Guardians of the Galaxy (No Spoilers) · 1:49am Aug 5th, 2014
Just saw this Saturday, and I have to say, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Not really a great story, I'll admit, but they told it well and it engaged me throughout.
If there's any flaw, I have to say that the beginning of the film really leaves you cold. You haven't the slightest damned idea of what's going on, who's on the screen, why they're doing anything... and you know what? It all works out. Guardians of the Galaxy takes the rather ballsy step of completely eschewing exposition for the vast majority of the story up until a few points near the end. It lets you figure out what's going and who is who by exposure, and it actually rather works.
For the most part, it's a pretty straightforward action comedy, where none of the action is that amazing and none of the comedy is that incredible (aside from a few lines which really cracked me up), but it's all consistently good with a few minor hiccups, and that's hard enough to pull off. There's even some bits that I find myself appreciating more as time goes on (unlike Prometheus, which I grew to hate with greater passion with each passing day.)
For instance, there is a character who treads the line between antagonistic and allied with the protagonists, a sort of pirate chief, and at first you don't really see what the big deal about him is. He looks kinda silly and is pretty minor. But there's little touches that build him up throughout the film until the end where you really end up liking this character. One aspect of this which simultaneously shows how the film understands gradual buildup and how to make a non-focal character engaging is his weapon.
The first time you see it, you have no idea what it is. He's being challenged by a crewmember and he pulls his coat back and the shot focuses on it. What is it, you wonder? Some gold stick thing. It could be a gun. Could be anything.
Each time he brings it out, though, you start getting an appreciation for just how dangerous it is, but he never really gives away just how dangerous it is... not until one of his last scenes where he unleashes its full force and it's an awesome payoff.
I definitely took notes about that. How to build something up in a patient, seemingly casual way over the course of a story. Not bad at all.
So yeah, entertaining film, few major flaws, go see it.
Groot is a faggot
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You take that back!
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A bundle of wood sticks? Yea, he kinda is.
We were actually commenting on this a lot, as some people saw it twice this weekend so they had the benefit of foresight. There's actually a lot of minor foreshadowing and Chekhov's Guns all through the film. Like with this weapon example, sure he's got a weird weapon, but whatever, he's a minor character. That won't come up again, for sure... But nearly all of these "pointless" things get brought up again. So if So-and-So needs a trick to get out of a particularly sticky situation, he's got a great move on-hand which the audience has seen before. Therefore none of the the situations felt like unfair asspulls*. Even if they were a bit tropey, they all felt like well-rounded characters in a well-structured story for the most part. (As you said, a few irking faults, but overall great flick)
* Except Groot. I guess they were going for the "mysterious
wizardalien" vibe, but he did keep pulling new magic powers out of his trunk every other scene, putting him at contrast with the rest of the crew.2344053
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Gandalf burned him on the Misty Mountains.
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Groot did turn into something of a Deus Ex Machina, but that only started happening after you'd come to like him.
Though I did notice that he was, which was a pain.
It was a good movie, and well nothings perfect. The fact that they were able to make it canon with the rest of the recent marvels films was also a nice touch.
Although, I've got to wonder, there's usually two sides to a coin, a two-edged sword, as you may. If an infinity stone could annihilate life on a planet.....could it not do the opposite and bring life to a dead planet?
Groot and Fluttershy would be fantastic friends.
I'm surprised there isn't a story like that in the featurebox yet, honestly. Perhaps I should write one? 
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Buwahaha
Prometheus is that special kind of annoying movie that has no idea that it's stupid, isn't it? I've heard tons of commentary even though I've never seen it. I've never seen any Alien movies at all, but I'm gonna fix that in a few days.
I agree with you on the payoff with that guy's weapon. It was one of my favorite parts of a movie I already liked a lot.
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I really wouldn't call The Artist "brilliant". It was a cute romantic comedy with a neat gimmick and that's it. Then again, I gushed over Cloud Atlas even though that movie is also a bit reliant on a gimmick or two, one of which backfired in my opinion
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Great line
Actually, thought this was one of the weakest parts of the film for two reasons:
1) She had better survival odds out there than he did. Also, he's already established as having a space suit so the more sensible option would have been to put her in the pod while he hung around outside.
2) Their romance is as forced and pointless as most movie romances.
You ramble a lot.
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I loved the Artist, which did a lot with a little, for perfectly representing its time period of film.
Cloud Atlas I also adored, but then I'll bet I was one of the few people in that theater who understood what he was looking at!
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No, the terrible British character and Mary Sue lead made Good Will Hunting terrible!
Kidding, I enjoyed that film despite its flaws.
I will say that I'm glad their romance isn't DONE yet.
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I'm sorry, but The Artist didn't do anything spectacular for me (the definition of "good enough"), whereas Cloud Atlas swept me off my feet. It's easily the best Wachowski film I've ever seen. I really love it when a writer can make a complex story like that fit together well, and the editing really sold me on a lot of it.
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I actually didn't parse it as a romance during the viewing because she turned him down when he flirted with her on Knowhere.
Hmm, I must see this now. The last movie I saw was Sharknado 2 followed by part of Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda so I could do with a change of pace..