Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and this week Guardians of the Galaxy is out in theaters
so this is going to be my review. Since a lot of you probably haven’t seen it yet
I’ll do my non spoilery part first and then when we get into spoilers I’ll talk about
really specific stuff. I know they’ve already confirmed a sequel but since I’m planning
a longer video for that I’ll just briefly mention a few possible storylines they could
do from the comics.
Hello any new people, if you’re just finding me for the first time I do Marvel videos every
week. Be sure to subscribe to get everything.
Most of you probably at least know who the Guardians are even if you’ve never read
the comics. The biggest generalization is Space Avengers. A bunch of super assholes
come together to form a team and keep the villains from destroying the galaxy. Which
galaxy you ask? Generally it’s assumed in this movie that it’s the Milky Way galaxy
but they never say officially.
Most of what you’ve probably been hearing about the movie is how much everyone loves
it, which is surprising. But a lot of the credit for that goes to director James Gunn.
He directed and wrote the script. He’s mostly known for really small cult films like Slither
with Nathan Fillion, who did have a funny cameo in Guardians. Gunn has this really amazing
visual and literary sense.
The executives at Marvel Studios have a lot of say over what stuff looks like and sounds
like in the end, but Guardians has this really steam punky classic Star Wars feel with 80s
pop culture jokes throughout. And James Gunn is the reason for that.
The other really important thing that you can thank Gunn for is the bangin’ soundtrack.
They’ve been marketing it as the Awesome Mix #1. Hooked on a Feeling is the song they’ve
been using the most in all the clips. But there’s a laundry list of other classic
70s and 80s songs.
The mixtape is something that flows from Chris Pratt’s Star Lord character, and the director
has a lot of influence over how character details get expressed. So of all the things
to love about the movie, the thing you should be most grateful for is James Gunn and the
way he treated the material.
Of all the actors my favorite performances were of course Chris Pratt, who seems like
he’s stepped up the most of all the other actors. Bradley Cooper as Rocket Racoon and
Vin Diesel as Groot.
The reason I gave extra high fives to Chris Pratt is because of all the other actors in
the film, he is the least experienced in terms of big blockbuster movies, especially action
movies. And he’s the lead, he’s on screen the most. So if he didn’t bring it, the
movie would suck no matter how cool James Gunn made it look and sound.
Trust me, you get the whole tone of his performance in the first five minutes he’s on screen.
He has a great introduction. Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel have been action stars for
a long time, so I judge them a lot harder. But because they’re mo cap, they have to
do everything with just their voice.
The visual effects artists control their expressions, the digital character movements and reactions,
and those are great. But it all starts with the voice.
Bradley Cooper speaks with this really fun brogue that makes you completely forget he’s
Bradley Cooper and allows you to just enjoy this really foul mouthed cynical raccoon.
And Vin Diesel only gets three words he’s allowed to speak. Well four lines, but really
it’s just three.
I think they said he recorded all of his takes in five languages. So when people see the
movie in Spanish or French. He won’t say I am groot. He’ll say the translations and
it’s really him doing it all. They didn’t hire foreign language actors to come in.
He totally sells Groot, but a lot of the added fun of that character is in his physical expressions
and the way he reacts with his face. And yes, they did mo-cap Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper’s
faces, so when the characters smile or yell. It’s like a billion pixels modeled on top
of their real life expressions.
Karen Gillan was so much fun to watch as a villain. Full disclosure, if you haven’t
seen all my Doctor Who videos, I’ve been a fan of hers since her ginger days as Amy
Pond. All I can say is the little screen time she gets is a lot of fun. I feel like saying
more about her would be spoilery. So I’ll save some of that for later in this video.
Lee Pace, for any Pushing Daisies or Thranduil fans, is also a lot of fun to watch as a crazy
insane villain. Seriously, no joke. He is over the top batshit crazy. And I totally
bought it. He’s covered in makeup head to toe, so you completely forget who’s underneath
and you just focus on the voice.
Benicio Del Toro is another person who’s not on screen for a lot of time like Karen
Gillan, but totally sells this ridiculous sounding character. He plays the Collector
and as small as his part is, he becomes a huge part of the Marvel Universe. Del Toro
even described himself in the movie as like a Space Liberace. So you should definitely
think of his acting choices as being completely intentional. The affectations he brings to
the character.
I’ll just go ahead and say that this is my new favorite Marvel movie. It hits all
the right action movie beats and all of the characters land. Visually it’s so much more
interesting than the other Marvel movies you’ll be blown away. The color Red is very very
important. Almost everything in the movie has this red overcast too it and James Gunn
said it was his reaction to the dark brooding science fiction movies that have come out
since Blade Runner.
He said he wanted to return science fiction to the pulpiness of the 50s and 60s sci fi
movies just to make it feel like a more fun movie. Not that 70s and 80s sci fi weren’t
fun. He just didn’t want Guardians to feel like a depressing pessimistic story. It’s
all about childlike wonder and discovery, which you also see in Chris Pratt’s character.
So if you haven’t seen the movie yet. Just think about the color Red when you’re sitting
there in the theater.
You could also say that the color Red is now a metaphor for the influence of Iron Man on
the marvel cinematic universe in a meta way. Like the popularity of that character and
irreverent tone of the first Iron Man film has trickled down into all other Marvel films.
But to be fair, Red is Marvel’s trademark logo color. So Red has always been important
to Marvel as a brand.
But all in all. I gave this movie an A plus. I think, the only A plus I’ve given to any
movie this year. And there were a lot of movies I really loved.
But now let’s talk about specific moments and easter eggs so careful for spoilers if
you haven’t seen the movie yet. I’ll wait just a sec...okay, everybody ready. Here we
go.
My biggest surprise was how quickly they went to Thanos and the infinity stones. I still
think of them as infinity gems. Even though I just saw the movie I’m trying to remember
if Benico Del Toro called them gems or stones. I have no idea why they feel like they need
to change little details like that in the movies, whatever.
That explainer scene that he gave the Guardians was my favorite scene in the movie. Mostly
because it tells you exactly where everything is going. It very clearly states that super
powerful beings were not able to contain the power of all six gems when they were brought
together. Did you notice how there was no gauntlet in that scene.
So clearly the big WTF surprise of Avengers 3 will be Thanos, harnessing the power of
all six gems when he brings them together. I feel like the real fun will be the way they
express the power of each gem on screen.
Here’s something weird. In the movies and in the comics, the colors of each gem are
different. Like the Space Gem, the one that teleports things, is the cube we see in the
first Avengers movie. It’s blueish. But in the classic comics the Thanos Infinity
Guantlet story, the space gem is purple like the one we see in the Guardians movie. In
the guardians movie the purple gem is the power gem.
Funny side note. In the Gauntlet comics storyline. Drax the Destroyer is the guardian of the
Power gem. Just another change from page to screen.
It gets really confusing, so be careful when thinking about which gem is in which movie.
It gets even more confusing when you consider that Loki’s staff contains the mind gem.
Which also looks blueish like the tesseract space gem. I wish there were a screen cap
from the movie because when Del Toro explained everything they had this really clear graphic
with six different objects in it showing each of the gems.
The sequel teasers that I got most excited about were Peter Quill’s Father, Thanos
and the Collector’s hunt for the gems and the Guardians visiting earth.
Of all those things, I don’t expect the Guardians to visit earth in the sequel. I
feel like Marvel and James Gunn will keep all Guardians’ stories in space. It will
just be the go-to space franchise.
I think between Avengers and Guardians, they’ll just have individual character moonlight on
each other’s team. I did a video a while back about a certain Avenger possibly being
in the Guardians sequel. I’ll post a link to that in the description.
Everyone was going crazy over the post credit scene with Howard the Duck. I feel like the
only people that will get that will be people who have seen the Howard the Duck movie. The
reason it’s in Guardians because of Gene Colan. He was the artist that originated Guardians
of the Galaxy and he had a hand in originating Howard the Duck. Howard the Duck is a Marvel
character.
So it’s a comic book easter egg, but you could also consider it an easter egg for the
80s movie too. That was a lucasfilm movie by the way. As in Star Wars George Lucas.
Think of Howard the Duck as like the progenitor or Rocket Raccoon in terms of wisecracking
animals. Howard the Duck debuted in 1973 which came after the original Guardians of the Galaxy
team, which started in 1969. But that initial team did not feature rocket raccoon. He debuted
in 1976.
The Guardians in this movie are much closer to the Annhiliation Conquest arc. They rebooted
the comic again in 2013 too. So if you’re looking for comics to read, I’d just start
with the reboot. It features Iron Man joining the Guardians. It’s really cool, there’s
a really funny sex scene between him and Gamora.
Here’s some of the biggest easter eggs in the movie:
Peter Quill’s spaceship, the Milano, is actually named after the character’s childhood
crush Alyssa Milano. Remember he’s a 70s and 80s pop culture junkie. So a lot of his
references are frozen at the point where he left the earth. In the 1980s. He probably
hasn’t seen any movies, tv shows or music from after that point. So he doesn’t know
who Justin Bieber is. Imagine his disappointment when he learns about that.
How funny was it that he called Kevin Bacon one of the greatest hero’s ever. The Legend
of Footloose.
Inside the collector’s museum there’s Cosmo, A Dark Elf, a Chitauri and a slug from
James Gunn’s earlier movie Slither. Starring Nathan Fillion.
Nathan Fillion’s cameo in the movie is almost unrecognizable. He’s the giant alien who
gets Groot’s branches stuck up his nose. You can kind of tell it’s him by the voice.
Stan Lee’s cameo is pretty obvious, but it’s hilarious that Rocket calls him on
being a total creeper.
Rob Zombie had a voice only cameo as the navigator of Yondu’s ship.
And James Gunn’s mentor Lloyd Kaufmann was a prison in the Kyln scenes.
I guess you could consider Knowhere to be an easter egg even though they call it out
verbally. In the comics people can use the brain stem of the ancient celestial to travel
anywhere in space and time. We haven’t really dealt with time travel in the marvel cinematic
universe yet though.
That opening scene is a pretty clear riff on Raiders of The Lost Arc. If only Indy had
a magnet to draw the idol off the trap.
There are five big planets that the movie features that were also part of big comic
book storylines too.
Hala the Kree homeworld debuted in the comics about the same time Captain Mar-Vell, that’s
Mar-Vell, not Captain Marvel, different characters.
Xandar is the homebase of the Nova Corps and Richard Ryder, the superhero Nova. James Gunn
said he kind of hates that character so he might not make it into the sequel. He says
it’s the helmet. He hates the helmet. The planet was destroyed during the Annihilation
Conquest storyline.
The Kyln has always been a prison. Even Thanos was kept there for a while.
Knowhere I already talked about. In the comics Cosmo the Space Dog was actually administrator
there. Clearly something James Gunn changed.
Morag 4, the planet where the Orb was found was featured during Annihilation Conquest.
It featured a pretty epic battle between Quasar and Moondragon.
In terms of storylines for the sequel I think Thanos Imperative, War of Kings and Annihilation
Conquest are all good places to draw from. Thanos Imperative was like the culmination
of Conquest and War of Kings though, so they’d have to establish Inhumans and a few other
things before dealing with the Cancerverse and a fully formed infinity gauntlet.
Quick sidenote, Inhumans could totally be one of those 6 new mystery Marvel movies.
I still need to do an Inhumans video at some point.
But let me know what your favorite part of the movie was and what story do you want to
see the sequel take on?
My next Marvel video will be a deeper exploration of Guardians 2 stories. Be sure to subscribe
to get it. I’ll try to post it early next week.
Right now click here to learn all about The Avengers footage at Comic Con and click here
to learn about the Batman vs Superman footage.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tonight. High Fives!