Author Topic: Guardians of the Galaxy (is the best)  (Read 10197 times)

Talia

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on: August 04, 2014, 02:43:11 PM
Saw it this weekend and adored it. It goes pretty heavy on goofy humor - I'd call it "space satire" - but that really works for me. It does a great job of lampooning many of the genre's standard tropes. Highly recommended.

Content wise, there's some minor language and suggestive conversation, but it's pretty light, so it's reasonably appropriate for older children (who will certainly enjoy it).

(also, there's a short post-credits clip. Stick around for it!).




Fenrix

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Reply #1 on: August 04, 2014, 05:45:50 PM
Not only do they lampoon the standard tropes, they point directly at them, acknowledge them with a beautiful lampshade, and then proceed to utilize them effectively and disarm them at the same time.

Possibly my favorite was the hero walk where Rocket is adjusting his crotch.

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Listener

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Reply #2 on: August 04, 2014, 08:11:26 PM
I enjoyed the movie just fine, but I don't think it was BEST MARVEL MOVIE EVAR!!!!11one. For a group that has almost no (current) connection to the MCU to that point, the film did a great job. But overall, it was an ensemble superhero movie. The writing was crisp and the story was fun (and told well). I do think there were too many characters at times, and once again the bad guy had a ginormous ship that existed for the sole purpose of crashing into stuff. Ronan's reason for villainy seemed too thin, and it all just seemed like a set-up for Thanos's role in the next film.

If this hadn't been an MCU film, I think I wouldn't have held it to such an impossibly-lofty standard, but after Avengers, Thor 2, and Cap 2, they've set the bar WAY too high for me to just sit back and enjoy the movie. Still, I don't begrudge spending my $9.75 to see it. It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

Also, how about a shout-out to Dave Bautista as Drax. He had just the right amount of matter-of-fact-ness in every metaphor he missed.

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Fenrix

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Reply #3 on: August 04, 2014, 09:07:44 PM
Nothing goes over my head! My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it.

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Listener

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Reply #4 on: August 05, 2014, 11:47:01 AM
Nothing goes over my head! My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it.

Now in GIF format: http://listener.tumblr.com/post/93814139819

Spoiler for post-credits scene: http://listener.tumblr.com/post/93818760717/

Also a favorite: "They got my dick message!"

It's awfully convenient how all the aliens in the MCU speak English, or at least some sort of universal language that I'm sure Peter learned to speak and just happens to have the same kinds of idioms as English.

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Devoted135

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Reply #5 on: August 06, 2014, 11:05:59 PM
I didn't expect it to live up to Avengers, or even Thor 2 and Winter Soldier, so I very much enjoyed Guardians. :) The story was better than I thought it would be, and it was also funnier than I expected, so overall it was a big win! I love that Chris Pratt is becoming so popular. :)


It's awfully convenient how all the aliens in the MCU speak English, or at least some sort of universal language that I'm sure Peter learned to speak and just happens to have the same kinds of idioms as English.

I would attribute about half of those idioms to Peter translating them into the common language, or whatever. He got plenty of funny looks after using them. That doesn't explain the other half of the idioms used by him and others though. ::)



Listener

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Reply #6 on: August 07, 2014, 12:09:33 PM
I would attribute about half of those idioms to Peter translating them into the common language, or whatever. He got plenty of funny looks after using them. That doesn't explain the other half of the idioms used by him and others though. ::)

You're probably right. Or maybe they use translator microbes, like in Farscape.

One thing I love doing in my own SF is using idioms and parlance from other SFnal cultures in the story. For example, a spacefaring race might say "[Distasteful thing this person did] really cooled my reactor." (Not a great example, unfortunately, but I do have a story coming later this year in Black Denim that shows how I do this.)

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Fenrix

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Reply #7 on: August 07, 2014, 01:24:21 PM


"Translator implant in neck"

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Reply #8 on: August 07, 2014, 05:46:11 PM
"Translator implant in neck"

Fair enough.

"Obscene gesture imminent." Which means that the middle finger is obscene to other cultures? It's like how giving someone two fingers in the US isn't known by most Americans to mean "f you", but in the UK it's well-known as an obscene gesture.

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Devoted135

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Reply #9 on: August 08, 2014, 02:41:33 AM
"Translator implant in neck"

Oh wow! Super cool :)



Varda

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Reply #10 on: August 08, 2014, 03:01:41 AM
I'll add my voice to the praise for this movie. I'm 100% with Talia and Fenrix--loads of fun to be had with genre tropes, poking fun at them while at the same time celebrating them, then back again. It was good times, from start to finish. :D

I died laughing on the bit about "I won't fall for your pelvic sorcery!" :P

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Listener

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Reply #11 on: August 08, 2014, 12:01:37 PM
One thing that bugged me was when Starlord moved through space without his hands or other areas being covered, prior to when we knew he had implants and/or was half-alien. With Gamora, they explained it on screen -- her implants would keep her alive a little longer -- but I think there needed to be more visual cues, especially in the scene where Starlord "flew" from the prison to the ship with his hands bare. That completely took me out of the story for a few minutes.

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Fenrix

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Reply #12 on: August 08, 2014, 01:07:49 PM
According to the director, bare in space is not auto-explosion territory. They were also exposed for the duration of somewhere in the vicinity of one lungful of air. I would direct your eyeballs here: http://www.inquisitr.com/1392369/guardians-of-the-galaxys-james-gunn-takes-on-nitpicking-science-nerds/

I can't be certain, but it did appear that blood vessels were bursting in the whites of Starlord's eyes towards the end.


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Scattercat

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Reply #13 on: August 08, 2014, 02:10:23 PM
Yeah, you can expose bare skin to vacuum for brief periods and not suffer much damage.  It's not exactly a brilliant idea and it won't be a spa treatment anytime soon, but if you don't try to hold your breath, you might not (even probably won't) die.

Probably a bigger issue would be all the hard rads you'd soak up floating unprotected, but meh.  I haven't seen the movie yet so I don't know how near a star they were or anything.  And it still wouldn't be worse than, say, a tobacco habit, in terms of life expectancy impacts.



Listener

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Reply #14 on: August 08, 2014, 02:56:08 PM
According to the director, bare in space is not auto-explosion territory. They were also exposed for the duration of somewhere in the vicinity of one lungful of air. I would direct your eyeballs here: http://www.inquisitr.com/1392369/guardians-of-the-galaxys-james-gunn-takes-on-nitpicking-science-nerds/

I can't be certain, but it did appear that blood vessels were bursting in the whites of Starlord's eyes towards the end.

FWIW, I wasn't expecting the Total Recall scenario, but at least for Starlord to have SOME damage to his exposed skin.

I did appreciate the author mentioning toward the end about cassette tapes. That's a perfectly legitimate concern. I mean, MAYBE he had some blanks in his bag and MAYBE he made copies, or MAYBE he actually had his walkman retrofitted to play a more sturdy type of magnetic/digital tape, such as DAT.

Not that that really matters. I'm just thinking about it because I have a giant box of tapes and a tape-to-USB converter, and a lot of work to do to get all my old air-checks converted before the tape is gone forever.

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Sgarre1

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Reply #15 on: August 09, 2014, 01:09:57 AM
I'm in the same boat.  This looks promising:

http://www.everbuying.com/product159218.html



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Reply #16 on: August 09, 2014, 06:37:35 PM
Coming from a big marvel comic fan's point of view who was never into Guardians before, I loved it and will go see the next one when it comes out.  There is now a bridge with the other Marvel Universe, the villain. 

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Reply #17 on: August 11, 2014, 12:01:53 PM
I'm in the same boat.  This looks promising:

http://www.everbuying.com/product159218.html

I have one of those. Not that model, but one of those types of devices. Haven't used it yet, but I have a few hundred tapes, including at least 50 radio air-checks, that I need to MP3ify.

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Fenrix

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Reply #18 on: August 11, 2014, 12:39:59 PM
According to the director, bare in space is not auto-explosion territory. They were also exposed for the duration of somewhere in the vicinity of one lungful of air. I would direct your eyeballs here: http://www.inquisitr.com/1392369/guardians-of-the-galaxys-james-gunn-takes-on-nitpicking-science-nerds/

I can't be certain, but it did appear that blood vessels were bursting in the whites of Starlord's eyes towards the end.

FWIW, I wasn't expecting the Total Recall scenario, but at least for Starlord to have SOME damage to his exposed skin.


So I watched it again this weekend. There was some scaling or frost crystallization on both Starlord's and Gamora's skin while they were exposed to the (near-) vacuum.

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Scattercat

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Reply #19 on: August 23, 2014, 08:41:27 AM
Finally watched this at GenCon.  Solidly amusing.  Not something I'd go out of my way to watch again or own, but if someone said, "Hey, let's sit down and watch this movie I happen to have on this television I always carry in my pocket," I'd say "Sure, okay."  I laughed most of the way through.

I think it suffers from Comics Condensation Syndrome (comidensation, if you will) in that the first half of the movie is the first six to twelve issues of a comic series, establishing all the characters, and then we skip over about fifty issues, and the last half is the final six/twelve issues of the buildup/resolution of the overarching plot/villain/thing.  It makes comics movies tend to feel disjointed, and this one particularly so, what with the half-dozen character backstories AND the whole concept of Thanos and Cosmic Cubes to explain.  There's just kind of this hiccup and then suddenly they're all friends.  Which I can get beyond because it's the premise of the movie, but it requires some mental effort on my part, y'know?  I'm actively suspending my disbelief and it's putting a little strain on my back while I'm allegedly relaxing. 



DKT

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Reply #20 on: August 25, 2014, 05:54:44 PM
I actually went to the movies and saw it! It was pretty good :) No, I don't like it as much as Winter Soldier or Avengers (need to see Thor 2 still), but I had a lot of fun with it. I was expecting everyone to be great, but probably had the least expectation for Drax, so Bautista was a nice surprise for that part (I'd only seen him in the last Riddick movie). I was genuinely surprised by how good he was here.

Ronan and Nebula were the weakest links for me, and I get what Scattercat is saying too - mostly that I wish there could've been some more time developed between the characters (the movie was almost exactly two hours). I think I'm spoiled by good television, and that's just something that one medium can do better than the other. Tor.com had some valid criticisms of a few things that I generally agree with (Drax calling Gamora a whore, in particular, makes 0 sense, especially when she's standing next to Quill). I'm also tired of the stakes being We Have to Save the Entire Nation/Planet/Galaxy, but it's called Guardians of the Galaxy, so I guess I can only complain so much about that one  ;)

On the whole, I was entertained, and I'd definitely watch it again, preferably with some drinks and some friends :) And I'll be happy to watch another, even if the stakes aren't lowered.


Listener

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Reply #21 on: August 26, 2014, 03:16:08 PM
In the Marvel Phase 2 timeline, I definitely rank Guardians about equal with Thor 2, and put Cap 2 at the top.

1. Cap 2
2(T). Guardians, Thor 2
3. Iron Man 3

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