A Guardians
of the Galaxy film was always going to be a gamble. In a recent podcast with Kevin Smith, Comic
Book veteran, Neal Adams spoke about how intellectual property plays a big
role in the comic book world and that many creators, writers and artists who
do not essentially know the copyright/IP world well have burnt their fingers. As
a result of this, the Marvel Studios do not have rights to many of the famous
characters, and are essentially left with ‘junk characters’ like GotG.
While Adams
was quite high-handed in his dismissal and generally rejects everything current as you can read here, GotG isn’t exactly a Marvel goldmine. As
characters(created by Dan Abnett & Andy Laning) they have seen few moments
of glory until recently(the film decision led to a series of books –
standalones/crossovers post 2010 and second installment of the team’s appearance
was in 2008’s Annihilation Conquest) in Marvel crossover events.
This could
have turned into one of those high on action films which looks great and
entertains your kids, but James Gunn has done quite the impossible by turning
these ‘junk characters’ into a pop-culture juggernaut of today’s
comicbookmovie-ridden times. To get an idea of the kind of cultural phenomenon I
am talking about, hop over to the links at the bottom of the review.
What you
have here is an utterly entertaining, comic book sci-fi fantasy, cleverly
informed by the classic 80’s cinema. While Marvel was churning out entertaining
films in Phase 1 & 2, one had not seen a bunch of unknown characters like
these come to the fore and amaze the world like they have.
GotG pretty much builds
everything from ground zero here- a goofy lead(bounty hunter with a human
past), weird sounding places in the galaxy, interesting characters with a human
side, swashbuckling space fight sequences, and all that you could ask for in a
thrill-filled space adventure. The film does not have one giant
knock-you-off-your-feet sequence like The Avengers but many little moments that
sum up beautifully after you are done watching it. It is like the Star Wars
movie your mom would make.
The film is
remarkably low on high-octane action and focuses instead on playing classic
rock songs and character building. Perhaps one of the biggest victories here is
that you don’t walk out with one character in your mind, you walk out with all
of them, with a bonus classic song or two, and the comic book association just
makes it an infinite world of possibilities.
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