Avengers Assemble: Guardians of the Galaxy

“I am Groot.”

Filmology Rating: 3.5 out of 4

Guardians of the Galaxy was written and directed by James Gunn. While reviewing this film, comparisons will be made to "Captain Marvel" on how to and how not to do certain things.

This is a film that captures weird and balances it really well while making a movie about quirky aliens in space, relatable. In the opening scene of this film, we see Quill as a child, crying over his dying mother. Due to this scene, we have immediate pathos with the character and care for him. "Captain Marvel" goes almost an hour without telling you anything about her and when it does, it's far to late to backtrack your film to give pathos to a character.

The film also popularized the "pop song in superhero film" trend. Even "Captain Marvel" has many 90s songs and for no real reason. When "Just A Girl" starts playing, I get it, she's a woman doing super stuff. It's there for seemingly no reason. In Guardians, Quill has an emotional attachment to this music because it's what his mother listened to and gave him. It's also an appropriate usage of diegetic music.

I cannot stress how difficult it is to balance weird in a film like this. It takes a very talented director to know how much weird to put in. James Gunn is someone who understands comedy and its rules. Those are rules that can be broken, however, there are guidelines. Gunn keeps the humor character-based and it's the characters who are funny and its consistent with their character. In "Captain Marvel", a cat is used as a comical farce, Nick Fury (a traditionally serious character) is magically comical relief, and Brie Larson's performance goes from dead serious to Tony Stark-like within a scene. Comedy is also editing and timing, which Guardians understands and executes properly.

Not only does Quill receive Pathos, the entire team has pathos. Gamora struggles with Thanos and her sister; she doesn't know what her life is. Drax, surprisingly restrained when rewatching this, is later revealed that his family was slaughtered by Ronan. Rocket was experimented on and he has a drunken speech about how he didn't ask for it. And Groot is given an arc in the film when he sacrifices himself at the end.

In "Captain Marvel", I'm not even sure what her character was. All I know is that she is stoic and was lied to? And she overcomes self doubt. The character just didn't feel realized and there wasn't a point in the film where any kind of defining trait was given to her. Like Captain America is serious. Tony Stark is quippy and doesn't work well with others. Bruce Banner is quirky. Captain Marvel is powerful?

Throughout Guardians, it is about this group of cast-out -misfits, coming together to solve a larger problem. It is generic but it's done in a way that makes it feel personal to the context it's in. Ronan is villain of the week, but he is the catalyst for bringing this group together.

Exposition is also given in an entertaining way. General outlines of each character is given when they are first put in prison and John C. Reilly is listing them off. It's funny and informative. In "Captain Marvel" people need to explain to her what type of character she is. Information is also provided with the standard shot-reverse-shot talking sequence. Guardians keeps moving and informs you of the characters by their actions.

The casting of Guardians was also amazing. Chris Pratt lost a lot of weight and Dave Bautista was a wrestler. Out of context, that sounds like terrible casting decisions. But in this, it works. This film also led to the type of comedy where people say things literally which was originally pioneered by the Zucker Brothers, which Gunn takes lots of inspiration from. But that comedy later found it's way in films like "Rogue One" and other trash. "Guardians of the Galaxy" is a type of film that just kicks down the door and says yeah we're here and we're weird, deal with it. And as someone who watches film a lot, there is so much generic trash out there and when a film like Guardians comes along that retains an artists sense of style, its something special. Especially because it's a corporate blockbuster film, too often, they're just generic and flat.

Rating: See It

-Nolan