he was looking at the raccoon... always just around it. However, that is a minor quibble. A bit of dialogie struggle in the long scene, but it felt like that might have been due to cutting a bit out of the scene for the preview. It'll be fun.

Yet another trailer. This is the last one I'm watching--I don't want to see more of the film than this before seeing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU0X-xfj-rQ

More detailed discussion of the 17 minute preview in spoilerland...

Great movie. A little disappointed that there's no Avengers 2 footage for the post-credits scene, but it's entirely worth sticking around to see for other reasons.

I saw this tonight and it was great. It may be my favorite Marvel movie yet.

Is this worth IMAX 3D?  I'm not normally a big fan, but I've heard rumblings that GOG has done their 3D particularly well.

They don't do anything too flashy with the 3D, but it's certainly solid and particularly good for most of the ship combat stuff.

They filmed with IMAX in mind.  At least according to Gunn.  I plan on seeing it IMAX personally.

Seeing this in 3D tonight.  The husband is even going with me since there was nothing he wanted to see on his own.  I told him he owes me a few movies by now.  So can't wait!

Saw it in true IMAX 3D.  Worth the extra cost, IMHO.

As with any movie handling so many characters, it was a bit rushed, but it was very, very good.  Hilarious.  The action was fun.  There was some really obvious unearned sentimentality, but they kind of work around it with humor to bypass it.  A few pacing issues in some parts of the film, too, but one of the better Marvel films... cracks my top 3 Marvel films.

Yay for 10:30am showings. I thought it was the best adventure SF movie since Star Wars. Just really hit every note for me. Loved the sentimentality and the humor.

After folks see this, I'd be curious which people are looking forward to seeing more: GotG 2 or Star Wars 7?

GOTG2. Not even close.

This. I have found it hard to give two shits about Star Wars for a few years now, and I haven't even seen GotG yet.

I'm not exactly representative either. I thought Revenge Return of the Jedi was garbage. I waited until broadcast cable for the "prequels."

GotG2 and this is coming from a SW fan.  Maybe that will change when SW7 comes out, but after the Star Trek reboot I'm not putting too much faith in JJ.

I am amazed how good of a movie gotg was. It was funny and fun. Whole family enjoyed it.

Great flick.  My 10 year old loved it too.

Groot is the break-out star of the thing which is mind-boggling.

Yeah, what everyone else said, this was probably the best space opera movie since the original star wars.  Extremely happy with how it turned out.

I am Groot is the new May The Force Be With You.

I want to see HBO and Disney assemble a Charlie Rose style interview with Groot and Hodor.

I want to see a Groot and Rocket movie.

I think it was more worth it to stay for the ASPCA warning than the end scene.

Glad I wasn't the only one to notice that.

It was better than the Marvel post-credit scene.

Also, best Stan Lee walk-on.

Best marvel movie to date. 

I saw this for a second time tonight and enjoyed it just as much. I think this movie may become one of my favorites in general and is definitely my favorite Marvel movie.

What everyone else said.  Fantastic movie.  The husband even liked it a lot and he's not any kind of nerd or geek about comics.  Whole movie was worth seeing that epilogue bit with Drax and .

Oh, and a question - do we know where this fits into the overall MCU continuity?  Because I'm thinking that

They've only said that it takes place in the same time frame as all the other Phase 2 movies.  So it's at least after Avengers.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Saw it as a regular showing and didn't feel like I missed out on anything, though I'd imagine the IMAX would be impressive.

Pacing wasn't perfect, but better than most of the Marvel movies I thought. The camaraderie did feel a little forced in one area, but I can overlook it. The humour was mostly dead on and worked throughout.
I think what made the movie kind of odd(in a good way) was that it played like half the characters were in a comedy and the other half weren't. Until the final confrontation, the bad guys seemed totally separated from any of the comedy aspects.

Post credit spoiler:

Honestly? Unless I hear otherwise I always pretty much assume the movies release in more or less chronological MCU order. Especially since the Collector features in Thor 2's post credits scene. That said, with this movie I'm not sure it matters as much since this is so far removed from the Earthbound movies.

You know you want it.   :awesome_for_real:

Big spoiler but

Is their only a post-credit scene at the mid point in the credits like they've been doing lately, or is there something at the very very end?  Going to see this in about 2 hours, heh.

There's just the one at the very end and like Bunk, I laughed pretty hard at it.


Apparently...


Overall, I loved this movie. Maybe my favourite Marvel and one I will probably see at least one more time in the theatres. Like some have said, pacing was off in scenes and the forced "friends and family!" was a little much. The humour was spot on and even though I expected to just really like Rockte and Groot, Starlord was my favourite character for sure. I didn't know anything about the comics outside of a really basic knowledge of Thanos, but that didn't matter at all.

The only thing that REALLY bugged me was how often people were just floating around in space - but it is a movie with talking Raccoon and sentinent tree and all that.

I saw this film.

It was a good film.

It entertained.

You should go see it too.

I liked the stuff that was in the film.

The Best Bits

The Worst Bits
 

Summary :

You Should See It.

Question in spoiler.

Please tell me I can buy one of these for my desk?

It looks like they introduced....

If they were  then it was a crap attempt.  I think not.

I think it's more glaring than that. I don't think any of the females shined in this movie. Gamara didn't seems to be the universe's most deadly assassin.  Glen Close couldn't make a decision without a man telling her what to do. I'm hoping there were some Amy Pond scenes cut that show her doing something besides looking like she was having the withdrawals. Also...shut your mouth she still looked cute even without her red hair. :)

Just saw it, enjoyed it.  I really liked the art style and Ronan looked cool as hell.  Rocket didn't blow me away, but I liked Drax more than I expected.  The 3D was effective but not over the top.  The MCU expands even more and it was cool to see the Kree though my favorite space race is the Shirar  (which I now can't spell apparently).

It's Josh Brolin although Clancy Brown would have been awesome.

I thought it was genuinely great. An important counterstrike to the glumness and by-the-numbers structure of most summer blockbusters. Freshened up the air in the room. Not afraid of sentimentality, in a good way, but also great cynical, subversive humor throughout. I agree that Gamora was a bit underwhelming.

Nebula VERY underwhelming--she could have been the entertainingly nihilistic, wisecracking relief from Ronan's one-note pomposity and intensity--a villain who just wants to see the galaxy burn because, why not, it's Tuesday and it's more fun than trying to hang around with regular sentients.

In the Collector scene, that's definitely a genuine, no-fooling Marvel Celestial pretty much exactly as it appears in the comics. Watchers I'm not so sure of. Could be the Elders of the Universe too, which might explain what the Collector is doing. Though on the other hand, Odin/the Asgardians seem to regard him as a trustworthy keeper of the gems--after this film, I'm not sure why, since he seems to have zero security for his collection and no particular personal power to speak of. I'm sure there will be a run-down of the Easter Eggs in that scene, but I spotted the cocoon too.

It's hard to say how safe the gem was with the collector.  I mean he could have had some of the tightest security around if not for an infinity gem exploding in the middle of his place.

Saw this.  Loved it.  Agree with pretty much all the positive things people have said.  Awesome dialog all the way though.  And yes, I laughed awkwardly loud in the theater when the after credits scene came on (probably because I'm in Poland and the only person to even get the reference in the theater).

I am very interested to see if they'll make a directors cut of this though.  There were a ton of scenes from the various trailers that weren't shown in the actual movie, and I think a longer cut of the movie would only improve it (pacing was a bit off at points, only thing I can really knock it for).

Oh good, I thought it was just me.  I was less than impressed with both daughters in particular. It was a world of, "oh, that's cute they're almost important."  The movie certainly never established a reason to fear/ respect Thanos because his minions were punky girls who make pouty faces. Woo, hardcore.

The comedy element was nicely used to undermine some old superhero tropes throughout and I really enjoyed that. The monologing nonsense that's continued in Marvel's movies cut short by Rocket crashing a ship into the villain was the only one that's stuck with me since last night.

I'm not a comics guy so I found it enjoyable but I'm just not as hyped about it as the rest of the internet is.  Like Avatar, I've got no desire or need to see it again. They are making good crossovers for the Infinity Gauntlet, though, which will be interesting to see as I only know parts of that story. (TBH I know more about that storyline from time on the internet than anything about the comics. I saw a trade paperback in Borders back in the early 90s and that was it.)

Anyone who thought I was just taking a pot shot at Karen Gillan doesn't really know me at all.

It was a horrible and utterly throwaway character that served little to no point and honestly would have been better served not being there.

I get that there might be comic booky backstory that I don't get, but because it didn't go into it, who really cares ?  Not me. 

Indeed, the father/sister thing was just an undercurrent of stupid noise the film neither needed nor, in the end, did anything with.  You could have swapped the NeckSnapped servitor for Pond and it would have made utterly no difference.

In fairness, it did it twice and it was just a redo of Puny God. 

Not that there's anything wrong with that AT ALL.

Yeah, upon reflection I can see that it was a rehash but I feel like there was something else done with Rocket to undercut the tropes that wasn't the same joke.  Maybe it's just me getting old and making things up in my head now. I'll come back to it when it comes out on cable.

There isn't backstory to speak of. Nebula shows up at some point and claims to be Thanos' biological granddaughter, and when he meets her in the comics, he's like "Oh, who are you? Whatever." Then he torments her, seemingly for her presumptuousness in claiming what she claimed.

In recent years, they've retrofitted the whole thing to claim that Thanos' first bad-guy thing was having sex with a bunch of alien ladies and then hunting down and personally killing all the subsequent offspring in order to impress the spirit of Death.

This is the film's one weakness--Thanos is supposed to be the Big Fucking Bad that everybody's scared of, but folks are generally like, "Ronan is the guy we're worried about, because he's the local nutcase with the religious thing going on". It's not at all clear why people are actually supposed to be scared of Thanos besides his general Darth Sidious mannerisms and Gamora and Nebula both saying, "Dude did bad shit to us". Rocket and Drax can get away with vague, unseen references to past trauma, because it's pretty clearly enacted in the action and seen on Rocket's body, but Gamora and Nebula not so much. Even five minutes of "This is what Thanos did to us" or "Here's a video of Thanos killing everyone over here" etc. would have helped.

This is very minor bitching though. It is a great flick. Maybe my favorite Marvel film in multiple ways. And anyone who says "Oh, Marvel has a rigid house style, there's no range or genre variation in Marvel movies" can just suck it after this one. This is a very distinctively directed and imagined movie.

Also, and you should know who you are, the people who were like "This will never work! It's got a fucking raccoon in it! Marvel has LOST THEIR MINDS!" should now turn in their Nerd Fortune Teller License for good and just humbly wait for all that will come their way.

And all is right in the world.

Just got back...enjoyed it immensely. I was actually annoyed by the post credits scene though...god I hated that shit back in the day. The rest of it was very entertaining.

You know, I was one of those who first heard the announcement that they were making a Guardians film and thought, "What the fuck? WHY?" That was before I read the comics which were hugely entertaining. When I heard it was James Gunn that was going to write/direct, I thought he was the perfect choice for it and it started making a little more sense. I mean, from a Hollywood perspective, it made NO fucking sense whatsoever - you don't take the established brand and do something so out there and against the type (i.e. it's not really a superhero movie in the traditional sense as the general public would view it).

I'm about ready to call Kevin Feige a fucking genius, though. He got this movie made and it was a HUGE success and according to this article (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3884&p=.htm), it's already beaten Winter Soldier and Thor: Dark World for first day grosses. And it is most certainly the freshest big budget blockbuster in a long while. Yes, it's just a space opera action movie but it's approach is so fun that it doesn't feel like just another sci-fi action movie. Everybody involved should be proud.

I didn't mind Nebula so much but Ironwood is right - she and Gamora both needed a whole lot more explanation to really make the audience believe what is said about them. They may have been the weakest parts of the movie but considering how strong the movie was it's inevitable something wouldn't be as well-developed as the rest. Groot is an absolute star, just like I thought he would be. I was more surprised by Drax being both funny and likable despite the character not really being likable at all. I hope that they introduce more of the Kree and make them not quite as evil as Ronan. After all, the race isn't all evil and it'd be nice to see more Kree characters when they hopefully bring Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel out.

After credits scenes were fantastic and I'm really glad to see that the creators of the various characters got prominent "created by" credits.

Nothing flies over my head.  My reflexes are too good, I would catch it.

Yeah, Drax surprised me, particularly because they (rather cleverly, I think) withheld all of his dialogue from the trailers. I was expecting him to just be dumb, silent muscle but he was funny as hell and yet also really helped sell the "these are damaged, sad people" thing.

I'm in awe of the marketing, by the way. Even the scenes that we'd seen in the trailers played differently, and the original 'what a bunch of aholes' trailer isn't in the film per se but yet perfectly captured its mood. They showed us what the movie's spirit and feel would be but didn't give the whole film away.

The opening scene in some ways might be my favorite--100% establishes the tone in a beautiful way.

Have to wonder though.  Given the decent departure from the original Star Lord origin story, who the hell is his father in the MCU?

I saw this with my daughter last night. It was great. The writing was great, and I think that this may be the first MCU movie that my kid is old enough to "get" anything from.  I only wish that we had gone to a normal theater to see it. While food and beer plus movie is fun, having to interact with the server during big moments sucks.

The heck?  Where did you go to see it where they still serve you at your seat durring the movie?

The lame one, apparently. Seats were awful.  Basically like sitting in a barstool with a back.  Not even basically, that was exactly it. Counter in front of you. We should have gone to the place with the armchairs.

In the new Bendis-drafted origin, the father is a pompous if somewhat high-minded jerk from a militaristic culture related to the Shi'ar, and Star-Lord is a sort of war-orphan since the father got stuck on Earth for a while because of political struggles in his empire. It gives Quill a different motivation for hanging around with pirates and getting drunk and so on, which is that he has no interest whatsoever in being his father's heir (the father is now emperor) and he hates his father's culture. I don't think this is quite where they're going in the MCU but maybe not that far off.

This is definitely a contender with IM1 for my favorite comic-book movie ever.  Only question is if it will hold up when I know the punch lines.  Certainly a harder movie to pull off, in IM1 they just had to let RDJ mug for the camera, in this one they had to work a lot harder for the laughs.  It does feel like some of the "character development" scenes got cut, we never got a good demonstration of why the Thanos daughters were supposed to be bad-asses, for example.


--Dave

Projected $95 million opening weekend.  Marvel definitely has the good will of its fans.

I'm not a Marvel comics guy so have no idea what the canon is on anything but it would be cool if each of the second movies in the Avengers and Guardians series have Thanos kicking the crap out of both of them a la Empire and then the teams come together for a mega-battle in a joint 3rd movie for both series.   It would probably be way overstuffed, but would still be cool.

I like this knife.  I'm keeping it.

Just to echo what everyone else has been saying, I saw this Friday and it was pretty awesome.  Really enjoyed Rocket and Groot more than I thought I would and, surprisingly, Drax as well.  Never really a fan of Bautista when he was in WWE (yes, I'm a wrestling fan :facepalm:) but I thought he was pretty solid here.  I love to see Drax and RDJ's Ironman interact with each other in the future.  Drax wouldn't know what hit him with Tony's onslaught of sarcasm.  Chris Pratt was fantastic and his Star Lord really held the movie together.  I really liked him in Moneyball and Wanted and now I want to see him in more movies.  I agree that Gamora and Nebula were pretty much a waste of screen time but I guess you have a certain hot chick quota in movies like this and Glenn Close wasn't going to cut it. :awesome_for_real:

I forgot to mention one of my favorite funny exchanges in the movie.

I will bet you that was a Pratt ad lib. He is famous for dropping absolutely killer ad libs on Parks and Rec.

I thought if Marvel would stumble it would be with this movie.  I was wrong.  While it's not my favorite Marvel movie, it's damn flashy, damn fun and has a damn good soundtrack.    Chris Pratt just became a star and has made me forget Burt Macklin.

I just got back. There were generally good moments in this film, especially exchanges of dialog, but my suspension of disbelief on the action was shattered multiple times by nonsensical developments and a critical analysis of the universe they are putting out there. There is a tonal dissonance. Some aspects of the film are interesting to explore, such as Peter's desire for respect as an infamous outlaw known as Starlord, or how the leader of a planetary government is only known as and referred to by her title.


Ah, fuck me. I felt stupid after watching this.

Adam Warlock?  :grin:

It's ok to be wrong.

Psycho.

This is basically someone just trying to really nitpick and hate the movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0la5DBtOVNI

My father died of a brain tumor on the first day I ever got to visit him at the hospital when I was roughly the same age as the kid playing young Peter Quill, so the opening scene absolutely destroyed me. The fact that this flick got me over that and made me love it as much as I did is a testament to how good it was.

Yeah, the female roles were weaksauce, but the overall storyline was just so damn good. Even the wife loved it. She made me break out my Rocket Raccoon comics.

Ok, how about this: I overall didn't enjoy the movie. I don't hate it. I enjoyed parts of it, certain macro concepts, but overall the majority of it was anti-intellectual fantastical bullshit dominated by the rule of cool, and I can't get into it.  When the movie tried to make me feel, it felt manipulative and not organic.

Is that less psychotic? I deconstruct shit. That's what I do, and that pissed me off to read, especially coming from you Abagadro. I have a high opinion of you.

I mean, what the hell? Are you two bratty girls gossiping in the locker room expecting I wasn't going to read that?

Our plan worked perfectly Abagadro.   :oh_i_see:

Well if it's any comfort I liked the movie but some of the cheesier moments really limited my enjoyment of it. I'm just glad the origin movie is out of the way and hopefully the sequel goes full Magus (although I don't see Disney approving that story line. I think I've said all this before though. Anyway I want a Warlock/Magus/Church of Truth movie ASAP).

Think less, enjoy more.

That's what they tell me.  :oh_i_see:

I don't want to tell you to turn your brain off, because I hate when people use that as an excuse for shitty movies. Some of your points do seem a bit nitpicky though to the point where I'm almost surprised you weren't upset at the fact that Peter can somehow get batteries for his Walkman.

Or the fact that he hasnt died from any one of god knows how many Intergalactic STDs.
Or the fact that several HIGHLY wanted individuals can some how manage to stroll around in broad daylight on the Main Planet of the Nova Empire without being arrested within seconds.  I mean, Gamora lounging around the market square like that would be the literal equivelent of Osama Binladen deciding to take a leasurely stroll around washington....

If you're going to dissect it like THAT, Maven, you'd be as well as having not gone, so I get your annoyance.

Sharing it like that however, is really, really just sharing the sour grapes.  That read like some Media Studies Students first term paper.

I give it an F.

Psycho.   :ye_gods:

But yeah, that first paragraph would have been a better post.  It's fine you didn't like it (very wrong, but there always needs to be one in every thread, so its fine  :-P).  That massive list of things you 'deconstructed' it down to though....... you must hate almost every movie ever made.  More specifically, you must absolutly LOATHE all marvel movies (and all of Star Wars for that matter), because they all can be nitpicked that way to a far worst level than this movie.  And now you're sperging out at people disagreeing with you like its some great affront.

Anyways, I had a few issues with it certainly (biggest one that raised my eye brows was how much time people seemed to survive out in space without full body suits), but its pulpy adventure sci-fi with witty dialog done very well, so you just run with things like that (just like we gloss over the fact that Star Wars pretty much ignores every single law of physics).

Well thanos is the big bad guy but ronan is the near term attempting to comit genocide on entire planets in the next few weeks level threat. One must prioritize and the ronan threat was more immediate than the larger overall threat thanos presents.

I did go overboard once I had the ball rolling, but I absolutely despise being called crazy or psychotic or treated like I'm not here. I'm somehow able to sit back and enjoy all the other Marvel movies, but this one kept punching my brain. I think it had to do with how far removed it was from an Earth-setting. Every story stretches the plausible to make for a better story.

Nits aside, I don't know why my view is being labeled 'wrong'. Nits, OK. But I don't think all the positive views are 'right', and there are a lot, I recognize that. You all like the film. Great. So did a lot of other people.


There wasn't disagreement with what I stated -- there were two insults directed at me. Ad hominen. That's what set me off. I could tell you were being jokesy and you actually addressed me like I was here. I didn't feel the same level of respect from the others.

Why would you use sperging? I see indications that people view me as mentally ill or different in a negative fashion. Imagine how I feel reading that. That hurts, man.

You may be disappointed to learn that "psycho" is a fairly common one-word rejoinder here when someone posts a tl;dr wall of text.  It was not a custom-crafted insult carefully calibrated to your unique mental condition.   :awesome_for_real:

This guy on my Facebook feed didn't like Guardians of the Galaxy (http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=2113) (http://hotlink.escapedredpanda.net/smiley/huh.gif)

Cool, subscribe me to the forum's cultural newsletter so I can properly contextualize the insults and be less offended. I mean, everyone should be on the same page, right? So that makes it OK.

Dude, chill.

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/82533/justwalkaway.jpg)

I think the same schtick was used even in this thread, which might be a clue about its recurrence here. But anyhoo, I can't imagine any film plot surviving that kind of fine-tooth-comb once-over. So I think it's pretty fair to say that's a post-facto attempt to build a rationale for "I just didn't like it". Which is really not necessary: it's ok to just not like something for reasons that aren't easy to fully access or process. In general, if I'm going to go beyond that saying I liked/didn't like, it's going to be "This is how it could have been done". I can't imagine that you seriously think any of the things you didn't like could be meaningfully addressed in the film itself, in diegetic terms.

Say, for example, "Why does this great utopian society run a hellhole prison?"  I mean, jebus, you *could* address that pretty damn easily, since it's not exactly that hard to imagine in the world we exist in. ("Why does a liberal democracy with a Constitution that enshrines individual rights run a gulag where prisoners of war potentially might be imprisoned for life despite not having been convicted of anything? Why does that same society have the highest per capita number of its own people in prison, including increasing numbers who are kept in solitary confinement for many years despite massive evidence that solitary confinement is essentially psychological torture?") Do you really want an entertaining space fantasy to stop dead to discuss the Xandarians' sociological philosophy of crime and punishment? Did you walk out of Star Wars saying, "I really need to hear more about the engineering specs and construction methods used on the Death Star in order to understand how it's possible to build and staff a moon-sized vehicle"? I hope not.

This kind of stuff is fun to talk about later after you've seen a film a bunch of times and it's become a touchstone. But if that's what you're thinking while you're watching, and you're letting the thinking direct your engagement, then I honestly don't understand how it's possible to enjoy any film or story of any kind. Hell, even reality seems pretty damn improbable by those standards.

This community is so old and incestuous that I think  most of us do assume that everyone gets things like "psycho." You should research the Ltm diaspora sometime I think most of this stuff really is written down somewhere. :)

This is F13. I haven't been around as long as the majority, but even I am aware this is how things go... All that is needed now is schild to post his scathing review and the thread will come to fruition.  :why_so_serious:

 :heart: :why_so_serious:

Neither calling someone "psycho" or the use of "sperging" are unique to f13.  They're not particularly nice, especially since "sperging" is a direct reference to Aspergers, but the internet isn't generally a nice, safe place.  Just call Teleku and Abogadro twats and move on.  I mean, they are twats.  So am I.

That's a fun word to say out loud.

Also, I enjoyed this film immensely.  Is the soundtrack available yet?

Mostly on youtube.   :grin:

You're talking to a collective of folks who the greater portion of have somehow tolerated each other for 14-15 years now. You're going to be a little on the outs for in-jokes. Just accept it when it's explained and assimilate.

Yes, I saw an ad for it at Best Buy in the paper yesterday. Its cover looks like the Hi-Fi with the "Awesome Mix volume 1" tape in it.

Also, if I was going to pick nits it would really be that Merle played outer space Merle.  Again. Poor guy.

I just tossed the tracks into a Spotify playlist. If there's any downside to the film it's getting the stupid Pinacolada song earwormed in my head.

On the subject of the universe holding up to examination. No obviously not. It's not that kind of film and part of why I compared it to Star Wars. It's that same popcorn adventure SF. It's not serious science fiction.

Oh, it made 94 million domestic, 160 million total worldwide. Largest opening in August ever. Third largest for the year.

If we're ready to quibble over the minor stuff, my only minor issues with the film were:

* Wishing they had the rights to more of the cosmic races,
* Not buying the romance,
* Wishing the universe was a bit more 'New Hope style lived in',
* Wishing they'd had a time jump to establish these characters had time to grow into friends, and
* Wishing Cooper had nailed Rocket a bit better.  Of all the characters, Rocket was the only one that was pretty far under his maximum potential (not bad, but had the potential to be so much more).

I don't get what you are saying about Rocket at all. I thought he was pretty good.

It just hit me that at least 2 of the races that should be in the Marvel out of space universe likely won't be - the Shi'ar (probably an X-Men property) and the Skrulls (probably a Fantastic Four property). That's a damn shame.

Sorry if I offended you.  I actually didn't even read all your points, just saw how long it was and pulled out an old f13 chestnut.

Rocket was by far one of the best parts of the movie.  Cooper did a fine job and the script was solid.  Your criticisms just sound like you want more movies and it's fine, there will be.  At a solid 121 minutes I think trying to cram more of anything would be a bad idea, we've already got way too many bloated scifi/fantasy films as is.  Keep it simple, keep it tight, it's a fun ride and there's always more movies to expand on things. As for romance, there was none just a bt f sexual tension but there wasn't even a kiss so calling it romance is a big stretch.

Go ahead, just walk into a 16+ year old online community and whine when you aren't aware of the culture.  That will impress everyone, I'm sure.

 :oh_i_see:

Oh good, Soulflame is here to help.

He's a twat, too.

Soundtrack is $10 on Amazon.  Sold.

Skrulls I'm sure they can't use. No idea on the Shi'ar but I'm not sure the Shi'ar have a very clear "idea" behind them anyway besides the Imperial Guard, who are mostly reskins of the Legion of Super-Heroes from DC.

I was almost surprised that you can't buy "Awesome Mix Vol. 2" but since that's not really heard in the film except for one song, that wouldn't mean much.

Rocket was awesome.  I have no idea where you're coming from.  As per usual.

Rocket was great, Groot was great, Drax was surprisingly great. Pratt hit so far out of the park that he's beyond great.

Gamora was meh, in part because of writing. Nebula was sub-meh, in part because of writing.

Ronan was Standard Psycho Bad Guy #1, I hope they can make Thanos more interesting in the long run.

Rooker was great as Yondu; most of the smaller parts were at least fun. I wouldn't have minded more with Del Toro's Collector that at least explains his schtick a bit better--I can't imagine this is the last time we'll see him.

I didn't recognize Nathan Fillion's voice when he had his cameo. I was also surprised at who the voice for the post-credits surprise character was.

I'm totally aging myself here, but when it opened with 10cc, I started singing along...

Man, you say you have *minor quibbles* with a movie and people act like you panned it. 

Rocket was not bad.  However, people were expecting him to be the character that blew up after this movie.  Instead, he fell into the pack of other characters.  Part of this is because they nailed Groot, Drax and Star-lord so well, raising the bar.  However, I think there was room for Rocket to be nailed in such a way that he still stole the show despite the great renditions of those other three.  However, he wasn't nailed - not in my opinion, and not in the opinion of the people I've been hearing from outside of the Twilight Zone that is f13.

This is what everyone said about Pacific Rim.

They were still wrong. That movie was dogshit.

You mean the voices in your head ?

Comic nerds.

Nobody else cares.

I'm fine with being wrong as long as it brings more giant robots fighting giant monsters.

I overreacted, and I overdid it. I apologize. Moving on.

The entire plot of Pacific Rim was "giant robots fight monsters for reasons".  This movie was a lot better at hiding its blemishes.

That said, how exactly did a single warship get to the homeworld of a race powerful enough to fight the Kree empire to a standstill?  Why did they even need Thanos if that was possible?  There, now I'm doing it, too.

Yeah my girlfriend had no idea about gotg at all pre movie and far and away rocket was her favorite character.  What, were you somehow expecting people to be calling for a rocket solo movie after this?  Some criticisms are fair but to say people are not incredibly happy with rocket or that his role somehow 'got lost' in the movie?  I just don't know what to say to someone living in an alternate dimension.

Haven't seen the movie yet, but I'd totally watch a show about a raccoon with a machine gun.

image joke; not sure if it needs a spoiler but just in case:

I can only say that my Facebook feeds are lit up by non-comic nerds who were very surprised that they flat-out loved the talking raccoon in the movie. As well as the rest of it. But I'm sure Merusk is fully in touch with the beating heart of the nation on this issue.

Ok, Psycho.

(http://all-that-is-interesting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/cinemagraphs-american-psycho.gif)

Nobody should be surprised to like a non-furry style animated animal voiced by Bradley Cooper. NOT liking him would be more surprising. And you don't pay for Bradley Cooper in 2014 unless you have a script that makes it worthwhile.

This is Hollywood. They do, despite all signs pointing elsewhere, know what they're doing.

Fixed that for you (at least untill the final verdict on Ant Man).

Even is antman is a terrible flop disney/marvel will still have an excellent batting average as far as films are concerned.

Indeed.  And they're probably due one. Though I hated IM3.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Mainly for the characters...(who knew?)

- The actions scenes were overwhelmingly generic blah...I fell asleep in a cpl (late night showing but whatever)
- The most fun part were watching the characters interact and riff off each other. Quill, Drax and Rocket were great. Gamorah was rather boring and Groot obviously stole the show.
- I thought they went a little too quickly from , we hate each other ant want to kill/sell each other to 'lets form the team to save the galaxy'. Spend more time on that than another over edited, over FXed space chase.

- Anyone else vaguely reminded of Ice Pirates?

- Almost wish this wasn't a Marvel film because of all the extra nerd bullshittery and easter eggs etc that goes with it. Movie stands on its own just fine.

I've been thinking of the transition from hating eachother to friends but it isn't too much of a stretch when you break it down.

Quill doesn't hate anyone.  He's not even really a loner since he grew up with the ravagers, even if he's gone solo recently.

Rocket just wants a payday, he never hated Quill or Gamora and was fine working with them so long as he gets paid.

Gamora was never wanting to kill Quill in the first place, she'd already decided to betray Thanos and simply wanted the gem.

Drax is the only one with any real animosity to anyone but while Gamora might be an assassin working with Ronan, she didn't actually kill his family and may not have had anything to do with it since we can assume Thanos sent her to Ronan exclusively to help find the gems faster, not go on his personal crusade.

Groot is Groot.

I don't disagree they became  team rather quickly but I wouldn't say it was a huge stretch.

I sort of think that they added up how they worked together to get out of prison and were thinking, "Hey. This kind of worked." And then to deal with the shit that goes down on Knowhere. They're all lonely people in their way.

Think of how folks often were way back in the young days of the Internet when they logged into a nerd forum for the first time. Lots of folks were like "Oh my god, I love everybody here" and started disclosing all sorts of stuff. It took a while for everyone to discover, "Actually, I don't love some of you, and a few of you are psychos". I'm assuming that something like that is ahead for the Guardians...

Honestly, as a person who plays lots of Tabletop RPGs I'm used to groups forming pretty quickly. This movie basically was a tabletop RPG group put on the big screen in my opinion.

This.  Your classic adventure-quest, which is why it stands apart from every other Marvel movie out there (which are pure action).  Really, it's the 1st real Marvel "adventure" movie done so far, and they did a pretty good job of it.  Could take it further and say it's the best sci-fantasy adventure movie in a long while; the Marvel part of it wasn't even apparent, thankfully.

Oh and hai, I'm back from my hiatus/work.  :awesome_for_real:   

This is a pretty good tagline.

Not  necessarily a good tagline... it would be the same tagline you'd use for Eldest (edit - yeah, Eragon) ( was that the name of that crappy dragon movie/book?)

Eragon. Crappy movie from a crappy book.

It doesn't matter what a movie tagline is, it won't save a shit movie and it won't hurt a great one.  Hell even trailers can't hurt a good movie, prime example look at frozen.  All we even knew about that movie was it had a dumb talking snowman and a moose, suddenly biggest disney cartoon ever.

Yup. Marketing makes a difference mostly for a movie that is kind of good but not great or a movie that is kind of not-good but not shit--you can persuade people that what they just saw was better than it was or not as bad as they thought. A really great movie will usually overcome even a bad marketing campaign, but a fairly good movie can't. (Case in point: John Carter, which was not great but was good.)

Terminator.

I think Disney saying "we're releasing a new animated musical" would be all you'd need to make a few million.  Being really good certainly helped for repeat viewing, but Disney is a brand that people will buy every time.

This is becoming pretty true for Marvel films as well. They certainly are earning that good will.

In the case of Frozen most people didn't even know it would be a musical, the advertising was THAT vague.  You really had to search for info to know it was even based on the snow queen story.  I actually think Disney was more worried about people not wanting musicals anymore than anything.  Either way it's just like Khaldun said, marketing can only push a movie so much in either direction.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BuMkA6PCMAAJze-.jpg)

Movie was a lot darker both literally (was hard to see stuff sometimes) and figuratively, as well as more violent than I expected. Perhaps James Gunn's influence. Other marvel movies mostly use death for major plot points, and mostly knock people around or imply death occasionally. GotG racked up a body count from word go.

Loved Drax. The movie needed a straight man, and he nailed it as a character. Although, I'll agree as a superhero called 'the destroyer', he suffered from Worf levels of destroying. He seemed outclassed by every other strongman in the movie. It would have been nice to see him get more of a hulk "last resort/trump card" treatment on power level, given his reputation. Still loved him, he just ended up being the least useful/impressive of the group.

He went toe to toe with the main bad guy, what other Guardian could have done that?

I saw it IMAX 3d on Monday. I did not think the 3D was great. It wasn't bad but I was hoping for better. IMAX was nice and added appropriate levels of size for some of the ship flying and space scenes.

Its quite good. Drax > Groot > Rocket > Star Lord, but those four made the movie. Zoe Saldana did nothing and Gamora was a large letdown as someone who did read lots of Warlock back in the 90's. She could have at least had bigger boobs or looked more dangerous. As it was she was not very scary or impressive as a fighter and didn't really do anything but fight her equally hohum sister. Everyone has said that though because it was the only huge flaw that stuck out despite the movie being so damn fun.


The Gamora I remember was more like:

So I hate to tell you but that's not the Gamora you "remember" if you remember the Starlin Gamora from the very beginning. I mean, she was slinky and stuff but she wasn't Power Girl in measurements.

Though on the other hand, as I think on it, she was in all of Starlin's Warlock books, almost entirely a "tell, not show": a character we were incessantly told was the most dangerous woman in the galaxy who really did nothing especially dangerous until Thanos murdered her off-camera and Warlock absorbed her into the Soul Gem.

In the Abnett/Lanning reboot that's the basis for the movie, she finally did some dangerous shit, though. Among them doing a Wolverine and voluntarily getting burned half to death in order to shut off a machine, knowing she'd regenerate. But she never really did anything particularly "assassin-like" even then, just a lot of kung-fu fighting. She might really need a reboot in general to make her more a stealth killer in the comics, but she certainly needs something like that in GotG2. If the model is "The Dirty Dozen", she really needs to be the stealthy, disguise-wearing, seducing "French Resistance" character, which she was absolutely not in this film.

Interesting how former wrestlers are often pretty decent in movies.

I guess wrestling requires a certain amount of charisma and presence that translates over.

Edit: Thinking of The Rock, Bautista, Rowdy Roddy Piper, etc.

They are all acrobatic stunt actors by trade... so it really is not hard to buy.

There are a lot of really bad wrestler actors too.  No one is going to break out and be another Rock though.  The only one that had a chance was Stone Cold, but his body is so beat and he couldn't really act outside his character.

Uhhh...no. At best Eragon would be a bunch of 12 year olds who just started RPing.

Eragon is just "Dragon" with the D changed to an E - the next character over in the alphabet. Basically the laziest possible way to make the word "Dragon" trademarkable.

Guys, I have a great idea for new superhero. I call him "Xolverine"

It makes more sense if you think of "wrestling" as a mix of interpretive dance and improv.

--Dave

*laughs* I never noticed that before! Though in fairness I've paid very little attention to Eragon other than my daughter talking me into watching that piss-poor movie. I remember my main thought being "ok, Jeremy Irons is a well known paycheck whore but Rachel Weisz? Did the director have blackmail material on you?"

It's not hard to get such material on Rachel.

I didn't notice it until someone pointed it out to me.

It's pretty clever in that changing the D to an E totally changes the pronunciation. But you'll never forget the name again, now that you know how dumb it is.

He'll be a doctor of Mutantology.  We can call him Dr. X!

Big actors signed up for Eragon because the book series was hugely popular, and still was afterwards despite the movie flopping so hard.  Source: worked in a bookstore during the release of the series finale.

It's as popular as it is in part because some nerd YA readers: a) hadn't read LoTR or even some of the early LoTR pastiche-ripoffs like Shannara, so they don't spot how woeful the rehash of Tolkien is and b) they really liked the life story of the author: home-schooled teenager writes fantasy novel while still a teenager! Awesome!

I saw this last night.  Predictably, after all the massive hype I was a bit let down that it's not my new favorite movie in the world, but it was one of the better Marvel flicks for sure.  I actually expect to like GotG2 more, because to me the parts of the movie that shone were the ones where they were doing cool shit as a team (which is a reversal for me because usually I find the "origin story" more interesting than the actual hero stuff).

Rocket was my favorite character far and away.  That really surprised me.

One thing that's nice about them doing such a good job with Rocket is I've been seeing a good amount of media coverage about the nightmarish health care issues his co-creator Bill Mantlo has been dealing with for the past 20+ years since being the victim of a hit and run.

Just saw this today. It was a fun movie that had me laughing and enjoying myself. I don't think it lived up to the hype but TBH I enjoyed it more than the Avengers.

Just got back from this.  Good movie, the whole family enjoyed it.  I'd put it on par with Avengers.

Brought my kids yesterday.  First half was awesome.  Great stuff.  Second half was the same exact tired shit we've all seen a hundred thousand times.  What the fuck.

So you went into the space action movie expecting...less spaceships?

SPACESHIP!

Different movie altogether!

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y222/Abagadro/llego_guardians_zpsbf216c9b.jpg)

All right, but apart from the movie titles, the nobodies, the music, the artifacts, the pursuit, the lovable band of misfits, the force of destruction, SPACESHIP, and Chris Pratt, how are the movies in any way similar?

/Monty Python

Brought peace?

Took two of my boys to see this over the weekend.  It is really entertaining in its own right, even if it might not be quite up to the hype.  Rocket was definitely my favorite.  I fully expected that character to be retarded, but it wasn't at all.  Groot was the boys' favorite, and it isn't hard to see why.

One thing that I feel should be said is this:  the visuals are mind-blowingly gorgeous.  The best I have ever seen.  This is how you do CGI and make it look real.

Actually gives you a bit of hope that if they ever do decide to do a Planet Hulk Movie, where Bruce banner gets 5% screen time and Hulk the other 95% , that might look completely believable.  Would be kind of neat to see a pretty much 100% CGI cast in a "Live Action" CGI movie that looks almost 100% believable.  They could even pretty much jump the Uncanny Valley simply due to the crazyass "comic book" look Hulk and everyone he interacts with would have (it's not going to look "unnatural" when it does not try to look completely "natural" to begin with).

Was the 'Hype' over there that bad ?  I keep hearing 'hype' type comments and, apart from you chaps, all we heard pre-release over here for this film was 'talking raccoon and tree, this will never work.'

I'm assuming they are referring to everybody here (and maybe some other internet hype since it's been very well received).

Yeah, this. 

Whatever, it is a fun movie and deserves most of the positive commentary. 

Not just internet hype, it was critically well received basically everywhere. It has a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. Word of mouth from every source was positive. And then there was crazy amounts of internet hype. This movie would have blown my mind had I gone into it expecting nothing at all. Shame that really. I think I enjoyed it a little bit less than I should have and I saw it 4th day of release. I really feel for people just getting to it now.

I clearly missed most of that.  I knew from here that people thought it was good, but the rest of the world hadn't yet exploded to my knowledge.  (Even though they clearly had.)

Do you mind if we call you Bruce?

I completely ignore the hype of what other people think simply because so many popular movies I considered crap and I liked lots of things that got panned.

Thankfully I did quite enjoy it and I'm looking forward to more.

I was trying to figure out why this movie was doing so poorly internationally, as the international total is only 43% of US market's total.  I discovered it's not in Japan, China or India at this time.  Interesting.

I actually wouldn't be all that surprised if it doesn't do as well as people think (though I am probably wrong). I liked it, but it honestly didn't live up to the hype. I thought the dialogue, especially, was somewhat stiff. Plus the whole Groot-cutesy-animu-face thing really didn't work for me.

It's already beat transformers 4's 10-day with projected gross is 175.9mil total and is likely to be the top grossing movie so far this year so...I don't think it's under performing at all.  Also, it's not in china or japan and a couple other markets for some reason.

Test audiences wondering why the tanuki doesn't have giant balls?

It did well enough to guarantee the sequel will be made, which is enough for most. It's 10-day domestic is better than TF4 did and it's already in the top 10 for the year.

It will overtake Spidey 2 but might not breach, Lego or Cap 2. Depends on if TMNT hurts it long-term since they're competing in the same space now that opening weekends are over. Part of that depends on how long they can keep it in the additional 235+ domestic theaters it opened in vs. TMNT.

Expendables 3 this weekend and Sin City next will draw some of both crowds, but not families. I can see families going for TMNT over guardians as one's a familiar property, though both are probably equally crude/ offensive to moms who want to protect their kids.

It should also never be understated just how much Marvel built up anticipation and prepped audiences for this. They've spent the better part of a year trying to sell this to audiences and it's paid off. Imagine if it had released without the teaser build from February or the tie-ins that got comic geeks talking about it prior to June/ July.

Second weekend in and my tiny town's theater had a dozen showings of it.  We went to the 4:20 showing and it was packed.  If they keep that up for a little bit their final numbers will look really good.

(http://i.imgur.com/Xl3JVqF.gif)

I'm seeing ads for this paired with Gravity Falls, so the push is still going.

 :thumbs_up:

:Love_Letters:

Did I mention how awesome Chris Pratt is? (http://news.yahoo.com/chris-pratt-visits-childrens-hospital-star-lord-183622126.html;_ylt=AwrTWfwp5fZTHiEAx5bQtDMD)

I watched an interview with Vin, Zoe and him yesterday.  Google interview or something, Guardians Junket. 

They were all hilarious and awesome and Zoe won me over in the whole 'Ironwood doesn't really fancy Zoe Saldana' argument.

I changed my mind radically.

I am not ashamed to admit it got a little dusty here in my cube when I read that. Sick kids get me every time. And what did this cost him? An afternoon. Such a tiny price to pay, and so many people who could make as big a splash don't bother. Although I am sure some of them do it and keep it quiet (I know there are several Seahawks that do this stuff weekly and they couldn't care less if it makes the news).

Good for Pratt. He seems like a genuinely nice guy. I hope he gets to raise the 12th Man flag this season (he is a big Seahawks fan, as all brilliant and good looking people are  :grin: ).

Tangetly related, I feel like showing off a birthday gift for a friend:


And I'd see that article about Chris Pratt yesterday.  Such an awesome thing to do.

Where's the "like" button?

Agreed. That's really nice. Make me one plz  8-)

(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/blogs/tmagazine/buzzfeed/06-Upvote.gif)

Well, if you're in the US, $20 + $5.50 shipping and I'll make another one for you.  I still have the lines obviously, so I'll just do another version.

I say US only because no idea about shipping costs internationally, although it could probably be arranged.

And thanks, guys.  I've been getting back into doing watercolors for a while now.

Second showing, took Elena this time.

Still awesome.

Arise!

Anyway, watched this probably 4 or 5 times over the last few weeks.  It holds up very well, and I'd put it as a close #2 behind IM1 as my favorite Marvel movie. Even when you see the punch lines coming, they're mostly still funny, and the action scenes are solid.

--Dave

The only things I didn't like about this are pedantic and will just result in people telling me i don't know how to enjoy life, so I'm just going to stick with it being pretty good and certainly entertaining.

Just don't write any more tough guy lines for Chris Pratt that aren't clearly taking the piss. He stuffed up that final delivery so bad I'm still cringing...

I'm not going to pile on you ;  It's certainly not his strength and I happen to agree.

I need to rewatch the movie with this in mind : http://imgur.com/a/d0cug

The follow-up comment is perfect, except it should be the Hulk and not Banner RPing.

The comments are necessary - I had no idea who the angry GM girl was.