Guardians of the Galaxy: Marvel mess in the making?

So what is up with this? Is Marvel just fucking with us? Are they trying to undo all their success with a bunch of unfamiliar superheroes in a movie packed with mostly b-listers? Or is this a big deal for comic book nerds? Seems like a spin-off of a movie to be named later. Something better setting the stage for Thanos, that's for sure. This is slated for 2014, Avengers 2 in 2015, so maybe ... Thor 2? Anyway: Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Lee Pace, Ophelia Lovibond, Glenn Close, Karen Gillan, Benicio del Toro and John C. Reilly are set to star. Chris Pratt has pumped himself up in preparation: http://instagram.com/p/bdD2lCDHHx/

you buried the lede: james gunn writing & directing

Gunn is no Whedon, much as a I like "Slither." HIs name attached just underscores the straight-to-video vibe of this.

Looks like an entertaining cast, at the very least

LOL Batista, give Thanos the Dave-Bomb

chris pratt's ridiculous abs will guarantee a 120 mill weekend

how could a movie about a gun-toting space raccoon not be a hit?

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/guardians1-570x489.jpg

Costumes/prosthetics/makeup total budget looks like about $39.95, judging from this.

i would love it if they turned this into a full on gonzo quarter bin batshittery but that seems somehow hard to believe

So this is why Rocket Raccoon was in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Huh.

if that's what it takes to get more Rocket Raccoon out there, so be it

a bunch of unfamiliar superheroes in a movie packed with mostly b-listers?

I know I'm the odd man out on this but that's so preferable to me to big-name hero played by actor who's always gonna look like That One Guy You Know

^^^^^^^^^^^^

this is the one marvel movie i'm like genuinely excited for

who wouldn't love some bald Karen Gillan? fools that's who

I guess I should be excited about this, because I loved the whole Guardians of the Galaxy/Marvel cosmic stuff revival that happened in the comics a few years ago... But I think the movie will still disappoint, because the biggest draw in the comics was that they were actually loads of fun, and with the current superhero movies favouring the Superheroes Are Serious approach, you just know the movie version will be much more dour.

It sounds like they very much are taking the fun, lighthearted approach. Whether they pull it off is another matter

Haven't all the Marvel movies been aiming for 'loads of fun'?

TUOMAS HAS A NARRATIVE AND HE'S STICKING TO IT

This isn't a big deal for comic book nerds and on paper it sounds like a terrible idea, but it'd be nice to be wrong

congrats on becoming the spokesperson for all 'comic book nerds'

I guess the recent Marvel movies have been more fun than the recent DC movies in the sense that they have sarcastic characters and Bond one-liners... But the fun in the Guardians of the Galaxy and the other recent Marvel space comics was that they took all this weird-ass cosmic stuff that's always existed in the sidelines of the Marvel universe, and played with it for all its worth. And I just don't see that happening in the movie version, because the recent superhero movies are all (even if they include the occasional weird sci-fi concept like the Tesseract) driven by character issues and psychological drama, not space shenanigans. And I don't think that'd be a good approach to GotG, because who wants to see a three-dimensional, psychologically fleshed out Rocket Raccoon or Drax the Destroyer?

http://i.imgur.com/UV04sJT.gif

Holy shit, is that from the actual movie?! I really hope it is!

Surely all classically narrative-focused movies (and all forms of fiction, really) are driven by character issues and psychological drama? Unless you're suggesting the GotG movie should be a completely abstract representation of weird-ass cosmic stuff I don't understand why psychologically fleshed-out characters can't co-exist with slightly more far-out sci-fi tropes than the Marvel movies have contained to date. xxp

Yeah, it's from the movie Tuomas
http://whatculture.com/film/guardians-of-the-galaxy-comic-con-footage-leaked.php

OMFG at Rocket Raccoon. If nothing else, he looks great.

with the current superhero movies favouring the Superheroes Are Serious approach, you just know the movie version will be much more dour.

"You" don't know anything of the sort, do "you"?

i would love it if they turned this into a full on gonzo quarter bin batshittery but that seems somehow hard to believe

― blinded by aggro (forksclovetofu), Monday, August 12, 2013 4:40 PM (Yesterday)

with gunn directing, not so hard after all

Surely all classically narrative-focused movies (and all forms of fiction, really) are driven by character issues and psychological drama? Unless you're suggesting the GotG movie should be a completely abstract representation of weird-ass cosmic stuff I don't understand why psychologically fleshed-out characters can't co-exist with slightly more far-out sci-fi tropes than the Marvel movies have contained to date.

But the problem is that "slightly more far-out than in the previous movies" isn't gonna be enough to capture the essence of GotG, especially since all the previous movies have toned down the far-out aspects of the original stories. And I'm not saying there shouldn't any character drama in the movie at all, just that when it's put to the forefront, the other elements tend to suffer. I liked the Avengers movie, but it was basically all about the tensions between characters; even though there's some nominally some cosmic stuff, it didn't matter at all, most've of it could've been replaced by non-cosmic plot devices. That approach worked fine with The Avengers, but I don't think it'll work with GotG.

I mean, I kinda understand that in order to sell superheroes to larger audiences they feel they need to tone down the freakier aspects, but I don't like how the result of that is that superhero movies are basically action movies with a bit of sci-fi dressing. That's not what I love about superhero stories.

Tuomas is describing the Liefeld approach to storytelling.

I don't think Liefeld was known for cosmic hijinks, rather than pouches, big guns and incomprehensible fight scenes...?

i know the director isn't the movie, but have you seen any of james gunn's work, tuomas?

cuz that might allay some of your concerns.

TUOMAS HAS A NARRATIVE AND HE'S STICKING TO IT

― albvivertine, Tuesday, August 13, 2013 4:50 AM (3 hours ago)

I think the fact that this is being directed by the writer/producer of Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is the most frightening thing about it.

I liked the Avengers movie, but it was basically all about the tensions between characters; even though there's some nominally some cosmic stuff, it didn't matter at all, most've of it could've been replaced by non-cosmic plot devices

Er, the Avengers hinges on a plot hatched by an actual Norse god in partnership with an honest-to-goodness evil alien race. The climax of the film features massive armoured space worms attacking New York through a rift in time and space. That seems to me like a pretty good jumping-off point to introduce some totally batshit cosmic stuff in GotG.

Less dithering, more raccoon gifs.

http://i.imgur.com/BGI81.gif

xp but with more GIFs comes more dithering

HEYO

I don't see how you could watch THOR and think it was anything but Cosmic Batshit.

otm

Well, as it is, Thor is actually my favourite of the Marvel movies; I was positively surprised how much cool stuff inspired by the original comics they managed to get into it.

I liked the Avengers movie, but it was basically all about the tensions between characters; even though there's some nominally some cosmic stuff, it didn't matter at all, most've of it could've been replaced by non-cosmic plot devices

Er, the Avengers hinges on a plot hatched by an actual Norse god in partnership with an honest-to-goodness evil alien race. The climax of the film features massive armoured space worms attacking New York through a rift in time and space.

Well yeah, but like I said, almost all of those things could've been replaced with non-cosmic plot devices. The bad guy is the God of Lies and Mischief, but he's beaten in a fistfight; they could've replaced him with a human baddie and it would've been pretty much the same. The aliens are just soldiers with makeup; no Skrull shapeshifting or anything. The space worms are used like they're the equivalent of helicopters or planes, and they're beaten with guns and fists. The enemy is ultimately defeated with a nuke... So it's an action movie with sci-fi dressing, like I said.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I never cared that much for the sort superhero stories where the superheroes just fight crime. I want Cosmic Villains that can only be beaten with Mystical Powers and Soul Gem gambits. I hope the third Avengers movie will be The Infinity Gauntlet, I think they could get a really good movie out of it, one that would satisfy both likes of me and the ones who want loads of action scenes.

Hopefully they'll do Dr Strange as well and really let it rip.

what's the difference really between "mystical powers and soul gem gambits" and a nuke?

I mean that stuff is normally portrayed as a big blast of energy anyway right? so you're asking for cosmic trappings rather than sci-fi trappings, but that doesn't make it anymore essential to the plot.

By "Soul Gem gambit" I was referring specifically to conclusion of The Infinity Gauntlet, and its sequel, The Infinity War. If you haven't read them I won't spoil them, but I can tell you they're not about magical nukes.

Or if you want a more recent comic, take All-Star Superman. That's an epic story with an epic conclusion, and it's considered to be one of the best superhero comics of recent times, but almost nothing in it solved by fistfights. That's the kind of superhero movies I'd like to see.

I've just this weekend read the two Annihilation series and started the Guardians of the Galaxy series proper.

Cosmo's gunna be in the movie, right?

Any good? Never read any GotG.

Yeah. Some of the best Marvel comics of the past 20 years.

Yeah, the whole trip from Annihilation to Thanos Imperative is very fun.

is there a reason why Gunn was targeted in particular? like has he been outspoken against the alt-right or something? or is it just good old opportunism?

lmao Ted Cruz calling for this guy to get arrested

Say what you will about Gunn, but at least he never left awkward MILF voyeur porn up on his Twitter for an extended period of time!

xp Apparently he was criticizing Trump. He was also involved in a squabble over Ben Shapiro a few days ago - I don't know if that directly lead to this.

He is very anti Trump on social media, so was targeted. The alt right crazies are taking his ironic pro pedophilia jokes as truth. I bet they are digging through Michael Ian Black posts now, but he is a less conspicuous target.

I thought MIB was best friends with tha McCain daughter

Cernovich already calling for Michael Ian black’s head today apparently

whoever’s been letting cernovich live in their basement and use their Internet has a lot to answer for

cernovich's ex-wife iirc

if it weren’t true I’d say it was too on the nose

Mike Cernovich saying the N word, using a homophobic slur, and talking about rape all in one video. pic.twitter.com/AKc8UIco7v

— John Kerr (@JohnnyHeatWave) July 21, 2018

For fellow PWB fans this is the first episode of a new podcast called How To Fail and it's excellent, especially the bit about ballsing up a Downton Abbey audition.

https://howtofail.podbean.com/e/how-to-fail-phoebe-waller-bridge-1531470141/

balls, wrong thread. oh well you may enjoy it anyway!

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-cast-of-guardians-of-the-galaxy-release-an-open-let-1827971877

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DjXhGZBU4AMx0ih.jpg:large

I can't figure out which one of them wrote this but as much as I want it to have been Dave "HELL 2 the FUCKINGGGG 2 the NOOOOOOOO!!!" Bautista, I have my doubts.

Missed opportunity for Vin to sign his name I AM GROOT

I just find this all sad and absurd considering Marvel/Disney knew they were hiring the creator of the series PG Porn (2008-9, with episodes Nailing Your Wife, Peanus, A Very Peanus Christmas, Roadside Ass-istance, Squeal Happy Whores, Helpful Bus, High Poon, Genital Hospital) back in 2012. I don't care about GotG (comics weren't my thing as a child, and I find superhero movies problematic in an era where we should celebrate ordinary actions to save us), but its possible to like the outre irreverence of Troma and still be a good person.

At this point I'm expecting Gunn to get rehired.

pom klementieff's signature: very good

finally caught up to this one in my Marvel-watching, and it's the best one I've seen thus far. I miss my main man gr8080 on ILX but disagree with him here, at least in terms of how much i enjoyed it. i do agree that it's not really a particularly fresh take on sci-fi (and hey another smoking ruin descending to the ground slowly at the end), but i do think it's executed really well. Great FX, liked the jokes, liked the use of music (it was 100x less annoying than Baby Driver in that respect), and while all the villains have started to blend together a little bit in all these movies i did like Ronan and Nebula, particularly the latter. it's been the only one i wanted to watch again almost right away. also it's only two hours long, some of these damn things have been taking from the Nolan movie length playbook.

unbelievably i don't think i've seen Chris Pratt in anything before. he's really good but also his speaking voice makes him sound like a VO artist, like in the '80s he'd have handled the speaking duties for a young, inexperienced Transformer.

Get thee to a Parks and Recreation boxset pronto. Pratt is just one of the fantastic and hilarious facets of that great great show.

^^^

i'll check it out! i guess i had seen him in WANTED but that was a very tiny role.

i've loved the look of a lot of recent science fiction, just the colorful visual splendor of this, Valerian, Blade Runner 2049, Altered Carbon, Star Trek Beyond...

For me, he'll always be Bright Abbott from Everwood

wanted to like this more than i did. there were a few really good jokes ("I have part of a plan") but a lot more that just didn't land for me. Rocket was good most of the time. Drax had a couple good gags (but they seemed to sometimes forget the "literal" bit, like when Pratt talks about "giving a shit" it seems like an open goal for some dumb joke but he doesn't bat an eye). The design work kinda bummed me out too, but only because I was hoping for something closer to real 70s cosmic Marvel day-glo saturation, so things like the fussy detailing of Ronan's spaceship fell short of that a bit. Too much climax/too many endings, and Reilly, Close and Del Toro's characters were all kinda pointless - would have been cool to really come up with something for them to do, or alternatively, give those parts to lesser-known actors who need the break. Script seemed kinda sloppy too... where did Pratt get the box with the new tape and letter from Mom at the end? Did I miss a scene? And am I right that his big established weakness - an obsessive need to save the walkman/tape at all costs - was never tested or brought back up after he rescues it from the prison?

Ahhhhh I dunno it was a diverting couple hours. Fast, mostly colorful. I think I was just expecting from word of mouth that it'd be a lot looser and funnier, closer to the Ant-Man films maybe.

hoo boy maybe avoid the *real* piece of shit sequel

oh no!! i was actually thinking i'd give it a whirl due to russell's presence and a vague sense that it thematizes the problematics of nostalgia more... not sure where i picked that up from.

im sure youll find defenders but imo it swaps out pt 1's kooky charm for a general cruel sadism, makes a lot less sense and the do-you-see rating of the randomly-chosen themes hovers at radioactive levels

the first one also struck me as shockingly, distractingly violent so hmmm

as always ymmv

kurts great but wasted btw

darragh otm re #2

it feels like it was made by a hired hand who watched the first and went “cast, insults, space, armoured mercenaries - got it,” not by the same bloke who made the insults zingy and revealing of character, and* built the various rogues’ isolated natures getting ground against each other and meshed into a practical, supportive unit

*though this could have been in the previous screenplay by the writer he fought to have uncredited, who knows

EXCLUSIVE! James Gunn back on to direct ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ #GOTGv3 https://t.co/sq9aEYt9QR

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) March 15, 2019

but what does this mean for the hotly-anticipated suicide squad sequel

Weirdly and for no supportable reason, I was expecting that very thing to be announced soon (although more likely in the glut of announcements that will assuredly drop immediately after the release of Endgame). Wonder how many extra millions of dollars Disney had to shell out to make that happen.

great news. firing him was fucking stupid.

he needs to edit the next one a little tighter-- keep it under 2hrs bud

also, don't have written a stupid and boring script this time

they were on Ego's planet for way too long. More high flying space hijinks please.

but what does this mean for the hotly-anticipated suicide squad sequel

― kiss me dadly (bizarro gazzara)

apparently he's still on for that too

having to do GOTG's effects on Slither's budget would be an improvement imo, except for Rocket Raccoon

a puppet would be great

I want to agree, but the combination of animators and Gunn's acting are the character now, and Gunn Major really uses the freedom of movement

90% of GOTG2 was an unremarkable sea of pixels though, with not much plot and a massively tedious daddy dilemma behind it (meant to say GOTG3 in previous post)

i loled

pic.twitter.com/ZB3nsBoi9b

— Groot (@Guardian__Quill) March 15, 2019

apparently he's still on for that too

best thing about this news rly is that it ensures dave bautista will be back to deliver another miraculous draw performance

DRAX goddammit

Would be cool with a chunk of the runtime being devoted to Bautista drawing a picture for us tbh.

https://66.media.tumblr.com/ab8fd3c6adcd243da3d9fd21534dc369/tumblr_oqvz1bDhtO1ugklc3o1_250.gif

The irony is that Chris Pratt has become far more gross a figure than James Gunn.

he should go back to being a chubby slob for this next one

he should go back to being a chubby slob for this next one