If you're like me, then you're getting mighty tired of the gritty-realistic-sour-Nolanesque mood which comic book movies have taken on over the last decade. It feels as though little by little, the humor and color has been wrung out of most super hero films, leaving in its wake emo reboots (The Amazing Spider-Man), personality-deficient murderers (Man Of Steel), stiff adaptations (The Watchmen), and misguided odes to extreme violence (Kick-Ass). Thankfully, an anthropomorphic raccoon, a giant tree, John C. Reilly, and a bunch of sarcastic space hoodlums are here to put the fun back into the genre.
This August, the Guardians Of The Galaxy will become the newest, and by far the weirdest, entry in the hugely successful Marvel cinematic universe. Perhaps you haven't heard of the group before now, which isn't surprising—they're a third-rate Marvel property compared to The Avengers or the X-Men franchises, and they have an appropriately convoluted backstory. There was an original team in 1969 which popped up here and there before fading into obscurity in the '90s; the comic was re-booted in the late '00s with the team members that will be featured in the film.
Those characters include the most out-there ones to appear in a Marvel film yet. As director James Gunn put it to Total Film: "The Guardians are criminals, essentially - a thief, two thugs, a murderer, and a maniac." That includes the aforementioned Rocket Raccoon (whose name was inspired by the Beatles song, and who "possesses the normal attributes of an Earth raccoon," but also is an expert at killing people, duh), Groot (basically like one of Tolkien's Ents, both nicer and deadlier), Star-Lord (human Peter Quill, who is basically Han Solo but even more of an a-hole), Gamora (the toughened daughter of Thanos, the Big Bad in the Marvel universe, although it's unclear whether the film will keep that part of her backstory or not), and Nova Corps (which is essentially SHIELD in space).
As you can see from the trailer, the studio is choosing to emphasize the humor (along with a dash of swash-buckling, quick cut gunplay) in what is likely most people's first introduction to the characters. The trailer does a fantastic job of laying out the basics about the five members of the team, along with the tone of the film (humor-filled space adventure), while not really giving anything away about the plot (which definitely shares some DNA with Raiders Of The Lost Ark, except with talking trees)—considering how many twists and surprises are ruined by narrative-heavy trailers these days, I think this is a much better option.
The major thing, besides the fun factor, is the fact that this is the first time Marvel is stepping out with a lesser-known quantity—most people have some familiarity with Iron Man or Captain America coming into the theater. With the Guardians, Gunn has some room to play around with the story and characters that just can't be done with someone like Spider-Man, who has a backload of origin stories and villains that people are attached to (which is why the studio imposed Venom on Spider-Man 3, and one of many reasons why that film was a franchise-killing disaster). When X-Men: Days Of Future Past comes out this spring, regardless of whether it's any good, you'll hear plenty of people complain about the liberties taken with the storylines; you won't have any of that with Guardians.
And there are so many exciting things to look forward to, especially in the daring, unusual casting: Bradley Cooper does the voice of Rocket Raccoon, Vin Diesel does the voice of Groot (who doesn't say much besides his name), comedians Reilly and Peter Serafinowicz are members of Nova Corps, and after a really awkward appearance in the after credits of Thor 2: The Dark World, Benicio Del Toro is back as The Collector. There's so much to go through in the trailer, we haven't even gotten a glimpse yet of Lee Pace's Ronan the Accuser (the main villain of the film), Michael Rooker's Yondu, and Glenn Close's Nova Prime, who leads Nova Corps. And somehow, all this will be related back to the mothership, The Avengers, expanding the scope of the Marvel universe even more outward.
The other major thing going for the movie: Chris Pratt. He's spent most of his career stealing scenes on Parks And Recreation, appearing in supporting roles of great movies (Zero Dark Thirty, Moneyball, Her), and being known as Anna Farris' husband. Between Guardians, The Lego Movie, and the upcoming Jurassic World franchise, Pratt is on the verge of becoming a major box office star, stepping forward in the kind of role that milquetoast actors like Ryan Reynolds (The Green Lantern) or Taylor Kitsch (John Carter) have failed to turn into gold in recent years.
And despite getting ripped for the role, Pratt has a disarming charm that puts an emphasis on his humor and personality rather than his toughness—amongst all the standouts of Parks (including Retta, Nick Offerman and Ben Schwartz), Pratt has been the best, whether he's acting out his favorite movies or going undercover as Bert Macklin, FBI.
For better or worse, Christopher Nolan is responsible for the current state of comic book films—after the wild success of Batman Begins and especially The Dark Knight, it seemed like every franchise from Spider-Man to Thor had been injected with a dose of miserable. Outside The Avengers, the last couple years have been filled with overhyped build-ups and ultimately disappointing, undercooked products.
But the pseudo-seriousness of comic book movies was a problem in even the original Bryan Singer X-Men film (the one that jump-started the super hero trend), which predates the Nolanfication of the genre—the studio was too nervous about the heroes' classic but goofy bright costumes, settling for leather spandex that was widely reviled by comic book aficionados. While Marvel has been overly-guarded and protective of their characters thus far, Gunn said they have been unusually forward-thinking about this film: "The movie has a lot of edgy humor, unusual for a comic book movie. But we were encouraged by Marvel to take risks, so we did. However, we never wanted the humor to get in the way of the fun or the emotional heart of the film—those things came first."
If Guardians is the hit it's shaping up to be, it could be the death-knell for overly-serious, by-the-comic-book adaptations. Or at the very least, it could encourage the major studios to take more chances with their films, to let directors stamp more of their personality on the films, to experiment with obscure heroes and locations. I'd certainly rather see more quippy raccoons with guns than another reboot of a mopey origin story.
