Earlier in 2014, I saw Godzilla in theaters on opening day, and again a week later. Of course, as a life-long Godzilla fan, I felt obligated to see it, but that obligation didn't stop me from absolutely loving it from start to finish. Not only did I think it was good, but my dad, who often watches action movies when he works at home, called it the best action movie he had ever seen. Pretty-damn-high praise. But then I saw Guardians of the Galaxy, the first movie in a very long time that I had seen because it looked fun. And it was fun. No, it was more than fun. It was absolutely wonderful. It was everything a sci-fi/action movie should be: action-packed, funny, genuine and genuinely touching, with great characters and a Grade-A soundtrack (Peter Quill ain't the only young feller who can get down to some '70's classics!) And I really only brought up Godzilla so I can say that my dad thought that Guardians was the best movie he'd seen all year, not just because of lack of competition (I mean, what else is out? Expendables 3? Sin City 2? The Giver? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? We haven't seen any of them, but we don't need to to figure out that they suck), but because it is just. Damn. Good.
But why do I find this important to bring up, besides a need to gush about a movie I honestly loved, like everyone else who saw it? Well, let me say this, with all honesty: I didn't like The Avengers. Just for some background, I will say I was into the first stage of Marvel's grand cinematic master-plan, or whatever they call it. I loved Iron Man, liked Iron Man 2, and thought Edward Norton's Hulk was infinitely better than Ang Lee's attempt a few years before. But I think it was after Iron Man 2 that my interest in comic book movies waned. Not because of that movie's quality, but I just moved on to other things that I enjoyed more, namely Kamen Rider. I was basically indifferent to the flurry of news and praise about The Avengers when it came out, and lived in my little bubble of solitude away from the majority of pop culture. But eventually, I did watch it, and then I realized that it wasn't that good, or not as good as everyone else thought it was. So now that Guardians is receiving praise from all over, allow me to give my thoughts on why it grabbed me more than The Avengers ever did.
Spoilers may follow!
1. Balance of action, story and characters
What probably turned me off The Avengers the most was that there was too much action. And let me stop some readers before they criticize me for complaining about action in a superhero-action film. It would be stupid to say that yes, of course there will be action in an action movie. It's more than blindingly obvious, it's idiotic to think otherwise. But my point is that you can have too much action, especially at the beginning. Just in the first ten minutes, you have a fight against Loki and the mind-controlled SHIELD members and a car chase, ending with lots of explosions. After that, we see Black Widow breaking out of captivity from some guys (I think they were some kind of mafia), with a big martial-arts punch-up. And almost right after we are reintroduced to the rest of the team, we get more action with a fight against Loki in Stuttgart, and then another against Thor. That's four separate action set-pieces in only 40 minutes, maybe less. Any normal audience would be worn out by then, and you've still got an hour-and-a-half of movie left! You can't burn out your viewers with so much in a short space of time. You've got to either space out the action or mix it up with other elements.
That's what Guardians did well. In that movie's first ten minutes, we see the heartrending prologue, then cut to our official introduction to Star-Lord/Peter Quill, dancing and leaping his way through the ruins of Morag (By the way, that scene was is what made me know that I would love this film forever). We do get some action, but mixed with comedy to lessen the strain on the audience. But what's really important it that they spent most of that time introducing us to our hero, or one of them at least. In the Avengers, they throw you right in and expect us to care about all of these people, even the ones we've never met before or only have a passing familiarity with, like Hawkeye or Doctor Selvig from Thor (Seriously, why should I give a damn about Hawkeye?). It's like the filmmakers assume the audience knows them from the comics, leaving outsiders like me absolutely in the dark. Guardians, however, takes just enough time to introduce each of the main five so that we have a grasp of their personalities before we're expected to care about them. By the time the first group action set-piece takes place, we know that Peter is immature and a bit big-for-his-britches, Gamora is ruthless but repentant, Rocket is an impatient smartass, Groot is kind, slightly dim, but not one to be crossed, and Drax is vengeful and powerful, but still able to see reason.
I've heard complaints about how the villains were handled, but I
didn't notice anything offensively wrong. For a film that so shamelessly embraces
genre cliches, you've got to have a old-fashioned evil villain. To help explain my point, and I'm probably making a lot of enemies right now, I'll say this: I don't like Loki as a villain. I hear him praised as a well-written sympathetic character, but I didn't see that. I only saw a pretentious, boring, pretty boy bad-guy, who seriously crossed a line when he called Black Widow a "mewling quim" (which, for those who are unaware of Victorian Era insults, translates to "whiny c**t"). The villains of Guardians, however, fared much better. Ronan
might have been a little too much on the grim side of villainy, and Thanos was
basically just the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back (sitting on his
throne of evil, communicating with his underling through a holo-screen), but they were credible threats who were built up as competent and deadly, while still embracing the kind of generic villainy that comic books are known for. And the film does all this character and story stuff while still finding time for memorable action scenes, like the breakout from the Kyln, or the dogfight around Knowhere. It shows that with enough effort, you can make a compelling story with compelling characters, and still have plenty of fun action.
One last thing to mention before moving on: Guardians of the Galaxy had little to no exposition, excluding a few scenes and lines, like the reveal of the Infinity Stone. And that only sticks out because they handled it quite well for exposition, defining a topic that both the audience and the characters know little about, while subtly foreshadowing later events. Besides that, the plot is progressed through well-written dialogue and character actions or reactions, allowing also for a more complex look into how the characters work. Which moves us right into...
2. The characters and their relationships
The second-biggest complaint I have with The Avengers is the characters, and their lack of connection with one another. Let me set my feelings up for you: in Kamen Rider, especially in the series' from the '70's, the finale of each season had the previous Riders helping the current guy take down the final villain, because they're all Kamen Riders, and Riders work together. It gives them all a feeling of unity, of camaraderie, that each of them will always have the others back when the going gets rough. That's how I feel a team of superheroes should be. And that's not what the Avengers are like for most of the film. Instead, they spend almost all the time until the climax bickering, fighting among each other, and adding pointless conflict to the story, especially frustrating when they all have basically the same goal: stop Loki and get the Tesseract, whatever that is.
But surprisingly, Guardians does almost the same thing. The main five are definitely not on the same page, especially Groot, who probably just looked at the book curiously without opening it. But you already know I'm here to praise Guardians, so here's why its approach works better: each of our protagonists are not heroes. The trailers put it best: for most of the film, they're only a thief, two thugs, an assassin, and a maniac. They are generally not good people, and are only thrown together through happenstance and a mutual goal. Most of the Avengers, in contrast, have had entire movies about how they became heroes, and how they learned to use their powers for good and the protection of the innocent, and have been explicitly gathered to fight evil. Going into the film, we know they're all good guys. So I ask...why aren't they working together from the start? Why can't they recognize that they have the same goals in mind, stop arguing and put together a god-damn game plan? It takes Agent Coulson's death to get them together, and even then, Nick Fury had to yell at them first. And then, Marvel retroactively negated the whole point of that development when they brought Coulson back to life for a damn TV series!
And here's where I get to what I loved the most about Guardians of the Galaxy: the growth of its characters. Like I said in the previous paragraph, the Avengers are all established heroes by the time they're put together. So, other than putting aside their squabbling to finally get their act together, they don't seem to change or develop as heroes. Maybe Tony Stark becomes less of a dick (probably not by much, although I thought he got better during Iron Man 2), and Bruce Banner is suddenly able to control the Hulk, but nothing else seems to change. But in Guardians, as I also said, the protagonists aren't heroes, and it's because they have actual personal reasons for not trusting each other or wanting to work together: Gamora was raised as an assassin by an evil god-king and is hated and feared by most of the galaxy, probably affecting her "people skills". Drax is obsessed with avenging the death of his family at the hands of Ronan, even calling him to Knowhere without thinking just for the slim chance at vengance. Rocket hates himself as a twisted freak of science, and reflects that bitterness at everyone else. Peter has spent the last 26 years living out an extended childhood, playing space cowboy and running away from real responsibility. Of the five of them, Groot is the only member who doesn't have any known problems. He's the kind-hearted one who is truly good from the start. As the film progresses, they each learn to put aside their problems and, by extension, learn to rely on one another, forging bonds from a mutual understanding of pain and loss. That moment when they realize that they need to work together doesn't come from another character. It comes from them, finally growing into people who are willing to lay down their lives to save the galaxy. That kind of depth is what The Avengers wishes it had, and that depth is what makes Guardians of the Galaxy special. But it's not just character depth that makes Guardians such a great ride. There's something else, something missing from many films today, something that can utterly make or break any kind of media. It's called...
3. Fun
It's generally a sad fact that a lot of current action movies aren't really fun. The trend seems to be gritty "realism", with hard-hitting references to modern events (i.e. 9/11) and grim, brooding heroes and frustrating, overly loud, pounding themes in the trailers (Damn you, Hans Zimmer and the Inception soundtrack!). Even superhero movies have fallen prey to this (I think we all know the ire raised over Man of Steel). And while Marvel's movies have fared slightly better, they still don't feel very fun, or at least I don't see them as fun. They're too straight-faced about everything, with occasional obnoxious wisecracks as an attempt to liven things up (Though I do love Tony Stark and his general dickery). There's too much action with no character behind it. It's just...action. Not badly choreographed or digitally modified action, but just action without much else to it. I don't feel like the action is there for a purpose, not even to show off really cool environments or possibilities for combat. Because really, what do we have to enjoy and excite us in The Avengers? A battle against generic aliens in New York? A car chase through the underground tunnels of a military base? Iron Man shoots stuff, Thor hits things with his hammer, the Hulk punches things, and Captain America throws his goddamn shield again? Slow down there, John Woo! The audience needs to catch up. The film even looks generic, in a bad way. There's no clever or unique visual style, all the tech looks the same or like things we've seen in other movies (all shiny metal and glowy blue lights), and even the film itself looks bland, just like nearly every other action movie out there, thankfully without the obnoxious, washed-out color palette. In short, the action in these movies is like the characters or the plot: nothing really special, nothing we couldn't have seen in another movie. It's all so lifeless.
But then Guardians of the Galaxy comes along, and hey! It has a thrilling escape from a ruined temple on an alien planet! A jailbreak scene where a tree-man and a raccoon with a machine gun tag-team hordes of security robots, then escape with their comrades by turning off the gravity and piloting the guard tower! A dogfight on a mining colony where not only are the mining vessels actively weaponized, but one character pilots an enemy ship while inside a mining pod! All with memorable designs and bright, eye-catching colors! Stuff like that is fun! It shows that the creators have the ingenuity to go all out and do everything their crazy premise allows them to. It shows that it's a movie where one of our heroes can be introduced while dancing like a complete doofus to a forgotten '70's funk classic. It's a movie where a smartass raccoon can be hilarious for great dialogue and delivery, just like everyone else, and not just because he's a talking animal. It's a movie where the seven-foot-tall tree-man can make his way into our hearts without saying a line longer than three words. And best of all, it's a movie that clearly takes the enjoyment of its audience seriously, without any corporate or modern day cultural cynicism. James Gunn and his crew took characters that only die-hard comic fans would know about, made them accessible to non-fans, and still ensured that both groups would fall in love with them. And the fans might complain that not everything is like the comics, or this character wasn't used, or that character was slightly different. But in my eyes, as a major non-fan, they couldn't have done a better job, better than most other movies of this type.
So let me finish this off like this: when I see The Avengers, I see something made out of obligation to a fanbase, following a strict mold and lacking the heart it could've had. When I see Guardians of the Galaxy, and I've seen it twice now, I see a film no one expected to succeed succeed anyway, blasting away expectations by being a goofy, hilarious, and amazingly heartfelt ride. And if a movie can make me leave the theater smiling because I was so damn happy after seeing it both times, it must be doing something right.
