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| image courtesy of imdb.com |
The
science of visual storytelling has come further in the last twenty-odd years
than in the preceding thirty. Since
Jurassic Park, and especially since The Lord of the Rings, exceptionally
brilliant art direction, set design, costuming, make-up, and of course
computerized visual effects, have become a sine qua non for the kind of
make-believe major studios invite us to participate in.
Yet
when I sat in the theater waiting for the start of Marvel Studios’ latest offering,
and felt the buzz of happy anticipation in my fellow theater-goers, I knew it
wasn’t striking visuals or action pieces that had brought them out in such enthusiastic
numbers. It was the reputation, the
solid reputation, that Marvel Studios has built, of giving us the one thing
that visual effects cannot fill in for: real characters, actually funny humor,
genuine heart, and a compelling story.
They
came to see amazing things, but also to laugh belly laughs and feel
feelings. And neither they nor I were
disappointed.
Peter
Quill, alias Star Lord (Chris Pratt, in a role he was born to play), is a
lovable rascal, a fumblingly smooth man-child who truly never grew up. He grooves along his life as a ravager (read:
bottom-feeder, gangster, general ne’er-do-well) in a planet-hopping never-land,
drawing a line somewhere between dangerously genre savvy and too-dumb-to-live.
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| Our hero. image courtesy of imdb.com |
So
now Marvel, the most successful superhero company in the movie business, is
branching out into space opera. Like
many stories before it, Guardians of the
Galaxy is more of an adventure story set in a fantastic setting than a work
of technical hard science fiction: it’s not about function, it’s about fun. I don’t see this as too far a reach, as of
course the two genres share a common origin in the grand comics and pulp
fiction of the last century.
In
fact, in a funny way, a good space opera is like a good superhero movie, but
turned inside out. Instead of
superheroes and supervillains, extraordinary people struggling against each
other in the ordinary world, in space opera we have rather ordinary people, or
at least people with ordinary beliefs and motivations, struggling against each
other in an extraordinary world.
In
either case, the story lives and dies on the strength of the characters, whether
we like them, whether we root for them.
Here, as in other successful grand dramatic tales flung into the cosmos,
the larger-than-life challenges, celestial rewards and/or penalties, and overall
impossible odds of the plot really just serve as another layer of setting for
the real story: whether or not the characters grow, whether they can overcome
their own weaknesses, and whether they’ll wind up working together, or drifting
apart.
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| Knowhere to go, people to see image courtesy of imdb.com |
Honestly,
the plot of Guardians of the Galaxy is nothing new: everyone is after the
MacGuffin of the week (this time it’s not a golden ring or a glowing cube, but
a silver orb), and whoever can get hold of it and unlock its secrets will
control the fate of every other named character, not to mention countless
bystanders. Lots of chases, gunfights,
double-crossing ensue everywhere you look.
Often the story seems to be an excuse to advance the action from one
fight or chase to the next.
But
the trick here is to treat this blockbuster, fate-of-all-worlds,
MacGuffin-of-MacGuffins plot merely as a sort of meta-setting, where the real
story can take place: will or won’t these angry, misfitted, injured people
figure out how to draw strength from each other in time to save
themselves. They have to save themselves,
not from injury or the world’s destruction, but from the self-destruction of a
life spent alone, without anyone there to care if they win big or not, survive
or not. Oh, and they have to save the
world, too. Also. Right.
Commentary
on the second-class merits of special effects aside, this film boasts some of
the better space-opera visuals and design I’ve seen. More than a few times I said to myself “oh
this is a pretty and very well-put together sequence, I hope it continues for a
while,” and more than a few times the sequence went on and on. With sheer inner-child glee, I just sit and
think back on the design of the principle spaceship, and how it is quite
possibly the best-looking piece of star jumping hardware I’ve seen this side of
a galaxy far far away.
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| Just look at it. image courtesy of imdb.com |
Anyone
who’s seen the trailers knows that two of the major characters are a talking
raccoon (Rocket) and a walking tree (Groot).
When you play with creative stakes like these, betting so much on the
far-out and often finicky art of CGI characterization can end very badly when
no emotion or character actually come through.
The ever-spry Bradley Cooper and the inimitable Vin Diesel (yes Vin
Diesel) of course deliver the lion’s share of the work in bringing these two to
life, but I really am more than a little surprised to find myself typing the
following words, and mean them in a good way: the talking raccoon did some of
the best acting I saw in the picture.
(By
the way, if you’re unfamiliar with Vin Diesel’s voice acting work, go to the
movie store, pick up a copy of the Iron
Giant. You can thank me later.)
Zoe
Saldana gets us to sympathize with Gamora (emphasis on the second syllable
please), the aforementioned warrior woman and token green space babe, instead
of just evoking the usual emotions green space babes are meant to evoke. Michael Rooker (of one-handed Walking Dead fame) is as lovable and capable
a scumbag as ever. John C. Reily,
Benicio del Toro, Djimon Hounsou and Glenn Close fill out the bit parts,
hitting more or less the right notes.
And pro wrestling star Dave Batista is surprisingly excellent as Drax
the Destroyer, and goes a long way towards stealing the movie as the
preposterously resolute straight man.
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| Pictured: The reason to see this film. image courtesy of imdb.com |
The
film of course is not without its setbacks.
A couple of times the action seems to slip out ahead of the motivation,
characters making large and desperate leaps and responding to plot developments
in a way that sort of makes sense, but seems jarringly disproportionate to the
situation. It’s difficult to describe
without giving things away, suffice to say occasionally I was saying “wait,
what’s happening, why?” instead of following along with both my eyes and my
interest together.
And
Lee Pace, capable of delivering intoxicatingly nuanced and self-possessed
performances, is a little under-utilized.
Although he, as embodiment-of-evil warlord Ronan, and Karen Gillan, as
the practical non-character Nebula, take their roles as far as they can, and
are adequate for the story’s needs, in the end they amount to little more than
glaring moody eyes and shouting or icily level speech, as needed scene by
scene.
But
the film has one strength that goes a long way towards overcoming these issues:
despite the dramatic stakes and hammy villainous evil, it does not take itself
too seriously. It knows how to poke fun
at both itself and other films (notably managing to satirize both a well-loved scene
from The Avengers and the conspicuous
failing of the most recent DC film).
What
else can be said, apart from go see the movie for yourself?
In a fairly slow summer season, this may be
exactly the movie you’ve been waiting for.
It delivers the thrills to make you want to grab your seat, the imagery
to make you want to climb through the screen, and the unimposing sentiment that
makes you feel like you’ve made friends with its characters, become part of the
group.
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| "I'm pretty sure the answer is 'I am Groot.'" image courtesy of imdb.com |
And
an out-of-this-world soundtrack.
Behold, indeed.
this review was also posted at Literally Darling
Behold, indeed.
this review was also posted at Literally Darling
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