A Rocket Racoon Rebuttal for Paeter

I was honestly surprised that you didn't LOVE "Guardians of the Galaxy", Paeter! Rohelf and I were just outright loving it and, more than once, when the characters seemed particularly 'Farscapey', we remarked that you must have been grinning ear to ear at that moment.
Oh well. To each his own, I guess.
I have to say, though, that I most fervently disagree with your opinion on this movie. I thought it was really fun and knew just the right moments to play out sincerely and just when to jerk the carpet out from under us with a joke or something when things were getting too real.
The fact that Rohelf and I both thought a different character stole the show is, to me, the sign of a good ensemble. I think the best ensemble is one where everyone has his/her share of fans among the show's/movie's/book's/game's fans.
As for relevance, I don't see how you missed the theme of friendship and belonging in this, Paeter. Sure it's been said millions of times, but that doesn't mean it's not a good lesson. Every one of the Guardians had points at which they'd been hurt and isolated. They were all misfits. They were weirdos and outcasts, either living on the fringe or hiding their true selves to survive. What made this movie work was that this disparate group, despite and, eventually because of, their differences, came together to do something none of them could do on their own. The climax was even built on this idea, with everyone sharing the power of the gem so that none of them were consumed by it.
This wasn't a perfect movie, though. No movie is. None of the heroes really had a arc. Only the group itself had an arc, and that was simply to come into being. I would have liked to see each of them overcome a character struggle from their past for the climax (perhaps if it was Gamorra, and not Starlord, who was making a fool of themselves at the end, or perhaps if Peter had always had to be the star before and now was willing to just be the distraction). Maybe these will come to light more in an extended cut, but while their lack did make the story thinner, I still greatly enjoyed it.
Again, to each his own, but from the music to the sense of humor to the effects to the message, "Guardians of the Galaxy" has now displaced "Amazing Spider-man 2" as my favorite movie of the year thus far.
What do the rest of you think?

I am Groot!

I loved the movie, and I agree with everything Dunadwarf said, except where he disagreed with Paeter. I haven't listened to the podcast in a while and haven't heard his review yet.

mindspike wrote:I am Groot!

I disagree wholeheartedly. Pepperjack really is the best kind of cheese.

Well, aside from the horseradish cheddar cheese that Big Sky Deli has, but no one else here knows what place I'm talkin' about.

I'm going to flat out admit it....I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!!

did it have flaws, sure. They all do. Did I really notice them? Not enough to distract or disappoint me.

Okay, to tell you how much fun/good this movie was, my wife admitted that this was her favorite Marvel movie to date.

Why did I love it? I was laughing through the whole movie!!! To me, this was fun action, not a lot of cerebral necessity (and I wasn't wanting that with this movie), great soundtrack (yes, I thought the 80's music actually just worked with this film), and characters that I very quickly fell in love with.

I was worried that I would personally hate Rocket (really, a raccoon super-hero?). However, he was my absolute favorite character. The raider anti-Necrocraft wall of gunfire that he formed at the end was just the best.

there's a lot of other things about the movie I loved, but just don't have time to write about at the moment (doing this at work). I'm listening to the current podcast now to see what Paeter has to say.

did see this today:

Chris Pratt will reprise his role as Peter Quill/Star-Lord in the upcoming film Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which is set for release on July 28, 2017

"Oh, yeah." - Rocket.

GotG2. Yes, they set it up for a sequel. Spoiler!

With 5 Infinity Gems, I can see at least 2 more movies coming from this

GotG 2: plot scenario is that Thanos manages to collect all 5 Infinity Gems
GotG 3: Thanos gets his butt kicked by the Marvels Heros and the GotG and the Infinity Gems go away again.

Just my thought.

I think this works as a different take on the hero team than "Avengers". That was a group of "remarkable people", and while the Guardians are also remarkable, they're outcasts, freaks and losers. It's sort of like the Superman/Batman thing; one's the shining hero everyone claps about and cheers on and one's the guy in the shadows taking out the dregs there. They're both great and, when done right, work their best when playing off each other.

Dunadwarf wrote:
As for relevance, I don't see how you missed the theme of friendship and belonging in this, Paeter. Sure it's been said millions of times, but that doesn't mean it's not a good lesson.

You're right, I didn't even notice it. In my case it might have been because I didn't FEEL the fact that they were all misfits. For me, the relevance factor in an experience can jump to the forefront or fade to the background because of the quality of my experience in other areas.

I admit my envy of everyone who seems to be loving this movie! Wish I was with you in that! (sigh... Oh Smallville, what could have been...)

Dunadwarf wrote:None of the heroes really had a arc. Only the group itself had an arc, and that was simply to come into being. I would have liked to see each of them overcome a character struggle from their past for the climax.

I would have said that none of these characters had a heroic arc. Each one of the main cast gets a moment to triumph over their personal failings, but in each case the struggle is personal. We get the briefest of setups and payoffs for each one. The point isn't to prove their quality of heroism, but to establish the ability to change so that the climax with the Infinity Gem pays off correctly.

I wouldn't really consider these spoilers, but the characters face:

Gamora - Her pride gets humbled early on, but the real character progression is a transformation from a character that has been coerced into violence and subservience her entire life into a character who makes the choice to be violent and serve others of her own volition. And just so we don't miss the point, they give us Nebula as a contrast at the climactic confrontation.

Drax - Drax learns to put the community before his own desires. This is a classic Japanese device, in which the individualist acknowledges that the community is more important than individual expression. Typically, a ronin samurai will undertake an immense challenge to bind or usurp a spirit (dragon-slaying is Western). The ronin fails, and is nursed back to health by the local peasants or sworn into a new lord's service. When the spirit is challenged again, the ronin has community support with which to defeat the monster. By way of contrast, the movie gives us Ronan the Accuser.

Rocket and Groot - Rocket never asked to be made into what he is, and constantly demands respect and attention. Groot becomes whatever he needs to be, and constantly gives respect and attention. (One running joke in the comic that didn't make it to the movie is that "I am Groot" is the harmonic portion of Groot's subharmonic speech - which only Rocket can hear.) Groot's actions at the end enable Rocket to set aside his insecurity.

Peter Quill, Starlord - Family is important to Peter. His great sin against his mother at the beginning of the movie is finally made right at the end. He stands up to the surrogate father figure and begins to build his own family. He has a sense of responsibility from the beginning, but it's without focus. Peter's personal struggle is that he has no one with which to share his life, as demonstrated by his greeting the girl in his ship, "I forgot you were here." Once his business with with the gang is concluded, he chooses to "keep an eye on them" instead of joining the Xandarian Nova Corp, which would have been a better fit for professionally, if not personally.

That's some of what I got out of the movie.

"Are you happy? I'm standing now. We're all standing in a circle, looking stupid." - Rocket

NICE!
I hadn't seen a lot of that myself (some of it, but not all of it)