“Come and get your love!” Oh, hey there. Welcome to the To Infinity Retrospective. “Come and get your love!” A series created in preparation for Rise Of Skywalker. Each month, I review a different Space Opera, and, this time, we’re returning to the world of films that people have actually seen with Guardians of the Galaxy. What’s it about? Well…
Abducted from Earth at an early age, Peter Quill has spent his life stealing. It’s precisely while doing so that he gets in trouble. Turns out the orb he was hired to snatch is an infinity stone, a powerful object that an alien called Ronan hopes to use. As such, Ronan sends the assassin Gamora after him. And because Peter didn’t bring the orb back to his boss, Yondu, the latter puts a price on Peter’s head, which causes him to be pursued by bounty hunters Rocket and Groot. But before they can kill each other, Peter and the others realize that they’ll make a hell of a lot more money if they work together to sell the orb. So they team up, and set off, with Yondu’s goons and Ronan’s assassins in hot pursuit.
Guardians is a film that shouldn’t work. It’s based off a really obscure comic series, and the director, James Gunn, was, at the time, best known for writing the terrible Scooby Doo movies. But, lo and behold, when Guardians premiered, it was a smash. Critics and audiences loved it for its irreverent humor, its insane visuals, and its funky, retro soundtrack. I myself didn’t see Guardians when it came out, but when I decided to take on the Space Opera project, I realized I’d have to watch it. After all, Guardians is probably the most high-profile Space Opera in recent years, apart from Star Wars, so It’s worth understanding why this film did so well.
Having finally watched it, I can understand why people found this to be a refreshing change of pace. The soundtrack is unique for both a superhero film and a Space Opera, the humor’s more crass than what you’d typically find in a Marvel movie, and the acting’s good. So it’s a fun, unique Marvel flick. But it’s not perfect. The two biggest problems are all the things that are clearly just set ups for sequels, and the fact that we aren’t really eased into this world. There are a ton of scenes, like a talk with Thanos, or a revelation that Peter’s only half human, that are clearly just put in to say “this will be important.” And like I said, we aren’t given any intro to this heightened, fantasy world. We get a scene of Peter on Earth in 1988, and then we cut to him as an adult, interacting with all these aliens. I get wanting to keep the plot moving, but the jump to full-on Space Opera was a bit jarring. Some of the best moments in The Last Starfighter are the “fish out of water” jokes that occur while Alex, and the audience, are getting accustomed to this new world. We don’t get that with Guardians. So, in the end, Guardians is a fun, unique Marvel movie, but it’s got way too much sequel bait, and doesn’t work as a stand-alone Space Opera.
liusviews 