Alright folks, let’s talk Guardians of The Galaxy!
While I got no chills from the new Guardians trailer, and it certainly didn’t move me to tears irrationally, it was exactly right. Obviously, the hardest sell with Guardians of The Galaxy is that no one knows what it is. The trailer plays with that fact. It opens with Peter Quill, or Star Lord walking into some serious vault. He picks up an artifact and is immediately surrounded by guards. When he identifies himself as Star Lord, no one knows what he’s talking about.
It’s kind of the perfect in. Then as John C. Reilly’s Rhomann Day talks through who each of the Guardians are, we meet the team. Drax The Destroyer, Gamora, Rocket Racoon and Groot. Then Peter flips him the bird.
The trailer is funny, which by the way, is one of the main things that The MCU has always had going for it. Iron Man came on the coattails of Batman Begins and Spider-Man 2, both fantastic movies, neither of which were terribly funny. Then Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr.’s smart assed Tony Stark came and the game was changed. Jokes became a staple of these movies. Of course, Guardians is a space opera, which, by the way, always fare better when there’s comedy. It was the Star Wars silver bullet, that in addition to being riveting and action packed, it was also funny.
I still think that it’s a strong but risky play on the part of Kevin Feige to bring Guardians out at this point. The last few attempts at cosmic superheroes, well, haven’t gone well. Green Lantern and Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer are in fact, considered failures. Guardians has to succeed. It’s a big play for Disney too. This is the warm up lap for Star Wars: Episode VII. If the movie isn’t good, I can see the posts now. “If Disney can’t handle Guardians of The Galaxy, why should they be trusted with Star Wars?”
This is an important moment for Marvel Studios and for Disney. It’s a turning point. Opening up the MCU to the outer limits of it’s Galaxy, exploring it’s bits of alien weirdness is something that is both exciting and terrifying. Done wrong, and it could be done wrong, this whole story structure, almost ten years in the making, could unravel.
I’m hoping it won’t so that we can see Chris Pratt do more things. (But not at the expense of Andy Dwyer, obviously.)
My only real quibble with the trailer is the lack of sound from Rocket and Groot. I mean come on, one Vin Diesel, “I am Groot” would have killed them?
The Fangirl's Dilemma 