Amph I AM GUNN: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Holiday Special & I Am Groot

Saw it again today. Just as good. I almost never see a movie twice in theaters, but this was worth it. The sequel can't get here fast enough.

 

I'd probably have gone again but it was £11 to see it in 3D, and that was a daytime show. Too expensive! I'll wait for the DVD.

 

Just got back from seeing it (I think that makes me the last person on Earth to have seen it?)

Overrated, by comparison to the word of mouth it has received both generally on the internet and among my friends. It's a middle of the road film - I don't particularly regret the $14 I spent on my ticket but I doubt I'll bother even watching it again on DVD when that comes out.

I felt that too many of the key plot mechanics were given little to no context. Gamorah's betrayal of Ronan was the most egregious, but other things like the entire socio-political background giving rise to the peace treaty that Ronan was against weren't even touched on. See also: Tivan's assistant randomly committing suicide - perhaps if they'd given her more than 12 seconds of development, or given him more than 45 seconds of screen time up to this point it would have made more sense. Plotwise the problem was that it was all punchline, and no set up.

Speaking of punchlines and setups, I also felt that a lot of the humour either was stretched too far, or fell entirely flat. The dance-off distraction gag at the end was particularly terrible and went on about 45 seconds too long to be potentially funny - it just left me (and the friend I went with) cringing. Likewise with the opening shot for the adult Starlord when he dances to 80s music as he makes his way through the ancient structure (perhaps it was placed slightly too close to the previous 80s music gag from the opening scene?). See also: about two thirds of the things that Rocket said.

(I also quite disliked the amount of really low stakes "definitely come and see the sequel for the rest of the explanation of what the hell is going on" that the second half of the film became)

So yeah, not terrible, but not great. Middle of the road. Average.

 

Personally I prefer when films don't spell every little detail out but give you enough to figure it out. Otherwise you risk getting the horrible exposition of TPM.

 

Gamorah's betrayal of Ronan? She didn't like him, her "Father" or their methods and wanted out. I thought that was pretty clearly alluded to.


Don't care about the socio economic whatevers regarding the peace treaty as the film was not about that. Again the impact re Ronan is pretty clear as Nova Prime is told outright the Ronan has nothing to do with his own species and that she should sort it out. That was as much as we needed. His motivations are purely religious in their intent (Again clearly spelled out)



I get that it wasn't for you and these things happen, for me I felt that the music gelled nicely, Rocket and Groot were well rounded and I didn't think Quill putting on a dance off to win to be beyond expectations for him. Ronan's reaction was a little off but I get that it would put him off kilter briefly.

 

Fair point, there is some nuance in that, but it was still quite clear and explained in the movie

 

Well it's gonna top this weekend too domestically, but only because the only other new release is some awful Elvis movie starring Seth Green.

 

Well, even beyond that, Gamora's stated intention was to defect when -- after her entire family was killed by Thanos and her race genocided -- Ronan was planning on basically doing that via Thanos to the Novas. That was one bridge too far for her.

You may not agree with the motivation, Wocky-lite, but it's there and stated.

 

So I saw the movie again (as the first time I saw it in a crappy little theater) and I liked it even better. Not a common occurrence, that.

 

One Seth Green movie defeats another. So it is written.

 

No one addressed this, but did anyone else interpret that as committing suicide? Because I interpreted that scene to be just about the opposite of random suicide.

What was shown in the movie is that Carina was pretty much enslaved to the Collector, and her friend/co-worker/etc.. was already tortured because she didn't live up to the Collector's demands. Carina, seeing her chance to grab the ultimate power in the infinity gem and escape, or punish the Collector, or turn the tables, grabbed the gem because she was unfamiliar with the true nature and extent of its power....resulting in what we see in the movie. It wasn't an intentional suicide, but rather a miscalculation because she was unfamiliar with the gem.

That scene was set up to be less about her, and more as foreshadowing to what happens when mortals grab the gem, which obviously matters at the end. All that was pretty much explained by what was shown on screen.

In the comics, Krylorians, of which Carina and Bereet are, are shown as creative, free spirit artist types with voices like song, so Carina had an added reason to try and escape from the Collector's drudgery. In the Savage Hulk, Bereet was one who could calm the Hulk down, while at the same time, Rick Jones had a crush on her as well.

 

That was my interpretation of it also, and I thought it was pretty well spelled out.

 

Guardians opens in Japan this coming weekend and in China on October 10, giving it a shot at becoming the highest grossing comic book movie of 2014.

 

Yeah, not suicide.

 

Agreed, it wasn't a suicide.

 

I want it to dominate.

 

Hilarious Japanese trailers

 

The infinity stone is described as something that reacts with organic matter, and the more matter, the bigger the reaction. Knowhere is a lump of organic matter the size of a small moon. The first time I watched GotG, I put two and two together and was surprised that it didn't come up in the climax. Maybe that will be a plot point in the sequel?

 

Cubs, huh? I look around and know what I see? Losers.

 

This weekend:

Guardians will reach $300 million in the U.S. - the only movie of 2014 to hit the mark so far.
Its foreign total will finally pass its U.S. total.

 

Grootify

I just used it in the DC movies thread and made it 97% better.